In 1914, World War I broke out and lasted until 1918. Young men in England everywhere were getting drafted for the war. It was a scary time for England, so they decided to put the league on suspension until after the war. Manchester United lost many of their top players and managers during this time, including Ernest Mangnall who resigned and then went to work for Manchester United’s most heated rival, Manchester City. After four years of suspension, the league reopened, but it took the team a long time to return to being a contender and become one of the best teams. The club got relegated to the Second Division in 1922 and stayed there for 3 years. They dropped down to the Third Division and then back up to the Second until 1938. During that time, the club lost their manager John Robson, secretary-manager JJ Bentley, and then their manager who had replaced Robson, John Chapman.  

In 1939 World War Two broke out and once again they suspended the league until reopening in 1946. On March 11, 1941, Manchester United’s stadium, Old Trafford, was bombed during a German air raid. The bomb destroyed most of the offices and locker rooms in the stadium.  It was an enormous task to rebuild the stadium, but luckily they succeeded in finishing the repairs before the league was restored again.

The league’s first season after the breakout of the World War II took place in 1946-1947, and Manchester United was determined to become the best team ever.  Part of their plan for achieving this goal was to hire a new manager named Matt Busby. Busby joined the team on a five-year contract and ended up being on their staff and manager for twenty-five years. Busby had big plans for the team which consisted of getting a lot of good, new, young players to rebuild the team. In his first season, when the league reopened after the war, with Jimmy Murphy on his coaching staff, he led the team to finish second to Liverpool.

On February 6, 1958, a significant incident occurred. The team had just finished, and won, a European Cup match against Red Star in Yugoslavia. They were all ready to get home and start preparing for the semifinals that were coming. They boarded their plane and were ready to take off. However, it was snowing hard and the plane wasn’t able to get enough power to take off from the ground. With 20 players on board, the plane crashed through a fence and into a house.  The plan was destroyed and twenty-three people on board the plane died. It was a tragic sight for the goalkeeper, Harry Gregg, who ran around trying to help as many teammates as he could.  Among the dead were eight players from Manchester United, including their captain, Roger Byrne. Manager Busby was also severely injured and spent months fighting for his life, eventually winning the battle.

When Busby was cleared from the hospital, all he wanted to do was go back out and win. He realized that he was going to need to reconstruct a new team from the beginning in order to get to the elite level his team was once at. Busby had a plan and it involved signing Dennis Viollet who broke the club record by scoring 32 goals in that one season. Viollet wasn’t enough to carry the team, though, and they came in seventh place that year. The following year, the club signed the ‘first superstar of soccer’, George Best. Best was an outstanding player and brought thousands of fans to Manchester United. He scored many goals in his first season but not enough as they finished in fourth.

In 1966/1967, Manchester United was crowned League Champions as they won the title and their first European Cup. Best was a leading factor in their winning season and was incredibly helpful in securing the win in the final with a goal late in extra-time. Just 9 years after Busby lost his all-star team, he was able to train an elite group of athletes to become the best in the league.

Now, Manchester United F.C. is as strong as ever. They have won 20 league titles, 11 Football Association Challenge (FA) Cups and 4 league cups. They hold the record for most league titles and the manager, Jose Mourinho, doesn’t plan on giving that up any time soon.

Ferguson was made manager of Manchester United in November of 1986.  He took over for the club’s previous manager, Matt Busby, who had been one of the best managers of all time in the Football League. Ferguson had to prove that he was worthy of this position.  He managed the team for twenty-six years before making the difficult decision that he had had enough managing for his lifetime.  In 2013, after his last Premier League win, he decided to retire. Over the course of his career as manager, Ferguson led United to 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two UEFA Champion League titles.  This impressive record over the course of his career, and the amount of trophies he helped Manchester United earn, showed that he that was worthy of filling Busby’s shoes.  

