Sir Alex team talk highlighted Busby Babes importance
SIR Alex Ferguson emphasised the historical significance of the Busby Babes in his team talk before Manchester United’s victorious 2008 Champions League final.
United overcame Chelsea 6-5 in a penalty shootout in Moscow to clinch the club’s third European Cup 50 years after eight players were killed in the Munich air disaster and 40 years after Sir Matt Busby led United to European utopia against Benfica at Wembley.
In an emotionally-charged second half of the 2007-08 campaign, United commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Munich tragedy by donning the Busby Babes’ kit in the Manchester derby defeat to City on February 10. The United vicecaptain Ryan Giggs, who converted the winning spotkick at the Luzhniki Stadium, overtook Munich survivor and ‘68 winner Sir Bobby Charlton as United’s record appearancemaker in Moscow.
Footage of Ferguson’s pre-match and half-time team talks is scarce but former players and staff have recalled some of his most memorable motivational speeches through the years.
Former United fitness coach Tony Strudwick joined United in the summer of 2007 and pinpointed the Champions League final address as the standout moment observing Ferguson at work.
“The team talk before the Moscow final had a kind of significance [about it] because of the historical nature,” Strudwick told the M.E.N.. “Being in 2008, the Busby Babes and so on. I think Wayne Rooney speaks about that as well.
“In terms of speeches, for me that was the one moment that defines all of that, it just encapsulated the history of the club, what it meant, going into the game.
“The brilliance of Sir Alex’s team talks, it wasn’t all Al Pacino team talks every week. I think the significance is it was always about working-class values and what Manchester United represents and what it means to you and your family.
“That was one thing the players we all had, we had a humility around the squad in the cultural architects in Ryan [Giggs] and Paul Scholes, and Gary [Neville] wasn’t playing at that time but still had an influence in the dressing room.
“And a lot of what we spoke about and the common messaging was about hard work, humility, outworking your opponent and being working-class, because that’s what our roots were.
“So much of the team talks around that resonated as a group of people walking towards a common cause.”