When Alex ferguson was close to the sack at Man Utd.......

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Guy Fawkes

The voice of treason
Sep 29, 2007
8,297
Before all his success at Man Utd, it is famously rumoured / reported that Alex Ferguson was 1 game away from the sack. (i am not trying to say the same will happen for us if Hyypia was to stay but just interested to see how much patience was shown by a team that stuck by a struggling manager only for them to be very successful afterwards)

Does anyone have any background info on this?

What was his record upto that point?
What sort of run of results were they on which led to this fine margin in his career?
Where were Man Utd in the league compared to where they would have expected to be at the time?
and finally waht sort of run did they go on after this run? (where did they finish too?)
Thanks
 






DTES

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
6,022
London
When Fergie was (allegedly) one game from the sack, United had picked up 2 points from 8 games and were only just outside the drop zone - including a 5-1 defeat by Man City.

Then they stuck with him and won the FA Cup, beating Palace in the final.....

(If any of this is wrong, blame Wikipedia :thumbsup: )
 


fat old seagull

New member
Sep 8, 2005
5,239
Rural Ringmer
Ferguson was not a rookie with an appalling win record as a manager, he was a title winning and Euro winner at Aberdeen . Hyypia has no winning track record what soever just a dismal list of failure

Surely all the more reason the Wimps shouldn't have been squealing 'Ta Ta Fergie' but they did. 'Because there's some with balls to stay and fight, and them that's scared and full of shite'.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
I think he lost one, drew one, won one and then had a spell of not doing great but not losing most games. The comparison with Hyypia is ridiculous. Man U did not have to show any where near the patience Albion have shown and his record was never anywhere near as close to the fiasco that Hyypia's appointment has turned into. I can't imagine many teams have stuck with such a poor managererial record for so long in any of the four divisions in the last 30 years.

I will very happily come back and eats lashings of humble pie if we win two games on the trot in the continuing saga of trying to get to League One.
 




spence

British and Proud
Oct 15, 2014
9,953
Crawley
When Fergie was (allegedly) one game from the sack, United had picked up 2 points from 8 games and were only just outside the drop zone - including a 5-1 defeat by Man City.

Then they stuck with him and won the FA Cup, beating Palace in the final.....

(If any of this is wrong, blame Wikipedia :thumbsup: )
I was at the 5-1 game at Main Rd
 


el punal

Well-known member
Aug 29, 2012
12,550
The dull part of the south coast
I think that United were playing Nottm. Forest in the FA Cup and managed to get an equaliser late on in the game to set up a replay. The story was that if Fergie had lost he would have got his marching orders.

United won the replay and went on to win the cup beating ******* ****** in the final. The rest, as they say, is history.

Feel free to correct me if this is a load of old tosh - doing from memory and all that!
 






Tony Meolas Loan Spell

Slut Faced Whores
Jul 15, 2004
18,071
Vamanos Pest
His record north of the border spoke for itself.

His Aberdeen team broke up the cosy old firm. They won a european trophy the cup winners cup and some league titles.

This was in the days when scottish league teams were probably equal to their english counterparts. This was pre prem league.

Glasgow Rangers had the most english squad players at italia 90 dont forget.

ITS NOWHERE NEAR A COMPARISON between fergie at utd and he clueless finn at BHA.
 


8ace

Banned
Jul 21, 2003
23,811
Brighton
Ferguson was not a rookie with an appalling win record as a manager, he was a title winning and Euro winner at Aberdeen. Hyypia has no winning track record what soever just a dismal list of failure

This is the salient point, the same as when people mention the fact that Big Sam and Pardew went through rocky spells.
Zero point in discussing it any further.
 


Gwylan

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
31,830
Uffern
He was sacked by St Mirren though. The club chairman claimed that Ferguson had "no managerial ability" (I hasten to add that I'm not making comparisons between SAF and Hyypia just highlighting that clubs can act hastily)
 




Guy Fawkes

The voice of treason
Sep 29, 2007
8,297
Ferguson was not a rookie with an appalling win record as a manager, he was a title winning and Euro winner at Aberdeen. Hyypia has no winning track record what soever just a dismal list of failure

So are we all dismissing Hyppia's record before he went on that bad run prior to his dismissal?

Are we ignoring the best part of 2 years that he managed there and qualification to the Champions League? Or his team were what? fourth at the time of his dismissal? (or is that just where they ended up - maybe this can be corrected?)

Are we ignoring that he managed for around a season on his own there?

