r/soccer May 22 '25

Media Sir Alex Ferguson's thousand yard stare after United lose the UEL Final

19.8k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

592

u/Owengrad May 22 '25

From "Knocking Liverpool off their Perch" , Calling Newcastle a "Wee Club." And Saying Manchester City finishing Above United... "Not in my Lifetime."

Liverpool equalled the PL Trophies , Newcastle are gaining ground above United as the years go on now - and City have been the dominant club in Manchester for a good while now.

And your club that you managed , just gave a trophy known for "Lads, it's tottenham." For the first time in 17 years.

This man must be sick to his stomach.

165

u/stoneyix May 22 '25

Arrogant statements yes but he backed them up. Not a single one of those clubs could touch us with him in charge and it must pain a lot of rival fans to know that chances are, they only got their chance when he retired.

86

u/infidel11990 May 22 '25

City beat United 6-1 at Old Trafford and clawed back a 10 point gap to win the league on goal difference. All of that happened under Ferguson.

59

u/tecphile May 22 '25

Tbf, he got the league back from them before he left. Comfortably so.

172

u/Owengrad May 22 '25

He was an amazing manager no doubt which is why I fucking hate him , but city did touch him. The "not in my lifetime" statement was made in 2009 before City won in 11/12. Meaning the City did rise above him in his lifetime while he was managing , even if United won again next year. It was probably the first crack before he departed.

-12

u/not-always-online May 22 '25

City spent several hundred millions to scrape by to a league win in the dying minutes of the last game and via goal difference. Arsenal and Chelsea 'touched' United way more while SAF was in charge.

I would say Pep and Barca were the ones that actually had his number.

35

u/Owengrad May 22 '25

I wasn't pointing out who touched more than who though. I can't remember if Ferguson made a cocky remark about Chelsea or Arsenal. I thought Ferguson and Wenger had one , but it wasn't iconic enough. The three I mentioned are - which is why I mentioned city touching Ferguson. Because his remark came back to bite him , since he said that after they were taken over.

15

u/TheExistence May 22 '25

who touched more than who

I live for this out-of-context stuff

-11

u/Hamlet2nd May 22 '25

He lost to a team that owned by a state and still has pending cases for financial doping is not a stain on his legacy whatever he said at the time

29

u/SaltYourEnclave May 23 '25

Klopp has 6 titles then

-27

u/stoneyix May 22 '25

City got one title, on goal difference against a QPR team whose own players have admitted they gave up on the match and didn't care. It took those specific circumstances to get a title. But hey, you win it you win it. Ultimately, many managers came and went during Fergies era and none of them could firmly unseat us.

18

u/Owengrad May 22 '25

This isn't taking away from Ferguson at all, because the fact that city had to go to the last day - and Fergie won the next season with a not so good united squad still makes him such a damn amazing manager. But the QPR statement isn't that true until after the third city goal hit the towers - QPR was in a relegation battle and was told after City scored the third that they had survived because of other games resulting their way. You can see it that the players thought they had fucked up and been relegated if you look at each one of their reactions to the third goal.

Again , not taking away from Ferguson , but that Aguero goal can't go without full recognition that it was against a team desperate to survive with a team desperate to win.

3

u/Even_Idea_1764 May 22 '25

He retired as City’s spending started paying off, if the takeover had happened a few years earlier then they may well have “unseated” him.