The Boss

His full name is Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson. Other managers including players call him "The Boss". He managed Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is regarded by many players, managers and analysts to be one of the greatest and most successful managers of all time. He started his managerial career with Easr Stirlingshire and St Mirren. Ferguson then enjoyed a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen, winning three Scottish league championships, four Scottish Cups and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1983. He briefly managed Scotland following the death of Jock Stein, taking the team to the 1986 World Cup. 

Sir Alex Ferguson managing Aberdeen

Ferguson was appointed manager of Manchester United in November 1986. During his 26 years with Manchester United he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two UEFA Champions League title. He was knighted in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Hounours list, for his services to the game. Ferguson is the longest serving manager of Manchester United, having overtaken Sir Matt Busby's record on 19 December 2010. He retired from management at the end of the 2012–13 season, having won the Premier League in his final season.

3 Manchester United's Best Comebacks

1)   MANCHESTER UNITED 2 LIVERPOOL 1, 1999 FA CUP FOURTH ROUND

      Five months before the injury time comeback against Bayern clinched the treble, Manchester United laid the foundations for a remarkable season with a dramatic late victory over their arch rivals. Michael Owen gave Liverpool the lead after just two minutes of this FA Cup fourth round tie at Old Trafford and, with just two minutes remaining, the Reds were on the brink of knocking out United. Dwight Yorke grabbed the equaliser on 88 minutes, before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stunned Liverpool with a last gasp winner. Bayern Munich really should have watched this game before the Champions League final.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer celebrating his goal after scoring a last-minute winner

2)     JUVENTUS 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 3, 1999 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI-FINAL

          This Champions League semi-final win was arguably a greater comeback than the final itself. Juventus had appeared in the previous three finals and comprehensively outplayed Man United in the first leg, as Fergie's team scrambled a last minute equaliser to grab a draw. With 11 minutes gone in Turin, Juventus were 2-0 up and cruising, but United kept going and a goal from Roy Keane after 24 minutes turned the tie on its head. By half-time United were level and after 84 minutes Andy Cole grabbed a deserved winner. Against all the odds, Manchester United were through to the final.

Gary Neville celebrating the victory over Juventus

3)     BAYERN MUNICH 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 2, 1999 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

       Bayern were 1-0 up after six minutes and only the crossbar saved United from going 2-0 down in a match largely dominated by the German side. Two goals from injury time set pieces sealed the most incredible finale to a cup final in football history.

Manchester United with the Champions League Trophy

My 5 Best Manchester United Player of All Time

1)     GEORGE BEST



George Best played as a winger and attacking midfielder for Manchester United. In 1968, he was named the European Footballer Of The Year and FWA Footballer Of The Year. After making his debut aged 17, he scored 179 goals from 470 appearances over 11 years, and was the club's top goalscorer in the league for five consecutive seasons. Best was one of the first celebrity footballers, earning the nickname "El Beatle" in 1966, but his subsequent extravagant lifestyle led to various problems, most notably alcoholism, which he suffered from for the rest of his life. These issues affected him on and off the field, at times causing controversy. He said of his career: "I spent a lot of money on booze, women and fast cars – the rest I just squandered". He died in 2005, age 59, due to complications from the immunosuppressive drugs he needed to take after a liver transplant in 2002. He continued drinking after the liver transplant.


2)     Ole Gunnar Solskjaer



Solskjaer is a Norwegian player. He played as a forward for Manchester United. He joined Manchester United in 1996 for a transfer fee of £1.5 million. Nicknamed "The Baby-faced Assassin", he played 366 times for United, and scored 126 goals during a successful period for the club. He was regarded as a "super sub" for his trait of coming off the substitute bench to score late goals. Solskjaer's defining moment in football came in injury time of the 1999 UEFA Champions League final, where he scored the winning last-minute goal against Bayern Munich, completing a remarkable comeback and winning The Treble for United. In 2007, Solskjaer announced his retirement from football after failing to recover from a serious knee injury. Now, he is a manager for Molde F.C in the Norwegian League.


3)     Eric Cantona



His full name is Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona. He played as a forward for Manchester United. In Manchester United, he won four Premier League titles in five years and two League and FA Cup Doubles. He won the league championship in seven of his last eight full seasons as a professional. He wore the number 7 shirt at Manchester United with his trademark upturned collar. Cantona is affectionately nicknamed by Manchester United fans as "King Eric", and was voted as Manchester United's greatest ever player by Inside United magazine. Set against his achievements in football was a poor disciplinary record for much of his career, including a 1995 conviction for an assault on a fan which is the famous "Kung-fu Kick". He retired from football in 1997 and became an actor since then.


4.     Paul Scholes



Paul Scholes played as a midfielder for Manchester United. He is the most decorated English footballer of all time, and one of the most successful footballers in history, having won a total of 25 trophies, featuring 11 Premier League titles and two Champions League titles. Scholes represented the England national team from 1997 to 2004, gaining 66 caps and participating in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, as well as the UEFA Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 tournaments. He has received praise from other managers and players, including Xavi, who called him "the best central midfielder I've seen in the last 15, 20 years". Thierry Henry has cited Scholes as the greatest player in Premier League history. Scholes made 718 appearances for United. Scholes announced his retirement from playing on 31 May 2011 and began his coaching career at the club from the 2011–12 season onward. However, he reversed this decision on 8 January 2012, and went on to play one more season before retiring again in May 2013.


