Page 28 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

Three months later, he was wanting to quit Madrid. I told him he couldn’t. I flew out to Spain to
meet him at his apartment and we had lunch. My message was: you can’t quit, see it through, and
rejoin me next year. That season I didn’t take an assistant because I was sure Carlos would come
back. I co-opted Jim Ryan and Mick Phelan, two good men, but I didn’t want to dive in with an

appointment, knowing Carlos might be returning. I had interviewed Martin Jol, a week or so before
Carlos called to say it wasn’t working out in Madrid. Martin had been impressive and I was inclined
to give him the job, but then came the call from Carlos, which obliged me to go back to Martin and
say: ‘Look, I’m going to leave it for the time being.’ I couldn’t tell him why.
Assistant manager at Manchester United is a high-profile position. It’s a platform within the game.
When Carlos left the second time in July 2008, his homeland was pulling on his heartstrings, so I
could understand him wanting to go back to Portugal. But he was smashing, Carlos. He had most of

the qualities to be the next Manchester United manager. He could be an emotional man. But of all the
ones who worked alongside me, he was the best, no doubt about that. He was totally straight. He
would walk in and tell you directly: I’m not happy with this, or that.
He was good for me. He was a Rottweiler. He’d stride into my office and tell me we needed to get
something done. He would sketch things out on the board. ‘Right, OK, Carlos, yeah,’ I would say,
thinking, ‘I’m busy here.’ But it’s a good quality to have, that urge to get things done.

The structure of the team was strong in the year I decided to rescind my retirement plans, though we
had lost Peter Schmeichel and Denis Irwin. Now there was a player, Denis Irwin. We always called
him eight out of ten Denis. So quick and nimble: quick-brained. Never let you down. There was never
any bad publicity with him. I remember a game at Arsenal, when Denis allowed Dennis Bergkamp to
score late in the match, and the press said: ‘Well, you’ll be disappointed with Denis,’ and I replied:
‘Aye, well, he’s been with me for eight or nine years and he’s never made a mistake. I think we can
forgive him one.’

The biggest challenge was in the goalkeeping position. From the minute Schmeichel left to join
Sporting Lisbon in 1999 – and having missed out on Van der Sar – I was throwing balls in the air,
hoping one would land in the right place. Raimond van der Gouw was a terrific, steady goalkeeper,
and a very loyal and conscientious trainer, but he wouldn’t have been the No. 1 choice. Mark Bosnich
was, in my opinion, a terrible professional, which we should have known. Massimo Taibi just didn’t
work out and he returned to Italy, where he rejuvenated his career. Fabien Barthez was a World Cup-

winning goalkeeper, but it’s possible that the birth of his child back in France affected his
concentration, because he was going back and forth a lot. He was a good lad, a fine shot-stopper and
a good fielder of the ball. But when a keeper loses his concentration, he’s in trouble.
When the team thought I would be leaving, they slackened off. A constant tactic of mine was always
to have my players on the edge, to keep them thinking it was always a matter of life and death. The
must-win approach. I took my eye off the ball, thinking too far ahead, and wondering who would
replace me. It’s human nature, in those circumstances, to relax a bit, and to say: ‘I’m not going to be

here next year.’
United were so used to me being around it wasn’t clear what the next chapter was going to be. And
it was a mistake. I knew that by the previous October in 2000. By that stage I was wanting the season
to be over with. I couldn’t enjoy it. I cursed myself: ‘I’ve been stupid. Why did I even mention it?’
There wasn’t the same performance level on the pitch. I was starting to have doubts about my own
future. Where would I go, what would I do? I knew I would miss the consuming nature of the United

job.
The 2001–02 season was a fallow year for us. We finished third in the League and reached the