Is Alex Ferguson Still Looking for Eric?

The 2009 Champions League final between Manchester United and FC Barcelona, and United’s eventual, comprehensive defeat, posed interesting questions of a tactical nature about the psychological mindset of their manager Alex Ferguson.

Sir Alex’s status in the game as an over-achieving top-flight manager is unchallengeable. Since his early days at Aberdeen through to his long tenure at Man United he has consistently produced successful winning sides.

He has brought through fabulous young players; Giggs, Beckham, Scholes come to mind. And he has made great signings, never being afraid to put his chequebook where his convictions led him. 

Rio Ferdinand came in for a (unheard of for a defender) fee of £30 million. Wayne Rooney (as a teenager) for £26 million. Both have repaid their patron’s faith and judgement.

Arguably, or maybe not, his greatest signing in all his years in football was the capture of Eric Cantona from his influential (but bit-part) role as a super-sub at championship winning Leeds and the transformation of the player into an iconic legend of Manchester to rival George Best.

Alex Ferguson and Eric Cantona are inextricably entwined. The ‘enfant terrible’ of French football had finally found a manager who had faith in him and who recognised his talent. Under Ferguson he blossomed, he did more, he bloomed.

From late in 1992 to 1997 Cantona starred at Old Trafford and Ferguson revelled in his play. He supported him through thick and thin. Cantona’s assault trial (when he kung-fu kicked a Crystal Palace fan at a game in 1994) came and went. Ferguson later made him captain.

In 1997, when Cantona realised his form was waning and promptly retired from the game, the red half of Manchester mourned. For Ferguson there wasn’t that luxury. He had responsibilities; he had one of the largest clubs in the world to manage.

Outwardly dour working-class Scot that he is Ferguson applied himself to the task in hand. He rebuilt, he continually rebuilds. He won the Champions league in 1998, won it again in 2008. This year he was defeated in the final. And it was this year that the first hint appeared of how he had missed Eric.

In the 2008 final Carlos Tevez played as the central striker and was Manchester United’s unheralded man of the match.  Tevez is small, compact and powerful with superlative close control.

The ball came up to him, it stuck. He laid it off, he chased everything, every lost cause. Tevez is a two-time South American footballer of the year and one of the best players in the world. But he wasn’t Eric.

In his secret heart, Sir Alex still pines for Eric. He misses his tall imposing target man with the exquisite touch, the colossal vision.  This season he made an attempt to assuage his yearning. He bought Dimitri Berbatov from Tottenham.

Berbatov is in aspect a similar player to Cantona and in other ways similar to another Ferguson centre forward, Teddy Sherringham. Tall and cerebral, with a fine touch and a flair for the game. It looked for a time as if Berbatov could be the new Cantona but subtle differences soon emerged.

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