Alex Ferguson

After spells as a player with Queen's Park, St Johnstone,Dunfermline, Glasgow Rangers, Falkirk and Ayr United, and asmanager of East Stirlingshire, St Mirren and Aberdeen, AlexFerguson succeeded Ron Atkinson as manager of Manchester United on 6th November 1986.In the 13 League matches up to Ferguson's arrival at OldTrafford, United had only won three and had lost six. Theyhad also been knocked out of the Littlewoods Cup aftersuffering a 1-4 defeat at Southampton. Looking back it iseasy to see why United's position was so dire: "Fergusoninherited a dispirited team of underachievers who hadconsistently, to their supporters' foaming discontent,failed to break Liverpool's domination. The team sheetdrawn up by the new man for his first match says it all:Turner, Duxbury, Albiston, McGrath (Olsen), Moran,Hogg, Blackmore, Stapleton, Moses, Davenport, Barnes.The team lost 0-2 to Oxford United." (Jim White quoted inTotal Sport, May 1997).