SPECTATOR SPORT
The Glasgow boys
Frank Keating
WHEN Manchester United beat Aston Villa just before Christmas the victory took them to a seemingly unassailable 14-point lead in English soccer's Premier League. By the time Villa, in turn, beat United last Sunday at Wembley in the League Cup final to sandbag the Manchester presump- tion of a unique 'treble', it was looking increasingly likely that United's season was coming apart at the seams so dramatically that they would possibly end up with noth- ing. There is a sudden red mist over Old Trafford. This weekend United play their closest Premier rivals, Blackburn Rovers, and should they lose they will forfeit the lead they have held since August. Next weekend they. meet their neighbours, Old- ham Athletic, in the FA Cup semi-finals.
As United have panicked themselves into a series of brazen bully-boy incidents on the field, on the touchline their manager, Alex Ferguson, has been seen to be consumed With an angst and fret which has not been pleasant to witness. We shall know in the next seven days whether a long-standing English institution — which is what United are — has become unhinged. What is certainly a long-standing English institution is that is leading soccer man- agers are Scotsmen. The three leading teams in the Premier division — United, Rovers and Arsenal — each have as their 'ashen-faced, tight-lipped' supremo of the squad a Jock from across the border, respectively Ferguson, Blackburn's Kenny Dalglish and Arsenal's George Graham. Not from anywhere in Scotland either, but from that astonishing line of managers of English clubs which hails from a ten-mile radius of Glasgow. From that one deprived and bleak patch of shipyard cranes and open-cast mines have come — I just rattle off a few names off the cuff — such giants of the game as Matt Busby, Jock Stein, Bill Shankly, Tommy Docherty and Walter Smith, as well as the forementioned trio. As well, Dave Mackay and Graeme Souness were both first introduced to organised soc- cer just up the A71 with Carrickvale Infants.
Ferguson is from Govan, the shipbuilding end. He began work in those yards and was
a barn-storming shop steward there before he became a ditto centre-forward for Glas- gow Rangers. Ferguson, now 52 and with a sackful of triumphs behind him as manager not only of United but of Aberdeen, will tell you with an emphasis of proud vehe- mence, 'I've heard people say I've done pretty well in spite of being raised in Govan. If only they could realise that any success I've had is because I come from Govan. The place taught any boy everything about com- petitive character and resilience and sur- vival.'
Now his players have begun to lose their self-discipline on the field as the tensions have seethingly reached boiling-point in the season's run-in, Ferguson asks himself, 'If I wilt under the pressure, then what will the players do then? Self-discipline is the key factor for any great sportsman, and espe- cially for the man who has been chosen to lead and inspire them.'
For the unbiased, in spite of their recent behaviour, it would be good to see Fergu- son steady his ship. For United are an insti- tution. So, already, is Ferguson himself, He is less a magician than a workaholic of judg- ment, courage and fierce self-belief whose favourite tool, as the estimable Paddy Bar- clay noted in the Observer on Sunday, is 'a chip on the shoulder'.
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