Fergie quit before he led us to Treble
I told him he had taken his eye off the ball — but he was back within hours
LATE evening on April 14, 1999 and as one of the most important goals of Manchester United’s history ripped into the top of the net at Villa Park, a lone figure was stalking the car park.
‘The pressure had got to me in extra time,’ revealed former United chairman Martin Edwards of the night Sir Alex Ferguson’s team beat Arsenal 2-1 in an FA Cup semi-final. ‘So I headed to the car park. And heavens above, I missed the greatest goal of my time. I heard the roar but for which team? Thankfully it was for Ryan (Giggs).
‘It was a huge moment in terms of the Treble, a huge moment in our history, so it would have been nice to see it…’
Edwards was front and centre at Old Trafford for more than two decades from 1980 and the treble season of 1998-99 was perhaps the most memorable, which makes it all the more interesting to learn that Ferguson had actually ‘resigned’ the previous summer.
In July 1998 Ferguson was called home from holiday in France by Edwards, by then chief executive of United Plc, and chairman Sir Roland Smith. That season had ended with United second in the league to Arsenal by a point.
‘We hadn’t won anything and to be honest we were dissatisfied,’ Edwards told
Sportsmail this week. ‘We wondered if Alex had taken his eye off the ball a little and if his celebrity status and interest in horses had maybe not helped. So we told him our feelings and Roland thought we should follow it up with a letter. He received it and came pretty much straight back in to see me. He was furious, saying: “If that’s what you think of me then get stuffed… I am resigning”. And off he went.’
It was, it transpired, a short-term fit of pique by United’s manager. He called back some time later to retract his resignation. Edwards insists to this day, though, that he would not have chased him.
‘I can’t say I was particularly concerned as I thought he would come back,’ he laughed. ‘Happily, I was right. He had obviously had a word with somebody. It could have been his solicitor who would have told him that if he resigned he wouldn’t be entitled to any money. But I don’t know, I am speculating.
‘But there is no point in worrying. If you feel it’s the right thing to do — and I know it was — then you have to take the consequences. He was going to respond one way or the other and I would have been hugely unpopular had he walked. But the next year we won the Treble, so thank goodness he didn’t go!
‘Alex was brilliant and hugely successful. There weren’t many blips. But if you are writing a book then you have to put the whole story in don’t you?’
The book to which Edwards referred is Red Glory: Manchester United and Me, published next week.
Edwards’ relationship with United began when his father Louis — then chairman — gave him a place on the board in 1970. Edwards was 24 years old.
The book is an engaging chronicle of his time at Old Trafford and it is hard to ignore the headline chapters such as that detailing the seismic capture of Eric Cantona from Leeds in November 1992. Leeds had beaten United to the title the previous season and Edwards recalled: ‘I am in my office and Bill Fotherby (Leeds chairman) rang and asked about buying Denis Irwin. I said no but, thinking on my feet, just said: ‘What about Cantona?’
‘I had never had a conversation about Cantona with Alex but had read that Howard Wilkinson and him didn’t get on. So I blurted it out.’
It is at this point that Edwards’ account differs to Ferguson’s. The Scot has claimed he was also sitting in Edwards’ office when the call came in and scribbled Cantona’s name down on a bit of paper and slid it under his chief executive’s nose.
‘I am just telling you what happened,’ smiled Edwards when we talked at his home in Cheshire. ‘I actually rang Alex at the training ground and told him. He said: “Too right I would have Cantona”.
‘So the next day I called Bill and said we would take Cantona off their hands. As though we were doing them a favour! We got him for £1million but Bill asked that we say it was £1.6m to appease the Leeds fans. I said: “You can say what you like…”’
*********************************** THE STORY of United’s hiring of Ferguson is known. Edwards — along with Sir Bobby Charlton and two other directors — drove to meet the Aberdeen manager in a car park off the M74 at Hamilton. From there, the deal was concluded in the kitchen of Ferguson’s sister-in-law near Glasgow. The compensation fee was £60,000.
‘It wasn’t an interview,’ writes Edwards in Red Glory. ‘We knew we wanted him.’
What is less known is how close United came to sacking Ferguson in the winter of 1989-90.
It was not Mark Robins’ FA Cup goal for United at Nottingham Forest on January 7 that saved Ferguson — Edwards had
‘I was the one who asked about Cantona — Alex wasn’t there’
‘We were right not to give George Best a testimonial’
assured him two days beforehand he was not in imminent danger — but the improvement that followed.
United eventually won the FA Cup that year — Ferguson’s first trophy at the club — and Edwards recalled: ‘I was getting a huge amount of mail from supporters at that point, every single day. All saying to get rid. I really wanted it to be successful so we were just hoping. We knew how hard Alex was working with the youth and everything but had we gone to the end of that season without improvement we may have had to do something.
