Book Review: Managing My Life - Alex Ferguson Autobiography

I must clarify that I am a Liverpool fan, but when I first seriously "follows" football back in 1991, Manchester United was the team that I had supported and followed. It was the last year the English Football League is known as Division One, and Leeds United had won the championship with a player whose name is now legendary - Eric Cantona.
 
I hadn't cared less who was the manager of Manchester United then, but they had won the FA Cup in the previous year and finished second to Leeds United in that term. So obviously, they were a team on the rise. But little did I know that a certain Alex Ferguson was (and still is) the manager of Manchester United, and how closed he came to losing his job had he lost the FA Cup final in 1990.
 
Alex Ferguson's autobiography tells of his childhood, his early playing days as a schoolkid just outside of Glasgow, Scotland. He tells the story of how he moved up the ranks of football, from school leagues to amature leagues and finally to Glasgow Rangers, his childhood heroes. I must admit this part of the story is quite boring, perhaps I was more interested in his exploits and his relationship with those well-known Manchester United players. So it does seems labourish to finish the early parts of the book.
 
He then went on to become a manager, first in Scotland, where he successfully guided Aberdeen to glory, breaking the dominance of the Glasgow clubs - Celtic and Rangers. His stint at Aberdeen is no doubt what propelled him to respectability. He was also the manager of Scotland for a short time between 1985 and 1986 before he was made the manager of Manchester United in 1986. From then on, the book is more interesting to me, as it tells of how he slowly transform Manchester United slowly from a team that are mostly mid-table finisher to a championship contender. The books tells of how he manages and handles different players that moved in and out of the Old Trafford door. I think most people would be able to identify with the more recent stories of Manchester United (for past 10 years or so), but I think this book gives you a little bit of a "behind-the-scene" look at some of the famous stories.
 
It was particularly enjoying for me to know that Alex Ferguson also rated that his side of 1994-1995 was the best along with the treble winning team of 1999-2000. I too, thinks that that side consisting of Peter Schmeichel, Gary Pallister, Steve Bruce, Paul Parker, Denis Irwin, Paul Ince, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Andrei Kanchelskis, Lee Sharpe, Brian McClair, Mark Hughes and Eric Cantona was the best team assembled and managed by Ferguson. Much better than the commercialism driven team (led by David Beckham) that comes in after that.
 
Although I am not a big fan of Sir Alex Ferguson (I think he should have retired as he intended a few years back), but this book is an alright read for all the tokballs kakis here.
 
Alex Ferguson - Managing My Life - My Autobiography
by Alex Ferguson, 1999, 2000
Rating: 3 of 5