Sir Alex Ferguson: David Moyes appointment at Manchester United no mistake

06 October 2015 06:47

Sir Alex Ferguson has insisted Manchester United did not make a mistake in appointing David Moyes as his successor as manager.

Moyes left Everton to take charge at Old Trafford following Ferguson's retirement in 2013 but lasted just 10 months before being sacked.

Ferguson, who recommended Moyes, recently suggested the former Everton boss had not been first choice but defended the process by which he was appointed.

Now he has gone further by saying Moyes was definitely the right choice at the time the decision was made.

Ferguson told the BBC: "I don't think we made a mistake at all. I think we chose a good football man - (he) did a great job at Everton, had 11 years there. We picked the right man. Unfortunately it didn't work for David."

The Scot was speaking in a new TV documentary, 'Sir Alex Ferguson: Secrets of Success', which is to be shown on Sunday.

Ferguson also said that long-serving player Ryan Giggs could have been his successor had he retired earlier.

Giggs played on under Moyes and later took over as caretaker manager after the former Everton boss was sacked in April 2014. He hung up his boots at the end of that season and took up a backroom role under new manager Louis van Gaal.

Ferguson said: "If Ryan Giggs had retired six or seven years ago - say he'd retired at 35, quite likely I'd have made him my assistant, and quite likely he could have moved right into the job, with the experience of being assistant manager to me, as he is helping Louis van Gaal at the moment. But I would never ask a player to quit."

This was something that Ferguson had not mentioned to Giggs before, as when it was put to the 41-year-old in the programme, he said: "He said that?"

Ferguson touched on a number of other subjects in a documentary which examines the methods behind his phenomenally successful career coincides with the release of his new book, 'Leading'.

Ferguson felt Liverpool scored an own goal when they arrived at the 1996 FA Cup final, which they lost 1-0 to United, wearing cream suits.

The 73-year-old said: "Why did they do that? I said to (assistant) Brian Kidd, '1-0!'.

"I think that's - what would you call it? - arrogance or over-confidence? I don't know. It was absolutely ridiculous. Blue shirt, red-and-white tie and a white suit, and a blue flower. Who designed that? They said it was Armani. I bet his sales went down!"

Ferguson's success, which brought him 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League wins while at United, has also led to his expertise in man-management, motivational tactics and team-building being sought by others outside the game.

The programme says Ferguson was asked by former Prime Minister Tony Blair how to deal with "a particularly difficult member of his own team".

Ferguson said: "I said to him, 'You have to keep control'. I didn't know who he was talking about at the time. 'You can't lose it. You're the Prime Minister, you have to have control'."

Ferguson was then asked if he thought Blair might have been referring to Gordon Brown.

He said: "I didn't know actually. I don't think anyone knew until later on there was some sort of feeling between the two."

Blair was himself interviewed for the programme and said: "We weren't actually talking about an individual but a hypothetical case. But his attitude was, 'It doesn't matter if he is your best player, if he is difficult, put him out of the room'."

Ferguson was also asked to give a motivational team talk to the European Ryder Cup team prior to last year's match against the United States at Gleneagles by captain Paul McGinley.

Little detail of the talk was made public at the time, although players spoke of the positive effect it had throughout what proved a successful week for Europe.

Ferguson says that as well as telling the players they were the best in Europe and needed to focus on the things that mattered to win, he also used a favourite teamwork analogy of geese migrating in formation. As Giggs confirms, Ferguson often spoke of this in training.

McGinley said: "That became something that we mentioned a number of times during the week. And it was a phrase we used - 'remember the geese'.

"The ironic things is, when we won and were getting our photograph taken, this perfect 'V' of geese flew right overhead."

Source: PA