Alex ferguson what makes a good coach

After he left he had a hip operation and I went to see him at his house. Meulensteen's reflections show there was a bit more to it than that. You can read the full interview here. Former Manchester United coach explains exactly why Alex Ferguson was so successful. Robert Redmond. Fascinating insight.

Full Ireland player ratings as man Portugal share the spoils. Bonnar brings back Inter-divisional trials in Tipperary as club players given every chance. Culture is a measure of the observable behaviors your team and organization promotes and accepts. Culture is not what you think or want to do, it is what you do. Full stop. Some teams espouse a certain culture but actually behave in a very different way. That is, they do not walk the talk.

Culture is the talk you walk. Team culture has an impact on the behavior, contentment and attitude of athletes within their sporting environment. Lesson 5. European Leaders recent research showed that poor communication is responsible for reduced performance in the business world. In the sporting world it is no different. Better communication from coaches will result in a positive impact on performance.

Lesson 6. Some teams play to a plan and if this plan does not work, then they lose. Other teams can rapidly adjust that plan to suit differing challenges they are facing. This ability to adapt to changing circumstances is a skill but primarily is an attitude where a team has to want to push the envelope and their own limits. Ultimately this also reflects the ultimate goal of any team which is about creating a winning outcome, which may not be pretty but is about being willing to roll the dice.

Lesson 7. So that puts paid to that ridiculous claim. United is now one of the two or three richest clubs in the world, but it wasn't when Fergie took over. And the biggest single factor in that has been Sir Alex.

He built the squads; he achieved the success; he bolstered the brand; he attracted the supporters; he made United really great. Football club management is a threatened art, mainly because of the move to the new model of coach and Director of Football. Harry Redknapp has it and Arsene Wenger excels in it, but the French professor of economy has not turned his business management into a trophy for eight years.

In truth, Sir Alex has David Gill alongside him, but they complement each other perfectly: Gill manages the business; Ferguson the football.

Yes, Sir Alex has his own idiosyncratic style, but even that has evolved over the years. He himself admits that he never stops learning, and that is the one overriding quality of a great manager and springs from humility.

Although he started life as a shop steward, it is arguable that he would have been successful in big business also. He knows how to set out a structure and build a football club from top to bottom and from bottom to top.

He could write the MBA syllabus for football management. There are many pieces to the jigsaw, however. He knows how to win the undying loyalty of the clubs' owners. He had it with Martin Edwards and also from the Glazers.

The main reason why they are never seen at Old Trafford is because their investment is in safe hands. They just leave Ferguson and Gill to get on with it. When the two of them ask the Glazers for something, they get it. It helps that David Gill is a world class chief executive.

Ferguson also understands the business and financial management. He is no mug. Some supporters think the Glazers won't give him money to spend on players, but his childhood gave him an appreciation of value, and he treasures the club's funds as if they were his own. He is a master of economy. He has been the first to admit that he has made mistakes, like Eric Djemba-Djemba, who was pretty much disconnected from reality. He will have a short, medium and long-term strategy.

The short is each season; the medium will be the period taken to transition to the next generation; the long is his ultimate master-plan. Sadly, that will include his time of going and his successor.

It would not surprise me one jot if Sir Alex hasn't put forward two or even three potential successors, agreed with Gill and Sir Bobby Charlton. They will already be lined up and sworn to secrecy, which means it won't be Jose Mourinho although he makes a convenient stalking horse.

My choice would be Pepe Guardiola to take over at any time; or a team of Carlo Ancelotti and Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer, with the latter groomed for succession after three years.

Although Sir Alex has teams of people to do everything, it is in his makeup that he would not ask anyone to do something he would not prepared to do himself. He does his own dirty work.

He will have personally told Berbatov he would not even make the bench for the Champions League Final; and also that he can leave at the end of the season. But as with so many players before him, that won't stop Dimitar from praising the boss before and after he goes. Best of all, it is such a delight to see a manager writing his own programme notes. These are all written from the heart. Also, he is constantly exhorting his "twelfth man" the crowd to support the team at difficult times.

And they respond, as they did at Blackburn magnificently, and will for the rest of the season. In short, they love him. The structure he and his predecessors have built from bottom to top and top to bottom, is based first and foremost, like Barcelona, on the development of talent. Every young individual is taught the same skills and teamwork.

Defenders are taught to attack and vice versa. For the Academy players the result is less important than playing "the Manchester United way. Will Keane was delighted, for example, when Warren Joyce was promoted to reserve team manager, because he had coached the young Keane and knew all his strengths and qualities. For Keane, it meant certainty and self-belief.