‘It was another crucial moment in time but you don’t think like that. You just think: “Come on Alex, turn it round”.’
I asked Edwards if Ferguson has ever thanked him for his patience. ‘Oh yes, in his book,’ he smiled.
There is a perception in football that in the latter years Ferguson and Edwards didn’t get on. In the book, Edwards portrays the relationship largely positively. Ferguson said in his own autobiography that Edwards was ‘only ever a problem when it came to money’.
Edwards said this week: ‘Yes, money always mattered. Every penny that didn’t go on players went on the stadium. If we paid £1m instead of £1.1m for Cantona that meant £100,000 went to the stadium.
‘Nowadays you’ve got Chelsea and Man City. They will pay an extra £10m for a player. So what? What does money matter to them? In my day, I fought for every penny. PSV wanted £15m for Jaap Stam and we got him for £11m-something. Dwight Yorke went to the very last day as Doug (Ellis) wanted £15m, but I wouldn’t pay more than £12m.
‘Managers are different and that’s why Alex said that. Yeah, he may have wanted higher wages than I was prepared to give him but I ran it as a business and, in the end, the club benefited.’
Ferguson was irritated when Edwards said there would not necessarily be a job upstairs for him when he stood down.
‘Look at what happened with Sir Matt (Busby),’ explained Edwards. ‘He went to general manager and Wilf McGuinness was made coach. It failed. That’s all I was saying. He is on the club board and that’s correct. Maybe he misinterpreted what I said but I still think I am right.
‘We used to talk every day until after the United float in 1991. After that I was pulled in every direction. When Alex wanted time he got it but, no, we weren’t as close.
‘But I only judge our relationship by success. In my time with Alex, we won 17 major trophies, two doubles and a treble. How can you say that’s a bad relationship?
‘People forget the pressure clubs were under after Bradford and Heysel and Hillsborough. I spent £114m on the ground. That came out of profits. Not only were we building a team, we were also building the stadium. I had to do what I thought was right, balls in the air all the time.
‘But what did we achieve on and off the pitch? What was the legacy? What did we leave? I think we did OK.’ THE UNITED that a 12-year-old Edwards first knew was the one struggling to cope after the Munich disaster. His father would have been on the plane in 1958 but for work commitments at the family butchers.
‘It was a terrible time,’ Edwards said. ‘I think Munich permanently affected Bobby (Charlton) for example. He became quieter. Can you imagine being on a plane and losing all your mates? What must that do to you?’
Later Edwards watched, and knew, George Best, Charlton and Denis Law. Busby used to come to the family home while Edwards would drive Best from games to the bowling alley.
So who was better? Best or Giggs? ‘Oh Best, every time,’ he said.
And what of the controversial decision not to grant Best a testimonial? ‘We were right,’ he said. ‘He had only done nine years, not 10, and had really messed the club around at the end. But we were fond of George. We sent a team to Belfast for him.’
Edwards, 72, has long been criticised by some United fans. They accuse him of not being a real football supporter — he was a talented rugby player until concussion halted him — and believe he profited from United by leading the club into public ownership in 1991. They also blame him for takeover flirtations with Michael Knighton, Robert Maxwell and BSkyB.
He is phlegmatic about it now but knows the perception is out there. ‘I never once put a For Sale sign up,’ he said. ‘People say I was always trying to sell the club for personal gain. It’s a load of nonsense.
‘But it’s amazing. The supporters didn’t want me, they didn’t want the PLC, they didn’t want BSkyB and they didn’t want the Glazers. So what did they want?’
In his book, Edwards tells of the early United. A club shop run by way of a thank you by Busby, a £15,000-a-year kit deal that went straight into a players’ pool and an annual TV deal of £25,000 a year.
As part of the group of chairmen that would eventually lead the march towards the formation of the Premier League and the introduction of wall-to-wall live TV football, he can claim to have done his bit for the game.
But it is his legacy at United that concerns him just a little.
At times he did not help himself. His private life appeared on the front pages of the tabloid press, meaning that when he finally took a step back from front-line life at Old Trafford in 2003 it was a relief to many at the club. ‘I don’t want to get into it but so much of it was bloody nonsense and unnecessary,’ he said quietly. ‘In most cases it was incorrect.’
But Edwards is still welcome at Old Trafford as an honorary life president and attends every home game. He is more than happy.
‘The club have always been very good to me,’ he said. ‘I do look around and think back to when the Stretford End was a shed. It’s an incredible place now, isn’t it?
‘And why is United so successful today? Because of what was built up over a number of years. That’s all I am trying to portray in the book.
‘When I left, United was pretty much the finished article. Some people appreciate that and the fact we had a successful team as well. But then terrace supporters say “he was gifted it”, “it couldn’t go wrong”, “it was down to the manager”, “what did he actually do?”
‘I can’t change that. They just think I was a lucky b ****** !’