Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United's 26 year old reign comes to the gentlest gradient a coaching career can ever take. During these days when the football world was appreciating how German football is ckoke-slamming the Spanish, many had not even digested the greatness of Messi, seen by how much ordinary Barcelona are in his absence.
Many were still having another shot at the effectiveness of Jose Mourinho, given both his tightening of the screw against youthful and fluid Borussia Dortmund in the second leg and the interest of Chelsea to redeem themselves by rehiring him - to me an absolute mistake on the part of The Only One and Roman Abramovich.
All that aside, the speculation of SAF's end has always been speculated since the early part of the decade when he had effectively resigned but made a sudden U-turn. In subsequent years, we all looked for the signs and it became less interesting with time. Somehow, there were no hints even this time, and when it came, the most successful coach in sports had to call it quits.
The scheduling of his hip surgery for August 2013, when the season's preparations are supposed to be in full swing must have been kept secret but it then left all with no choice but to officially announce his retirement. Then the rumours of his possible successor emerged but it was more of speculation. David Moyes is favoured for whatever reason, but maybe, with all due respect to Moyes, Jose Mourinho is the man the manage that team.
The media wastes time narrating and detailing the success of SAF. Who does not know what he achieved? In our lifetime, you can be assured that no one will ever manage pull through for so long with one team. It may never be seen ever.
Jose Mourinho sets trends and records of a different nature and his attention span can never be close to that of SAF. Instead of the doomed grand re-entrance at Stanford Bridge, Mourinho would keep the SAF legacy alive at Old Trafford.
Moyes is able and like Fergie, Scottish. I guess I have an issue with that, because in Africa it would have been called nepotism. Maybe that was not the point but I smell a rat in a Scot replacing a Scot. Are the Scots revenging for the English ridicule at every opportunity, including the saying that copper wire was a result of two Sctos pulling a penny in a fight? In all speculation since 2002, that name was never ever mentioned.
Ole Gunner Soljkaer, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes were a few tauted names, probably we were being sold a dummy. Moyes has a comfortable job at Everton who may have to bring in a new manager to replace Moyes if the deal goes through.
Anyway, maybe Rafa Benitez will be at the Merseyside next season as he paves way for Mourinho at Stanford Bridge. Whatever happens, Manchester United will have to disintegrate and then rebuild to be a force that it was under SAF. Some big names will surely leave, those loyal to him like Wayne Rooney to Real Madrid or PSG. The new man, say Mourinho will bring his own baggage like Cristiano Ronaldo. The moulding of the team will depend on that chemistry of bonding between the old and the new.
Whoever comes in and whatever they do, they will have a rebuilding exercise whose success will determine how close to the Man U that SAF built they come. It may be good and/or close but never the same.
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