One of Sir Ferguson’s major accomplishments was the large number of impressive signings he made for the Manchester United club. He signed Cristiano Ronaldo before the 2003-2004 season. Ronaldo was the first Portuguese player ever signed to United. Ferguson saw him playing in Sporting Lisbon and immediately knew that he needed that player on his team. Ronaldo helped the club win three English Championships, 2 English League Cups, an English FA Cup, a Champion League cup, and one FIFA Ballon D’OR. When Ferguson finally let him go in 2009, he had collected many trophies and earned 67.75 million euros from the trade. 

Sir Ferguson’s best signing of his career was arguably Peter Schmeichel on August 6, 1991. Ferguson called the deal that brought Schmeichel to Manchester United ‘the bargain of the century’. Schmeichel wasn’t well known outside of Denmark but Ferguson took his job seriously and worked hard to track down the best of the best players. Schmeichel was an outstanding goalkeeper and stayed with Manchester for 292 games before returning to Denmark. He contributed to United winning many cups, including bringing back the Premier Cup in his second year with the team. 

Ferguson also did an amazing job at getting the most out of players he traded away. He would make sure that, when he absolutely needed to trade away a player, he would collect the most money off of fees from that player. Ferguson has 5 transactions that rank in the top 15 of all time. He collected money off Ronaldo when he wasn’t happy with the team and wanted to leave, he collected money off of Kevin De Bruyne, and at the fourth ranked transaction of all time, he collected 105 euros from Paul Pogba. 

Alex Ferguson was so successful with his managing techniques that a Harvard Business School Professor, Anita Elberse, decided to examine his management approach and develop an HBS case study on it. Ferguson and Elberse worked collaboratively on this study to try and identify the particular things that made him so good at what he did. They interviewed everyone who interacted with him, from the assistant coaches to the kitchen staff at his house. They researched how he acted toward people and how he became such a good manager. 

The conclusions of the study pointed to a few particular skills that contributed to his being such a great manager.  The first masterful management skill was his impressive recruiting. Ferguson would go to little league games and all other sporting events for high school and college players in order to find his next star. He would become friendly with these kids and ensure they would come to Manchester United when they were old enough to play professionally. Two of the most important recruits Ferguson got to join the team were David Beckham and Ryan Griggs. Griggs met Ferguson at one of his grade school games when he was only thirteen. Ferguson immediately recognized his talent, even though he was so young. He took time to help his skills grow, working with Griggs in his free time, to help him become the talented professional player he is now.   

The second important management technique the research identified was that Ferguson was not afraid to rebuild his team. Ferguson wrote “a team only lasts for four years… after that you need to start new”. He describes this statement to mean that you get incredible talent at a young age and they learn to play and they create a great team. However, a manager needs to expect that after four years, their players begin to get old or they realize there are other teams that are better suited for them, so they leave. This leaves the team without any amazing players.  The solution, according to Ferguson, is to train the younger players with the experienced ones. In that way, when the more experienced players leave, the younger ones can step up and a new team can be created around them. 

Another important piece of Ferguson’s management style according to this study was that he would never let anyone else take control. As manager, he felt he had a responsibility to always be in charge. He believed that if people tried to undermine the manager, it would lead to confusion. If people are listening to different leaders, the team cannot function. He also felt it was important to create high standards for each player and hold them to these expectations. People always have room to grow further, and by expecting more from them, they can push themselves to become elite. 

Sir Alex Ferguson was rushed to the hospital recently, on Saturday May 5, 2018 with a brain haemorrhage.  He was escorted by the police to Salford Royal hospital and underwent emergency surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain.  He was then placed into intensive care and watched carefully to make sure that he recovered from the surgery correctly.  Ferguson is currently recuperating from his illness.  

Part of the success of the Manchester United team is certainly due to their leadership.  Sir Alex Ferguson led the team as manager for 26 years.  He worked hard to scout out talented players even when they were still teens, sign impressive talent, and make money off his trades. He was in control of his team, setting up high expectations for his players which led them to excellent, and devising strategies to make sure departures of players wouldn’t leave the team without talent. He led his team to countless victories and successes over the course of his career.  He retired 5 years ago and has had recent health challenges, but he definitely left his mark on the wonderful game.