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For Sir Alex Ferguson, the road to managerial majesty began at the age of 32 in the summer of 1974. Little sums up his journey from the grease of crisps to champagne more vividly than the state of the club he has. inherited in his first coaching role.
East Stirlingshire finished the previous campaign fourth from the bottom of the Scottish Second Division, the lowest level in the Scottish Football League, and the scale of the task becomes clearer when we learn the nature of Ferguson’s early conversations with its president Willie Muirhead.
“As I mentioned to the board, it always helps if you start a game with a goalie,†Ferguson said.
Money was tight. Ferguson was paid £ 40 per week and his transfer budget was £ 2,000. He signed a keeper, Tom Gourlay, from the Patrick Thistle reserves. Ferguson said he had a good presence and was not afraid. He was also said to have been two stones overweight (12 kg).
After looking for free agents, he assembled a double-digit squad for the 1974-75 season from the Falkirk-based club. In Ferguson’s autobiography, Managing My Life, in 2000, he joked, “I had a team of 15 people. It was enough to drive a man crazy.
Maybe it won’t shock you to learn that their first game, a League Cup game away from Forfar, saw a Ferguson side fall 3-0 behind before they drew 3. -3.
Over the 39 years and the 2,154 pro games that followed, Ferguson became not only East Stirlingshire’s most powerful man, but Britain’s most influential and successful manager as well.
On New Year’s Eve, he should be 80 years old. And with a greater distance since his retirement from Manchester United management after the 2012-13 season, Ferguson’s achievements only look more astonishing.
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