Page 29 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

semi-finals of the Champions League, losing to Bayer Leverkusen, but there were to be no trophies in
the year of my U-turn. This after a run of three straight Premier League titles.
That summer we spent heavily on Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastián Verón. Laurent Blanc
came in, too, after I sold Jaap Stam – an error, as I have admitted many times since. My reasoning

with Blanc, as I said at the time, was that we needed a player who would talk to and organise the
younger players. The early part of that campaign was most memorable for Roy Keane throwing the
ball at Alan Shearer (and being sent off) in the 4–3 defeat at Newcastle, and our incredible 5–3
victory at Spurs on 29 September 2001, in which Tottenham scored through Dean Richards, Les
Ferdinand and Christian Ziege before we mounted one of the great comebacks.
It is such a vivid memory. As they traipsed into the dressing room, three goals down, the players
were braced for a rollicking. Instead I sat down and said: ‘Right, I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.

We’re going to score the first goal in this second half and see where it takes us. We get at them right
away, and we get the first goal.’
Teddy Sheringham was the Tottenham captain and, as the teams emerged back into the corridor, I
saw Teddy stop and say: ‘Now don’t let them get an early goal.’ I’ll always remember that. We
scored in the first minute.
You could see Spurs deflate while we puffed ourselves up. There were 44 minutes left in the half.

On we went and scored four more. Just incredible. Tottenham’s standing in the game imbued that
victory with more lustre than a five-goal comeback at, say, Wimbledon. To beat a great football club
in that manner has historical ramifications. Our dressing room afterwards was some place to be:
players rolling their heads, not quite believing what they had done.
Teddy’s warning to the Tottenham team that day reflected our success in frightening opponents with
well-timed retaliatory goals. There was an assumption (which we encouraged) that scoring against us
was a provocative act that would invite terrible retribution. Most teams could never relax in front

against us. They were always waiting for the counterpunch.
I tapped my watch in games to spook the other team, not encourage mine. If you want my summary
of what it was to be Manchester United manager I would direct you to the last 15 minutes. Sometimes
it would be quite uncanny, as if the ball were being sucked into the net. Often the players would seem
to know it was going to be hoovered in there. The players would know they were going to get a goal.
It didn’t always happen, but the team never stopped believing it could. That’s a great quality to have.

I always took risks. My plan was: don’t panic until the last 15 minutes, keep patient until the last
quarter of an hour, then go gung-ho.
Against Wimbledon in the Cup one year, Peter Schmeichel went up to chase a goal and we left
Denis Irwin on the halfway line against John Fashanu. Schmeichel was up there for two minutes.
Wimbledon were kicking the ball up to Fashanu and wee Denis was nipping in front of him and
sending it back into the box. Great entertainment. Schmeichel had a physical prowess. He and Barthez
liked to play out. Barthez especially was a good player, though he thought he was better than he was.

On tour in Thailand he kept on at me to let him play up front, so I relented for the second half. The
other players kept battering the ball into the corners and Barthez would come back with his tongue
hanging out after chasing the ball. He was knackered.
No team ever entered Old Trafford thinking United might be persuaded to give in. There was no
comfort to be gained from thinking we could be demoralised. Leading 1–0 or 2–1, the opposition
manager would know he faced a final 15 minutes in which we would go hell for leather. That fear

factor was always there. By going for the throat and shoving bodies into the box, we would pose the
question: can you handle it? On top of our own frantic endeavours, we would be testing the character