United care less about size than skill. Can you imagine even a pub team signing Lionel Messi as a teenager—too small! Ferguson and his team have a blueprint for players. Paramount are the personal qualities. Answer: humility. Oh and pace From now on, United will only sign players with these qualities—especially pace, skill and humility. Sir Alex will have a blueprint for success for every player. For example, he knew that he didn't have the finished product in David de Gea, who needs bulking up and has worked with Eric Steele a great deal since his arrival, to manage the rigours of the Premier League, which will be different from La Liga.

What he did know was that he was buying potentially the best goalkeeper in the world, but unlike Edwin van der Saar, with the possibility of United having him for his whole career. Sir Alex has a comprehensive global scouting network. He will have thoroughly examined all the possibilities before choosing de Gea. It is known, for example, that he looked at Manuel Neuer and Maarten Stekelenburg. All the time, the scouts will be searching for and watching known needs and world class talent in general.

They have to keep a number of considerations in mind, however. If a player isn't British, they will need a work permit. This is no problem if they are a European citizen or have one from another EC Member state. Otherwise, the player needs to be a proven international or a player of 'exceptional talent'.

That may mean they have to go to a feeder club first. This is almost a guaranteed blueprint for success. Sir Alex is building another team and squad. This time, he has two particular challenges: to replace the aging stars as soon as practicable; and to blend in a larger potential supply of talent from the Academy than he has ever had before.

This will test his man management skills. There never will be another Paul Scholes, but United do need to reshape their midfield for the future. Sir Alex has done a great job in defence so far, but he may need to sign one or even two midfielders this summer, depending on whether Paul Pogba stays and how he grows. He cannot do all these things without a substantial coaching staff. There will, of course, be the sports scientists and the medics to complement them, but again the coaching team itself develops and grows.

Warren Joyce was appointed as reserve team coach to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Joyce had Paul Scholes helping him earlier in the season, and Darren Fletcher has been drafted in while he is medically unfit.

This pattern provides directly relevant experience and continuity. Rio Ferdinand, for example, is already working with and advising younger members of the squad, such as Paul Pogba. Again, he has worked with the younger players, previously. So Sir Alex knows how to build a dynasty in the club and in the playing and coaching staff. This means that unless the next manager is a complete disaster, United are a self-perpetuating machine.

That is the biggest legacy Sir Alex will leave behind. From the moment he was signed, he was always going to attract the attention of the media and paparazzi, because he is the finest English footballer of his generation.

Starting with visiting a middle-aged prostitute and ending in high-class call girls, Rooney has courted controversy and potentially damaged the name of the club as well as his own. The fact that this fall-out has been minimal is a testament to Sir Alex's powers of player management. Players who have been found to have taken drugs have never been tolerated at Manchester United.

If Rooney had not been such a talented footballer, Sir Alex may have "let him go" in the way he did with David Beckham. Give them another year. That was hard to accept. In football, every manager his own way, his own staff, his own beliefs, and that's absolutely correct to have that independence and your own beliefs. That passed quickly [Ferguson's unhappiness at the removal of the players]. When the team shaped itself in a different way, I enjoyed going to the games, that was behind me.

There was no need for me to think about what I could have done, because it was over for me. I was happy to go to the games, have my lunch before the game, have a glass of wine, and enjoy myself. Moritz: Do you have advice for others who have long distinguished careers and then need to step away and adjust to a new role?

Ferguson: Depends on your age. Some former managers lose their job quite early, like Brian Robson [a former Manchester United player under Ferguson who has had brief spells as a manager at four English clubs]. But if you're of an age where, you know, you don't want the rigors of dealing with the day-to-day handling of present day footballers, fans, agents, I think my advice is to put on your slippers, relax, but you know, just be active.

You've got to be active. If you take up training and wake up, go on the bike, or do exercise with weights. You can't just wither away. You've got to have something that motivates you.

Ferguson: I told him it's fantastic. You've done a great job. And I was proud of him and that he's got that ability. He knows the industry, even though he's only been doing it for a while. He did a really good job. Moritz: Were their clips from the past that Jason had dug out from way back that you didn't even know existed or surprised you when you saw them in the movie?

Ferguson: When he came to see me to show me the clip of me reading at the Apprentice Strike, I couldn't believe it. I said. He said he researched and it came with on ITV or some Scottish television or something like that.

And that was great. And that's a moment which I was proud of, because at the time, and I go back to , a lot of apprentices at this time were very young and some had one, two, maybe three in a family. And of course, the shout was about better conditions, better financial conditions. And I felt that was worth supporting. Ferguson: Well, it's the love of the game, and and the love of family that come across, and we have a very close family.

So that that comes across very much. As Cathy will tell you, I sacrificed my adult life to being a football manager. Cathy really brought the kids up, you know. So with that, I can understand the comment of it being a love story, because there's so much love there.

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