5. Ryan Giggs



Lastly, Ryan Giggs. Giggs played as a left winger for Manchester United. He has a deadly left foot. He holds the club record for competitive appearances. At international level, Giggs played for the Wales National Team 64 times between 1991 and 2007, and was named as the captain of the Great Britain team that competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He is one of only 18 players to have made over 1,000 career appearances. During his time at United, he won 13 Premier League winner's medals, four FA Cup winner's medals, three League Cup winner's medals, two UEFA Champions League winner's medals, a FIFA Club World Cup winners medal, an Intercontinental Cup winner's medal, a UEFA Super Cup winner's medal and nine FA Community Shield winner's medals. He was the first player in history to win two consecutive PFA Young Player Of The Year awards (1992 and 1993). He was the only player to play in each of the first 22 seasons of the Premier League, as well as the only player to score in each of the first 21 seasons. He was elected into the PFA Team of the Century in 2007, the Premier League Team of The Decade in 2003, as well as the FA Cup Team of the Century. Giggs holds the record for the most assists in Premier League history, with 271. When Moyes was sacked on 22 April 2014, after less than 10 months in the job, Giggs took over as the club's interim player-manager. Giggs was suggested by many – including Louis van Gaal – as the Dutchman's potential successor at Manchester United. However, following the appointment of Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, Giggs announced his departure from the club on 2 July 2016.

The Busby Babe

The "Busby Babes" is the name given to the group of footballers, recruited and trained by Manchester United chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy, who progressed from the club's youth team into the first team under the management of the eponymous Matt Busby from the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s.

The Busby Babes were notable not only for being young and gifted, but for being developed by the club itself, rather than bought from other clubs, which was customary then. The term, coined by Manchester Evening News journalist Frank Nicklin in 1951, usually refers to the players who won the league championship in seasons 1955-56 and 1956-57 with an average age of 21 and 22 respectively.

But their dreams shattered when they were involved in a plane crash which famously know as "The Munich Air Disaster". 

The Munich Air Disaster on February 6th 1958

Eight of the players –  Roger Byrne (28), Eddie Colman (21), Mark Jones (24), Duncan Edwards (21), Billy Whelan (22), Tommy Taylor (26), David Pegg (22) and Geoff Bent (25) – died in the Munich Air Disaster in February 1958, while Jackie Blanchflower (24 at the time of the crash) and senior player Johnny Berry (31 at the time of the crash) were injured to such an extent that they never played again. Berry was the senior player in the team by the time of the crash, having been signed from Birmingham City in 1951, by which time he was already 25.

 

        Roger Byrne                         Eddie Colman                          Mark Jones                          Duncan Edwards

           Billy Whelan                          Tommy Taylor                            David Pegg                       Geoff Bent

                                                  One of the Munich Air Crash Disaster survivor (Jackie Blanchflower)

The last remaining player from the pre-Munich side was Bobby Charlton (20 at the time of the crash), retired from playing in 1975; though he had left Manchester United two years earlier, he had continued playing as player-manager of Preston North End. As a player, he set the all-time goalscoring record for Manchester United and England, and his goal scoring record was unbroken for 35 years after his last game for United, while his England record was not broken until 2015, when another United player (Wayne Rooney) scored his 50th England goal.

                                            Sir Bobby Charlton still watches Manchester United matches until now

Sir Bobby Charlton (Right) with the man who broke his goalscoring records, Wayne Rooney (Left)

Manchester United Class of 92

This group proved worthier than the previous generation in comparisons with the Busby Babes in terms of the success they achieved as relatively young footballers. Each one was developed by Manchester United from a very early age, some signing schoolboy forms with the club at the age of just 14. Many of these players were part of the Manchester United team that won the 1992 FA Youth Cup, including future United regulars David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville. Also generally considered in this group are players such as Paul Scholes, an FA Youth Cup finalist in 1993 and Phil Neville – Gary's younger brother – who was a substitute in the 1993 FA Youth Cup Final and captained the team to the 1995 FA Youth Cup.

The term "Fergie's Fledglings" came back into common usage during the 1995-96 season, after Ferguson largely used this second group of youngsters coming through to replace a number of distinguished older players who had left the club. Following a 3–1 opening day away defeat to Aston Villa, pundit Alan Hansen commented on Match of The Day "You'll never win anything with kids". The young side, with an average age of just 24, then went on to overturn Newcastle United's 10-point Christmas lead to win the club's third league title in four years. 

  

1) This was followed up by a 1–0 win over Liverpool in the 1996 FA Cup Final to secure the Double.

2) A period of great success followed, the most outstanding triumph being The Treble in 1999 when they made one of the greatest comebacks of all time in the Champions League Final against Bayern Munich.

Many of the so-called "Class of '92" became regulars for both club and country during this time. David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville moved on in 2003 (to Real Madrid), 2004 (to Newcastle United) and 2005 (to Everton) respectively, with Beckham also captaining England from 2000 to 2006. All three have since retired, with Butt returning to United as member of the coaching staff.

Gary Neville remained at United for the rest of his career and held the post of team captain following the departure of Roy Keane in 2005, before injuries considerably reduced his appearances, prompting his retirement in February 2011. Upon the announcement, Sir Alex Ferguson described Neville as "the greatest English right back of his generation." 

Gary Neville in his last game before retiring

Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes both played their entire Premiership careers for Manchester United. Scholes announced his retirement at the end of the 2010–11 season, remaining at the club as a youth coach, but made a return to playing duties in January 2012 after several United midfielders were brought down by injury before retiring again at the conclusion of the 2012–13 season. Giggs has now won more trophies than any other player in football history. Coming on as a substitute in the 2008 UEFA Champions League final, he became the club's all-time appearance record holder. The previous holder was Sir Bobby Charlton, the longest serving of the Busby Babes. Giggs went on to hold the post of assistant manager of Manchester United but left the club during the summer of 2016.

Paul Scholes final appearance for Manchester United

Ryan Giggs' final appearance as Manchester United's interim manager