Sir Alex retires!

[Skater]

Depressingly dull defensive tactics. I pay ?500 to watch that.

 

[War]

his european record is great. he never dominated, but it's all but impossible to dominate europe, as barcelona, "The Greatest Team in History", are showing.

english football took a good 3-4 seasons to recover from the exodus of talent caused by the heysel ban (and fergie won the cup winners cup the season that was enforced) plus EPL teams were affected by the foreigner rules which meant they could play any UK players in the league but anyone not english counted as one of their foreigners. with giggs, irwin and hughes being key players it kinda shafted them a bit.

so you have about 17 seasons or so he could realistically compete in europe, they won 2 cups. only madrid and barcelona managed more than that with 3 over that time period and milan managed it twice. so man u were basically the 3rd or 4th most succesful european team, pretty good if you ask me.

Yea i agree especially with yours and the espn blog sentiments that United, Fergie & English clubs can be excused for their poor efforts in Europe because heysel ban etc.

But after United won in 98/99 i've always felt Fergie in some big CL games was outmaneuvered tactically too often to be fair & even shocking got a few 1st round exists even.

- both 2000/01 & 2003/04, defeats to one season wonder teams of Leverkusen (the Dortmund of back then) & Porto would have especially bitter spills to swallow. Since if they had beaten those teams, its not inconceivable titles could have won those years.

- the 05/06 & 11/12 first round exists were unacceptable by United standard too.

- twice i recall AC Milan & Ancelotti totally outclassing United over two legs. The second time in 06/07 i never forget. United won a good 1st leg match 3-2 @ OT. Then totally went awol in the 2nd leg @ San siro, losing 3-0.

- Plus although they were outclassed by Barca in two finals, tactically i've always felt Fergie got his tactics in the mid-field balance wrong - but strangely playing Giggs in central mid-field both times (the absence of tough tackling mid-fielders in Fletcher & Hargreaves for varying injury/match fitness woes didn't help also).

Barca would still have won regardless, but losing to them in both those finals IMO means he probably should have took done better in past semi-final/q-final matches he lost.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I wonder if Sir Alex' mind is drifting back to that red card Nani got vs Real - this retirement means this year was his last ever crack at the CL. We would've swept Galatasaray aside and then who knows?

The third one just wasn't to be.

 

[Skater]

It's going to be fascinating seeing how Moyes gets on.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

It's going to be fascinating seeing how Moyes gets on.

Yep. What he really has to do is win the dressing room over - it's such a great squad so if he can do that, the rest should fall into place.