Sir Alex Ferguson is the greatest manager of all time – so why have so many of his former Manchester United players since failed in the role?
Sir Alex Ferguson‘s legacy as arguably football’s greatest manager is one of sustained evolution, unrivalled authority, and repeated reinvention. Yet even he acknowledged that the modern game has reached a point at which many of the players who learned under his guidance now struggle to succeed.
It is not controversial to argue that Sir Alex was unique. He turned Aberdeen into a footballing force, toppling over Rangers and Celtic, who had previously reigned supreme.
The highlight of his tenure at Pittodrie, though, was overcoming the fierce task of the grandiose Galacticos – Real Madrid to win the 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup in a David versus Goliath affair.
He commanded Manchester United for 26 years, adapting his teams multiple times to stay ahead of rivals and rewriting the standards of success in English football.
From the earliest Premier League battles to the treble-winning season and later the Ronaldo era, Ferguson built, rebuilt and reshaped his squads with extraordinary consistency.
His former players – Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Wayne Rooney, and Gary Neville among them – saw firsthand how Ferguson managed personalities, shifted systems, and remained unbowed by pressure. Yet when those same three have dabbled in the dugout, a different story has unravelled.
Managers no longer hold authority
In the modern football climate, managers no longer hold authority – just ask ex-United head coach Ruben Amorim, that is something he will know all too well.
United Director of Football Jason Wilcox recently said, “I always want to interfere in what the managers are doing.”
Such an admission would have been unthinkable during Ferguson’s reign. He was not merely a head coach, but the club’s central authority – shaping recruitment, dictating culture, and absorbing responsibility when difficult decisions were made.
Ferguson offered a striking explanation for why so many elite players struggle when they move into coaching. He said: “There are very, very few really great players who have become great coaches,” pointing to a disconnect between excellence on the pitch and empathy off it.
Patience is no longer a virtue
“I was only an average player,” Ferguson said. “I could score a goal or two, that sort of thing, but I wasn’t a Bobby Charlton or a Messi or Ronaldo.” That background, he believed, helped him understand players with limitations – something he felt truly elite footballers may struggle to do.
Ferguson was able to adapt repeatedly because he was permitted to do so. He rebuilt teams over seasons and endured transitional periods because trust in his leadership never wavered.
The modern game offers no such patience. Managers are judged immediately on tactical clarity and stylistic identity, often before authority has time to take hold or squads have been properly shaped.
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Football’s fixation on systems and instant results has narrowed the margin for error, particularly for inexperienced coaches still learning the role. Time to adapt, rebuild or evolve is rarely granted.
Ultimately, Ferguson’s former players are not struggling because they misunderstood his methods. They are struggling because those methods were shaped by time, trust and control – conditions modern football increasingly refuses to provide.
Ferguson was not merely a great manager; he was the product of an era that enabled greatness to be achieved.
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