Page 30 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

of the defending team. And they knew it. Any flaw would widen into a crack. It didn’t always work.
But when it did, you got the joy that came with a late conquest. It was always worth the gamble. It
was rare for us to be hit on the break while we chased a game. We lost at Liverpool once when Luke
Chadwick chased back and got sent off. Everyone else was in the box. Against us, teams would have

so many players back defending that it would be hard for them break out.
At half-time at Spurs we had looked buried. But as I said at the end of that season: ‘In a crisis
you’re better just calming people down.’ We scored five times to win the game, with Verón and
David Beckham scoring the last two. Around that time, however, we were having goalkeeping
problems. In October, Fabien Barthez committed two howlers. We also lost 2–1 at home to Bolton
and 3–1 at Liverpool, where Fabien came for a punch and missed. At Arsenal on 25 November, our
French keeper passed straight to Thierry Henry, who scored, and then raced out for a ball that he

failed to gather. Henry again: 3–1.
December 2001 started no better, when we lost 3–0 at home to Chelsea, our fifth League defeat in
14 games. Things improved from there. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer struck up a good relationship with Van
Nistelrooy (Andy Cole was to leave for Blackburn in January), and we went top of the table early in
the New Year of 2002. In the 2–1 win over Blackburn, Van Nistelrooy scored for the tenth time in a
row, and by the end of January we were top of the League by four points.

Then came my announcement, in February 2002. I would not be standing down after all.
Once the retirement issue was cleared up, our form picked up dramatically. We won 13 of 15
games. I was desperate to make it to Glasgow for the 2002 Champions League final. I was so sure we
would get there that I had scouted the hotels in the city. I tried to play it down but the urge to lead the
team out at Hampden Park obsessed me.
In the semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen, we had three shots cleared off the line in the second
game and went out on away goals after drawing the tie 3–3 on aggregate. Michael Ballack and Oliver

Neuville had scored at Old Trafford. Also in the Leverkusen side was a young Dimitar Berbatov,
who was later to join us from Spurs.
But at least I still had my job. On New Year’s Day, for my birthday, we had all been to the
Alderley Edge Hotel – the whole family. It was the first time for a while we had all been together.
Mark, who was usually in London, was there, along with Darren, Jason and Cathy. All the
conspirators round a table.

When the players heard the news I would be staying on after all, I braced myself for the barbed
comments that would come my way. I couldn’t have made an announcement of that magnitude without
paying a high price on the banter front.
Ryan Giggs was the most skilful in his mockery. ‘Oh, no, I can’t believe this,’ Ryan said. ‘I’ve just
signed a new contract.’