Is this just another typical NSC blinkered bias without the whole truth being taken into account to slag off someone at our club that we should be wanting to do well and should have got behind him from the start rather than having a lot of dissenting voices and songs about Tony Blooms blue and white army rather than Sami Hyypia? - If the fans can't back the manager, why should the players bother? (probably all too late to start to get behind Hyypia now but we should have been from the start and he should have been given a clean slate imo.)
 


Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
12,953
Brighton
So are we all dismissing Hyppia's record before he went on that bad run prior to his dismissal?

Are we ignoring the best part of 2 years that he managed there and qualification to the Champions League? Or his team were what? fourth at the time of his dismissal? (or is that just where they ended up - maybe this can be corrected?)

Are we ignoring that he managed for around a season on his own there?

Is this just another typical NSC blinkered bias without the whole truth being taken into account to slag off someone at our club that we should be wanting to do well and should have got behind him from the start rather than having a lot of dissenting voices and songs about Tony Blooms blue and white army rather than Sami Hyypia? - If the fans can't back the manager, why should the players bother? (probably all too late to start to get behind Hyypia now but we should have been from the start and he should have been given a clean slate imo.)

Perhaps it was more down to Mr Lewandovski (excuse spelling) that Bayer Leverkusen did so well. Interestingly, Lewandovski picked up from Hyypia when he was sacked and for the next 5 games, won 4 and lost 1.
 






Mackenzie

Old Brightonian
Nov 7, 2003
34,010
East Wales
So are we all dismissing Hyppia's record before he went on that bad run prior to his dismissal?

Are we ignoring the best part of 2 years that he managed there and qualification to the Champions League? Or his team were what? fourth at the time of his dismissal? (or is that just where they ended up - maybe this can be corrected?)

Are we ignoring that he managed for around a season on his own there?

Is this just another typical NSC blinkered bias without the whole truth being taken into account to slag off someone at our club that we should be wanting to do well and should have got behind him from the start rather than having a lot of dissenting voices and songs about Tony Blooms blue and white army rather than Sami Hyypia? - If the fans can't back the manager, why should the players bother? (probably all too late to start to get behind Hyypia now but we should have been from the start and he should have been given a clean slate imo.)
We were, by and large, behind him from the start. Its his abject failure to win matches that have turned people against him. The only relevant stat is the win column whilst he's been at our club.

He's failed, we need to move on soon.
 


Moshe Gariani

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2005
12,200
So are we all dismissing Hyppia's record before he went on that bad run prior to his dismissal?

Are we ignoring the best part of 2 years that he managed there and qualification to the Champions League? Or his team were what? fourth at the time of his dismissal? (or is that just where they ended up - maybe this can be corrected?)

Are we ignoring that he managed for around a season on his own there?

Is this just another typical NSC blinkered bias without the whole truth being taken into account to slag off someone at our club that we should be wanting to do well and should have got behind him from the start rather than having a lot of dissenting voices and songs about Tony Blooms blue and white army rather than Sami Hyypia? - If the fans can't back the manager, why should the players bother? (probably all too late to start to get behind Hyypia now but we should have been from the start and he should have been given a clean slate imo.)
#BinTheFinn
 


Not Andy Naylor

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
8,995
Seven Dials
There's an element of urban myth about this. Mark Robins scored the winner at the City Ground and has forever since had to bear the burden of being tagged "the man who saved Fergie's career."

But Bobby Charlton has since dismissed this as paper talk and denied that the Manchester United board was planning to sack old purple-nose (not quite so purple then, of course). As has been said, he was an experienced manager with a European trophy to his name, and the club were impressed by the way he was tackling the drinking culture in the dressing room.
 


Lethargic

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2006
3,511
Horsham
His record north of the border spoke for itself.

His Aberdeen team broke up the cosy old firm. They won a european trophy the cup winners cup and some league titles.

This was in the days when scottish league teams were probably equal to their english counterparts. This was pre prem league.

Glasgow Rangers had the most english squad players at italia 90 dont forget.

ITS NOWHERE NEAR A COMPARISON between fergie at utd and he clueless finn at BHA.

You mad fool don't you realise football did not exist before the prem league :)
 


Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
12,953
Brighton
There's an element of urban myth about this. Mark Robins scored the winner at the City Ground and has forever since had to bear the burden of being tagged "the man who saved Fergie's career."

But Bobby Charlton has since dismissed this as paper talk and denied that the Manchester United board was planning to sack old purple-nose (not quite so purple then, of course). As has been said, he was an experienced manager with a European trophy to his name, and the club were impressed by the way he was tackling the drinking culture in the dressing room.

What? He was keeping it all to himself?
 


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