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Picking up where I left off on Leading, by/with Alex Ferguson. I'm not a football fan, nor a Man Utd fan, but I can respect how impressive Man Utd was under Fergie's leadership. The team performed worse both before he joined and after he left, so he clearly knows his shit https://t.co/854SP2JCFY
When he first joined United, Fergie had heard rumors of players' drinking habits. He gathered the club together to tell them they had to change. On retrospect, he thinks it would've been more effective to make an example of one or two players who crossed the line
At Aberdeen, Fergie's asst manager Archie complained that Fergie did everything. Archie asked that Fergie let go of control and watch fron the sidelines. Fergie was hesitant. But this widened his field of view; he learned more, picking up on nuances of players' moods, habits etc
Fergie names names. He fined Mark Bosnich for being repeatedly late for training. "Schmeichel, Ince, Keane, Cantona could all start a fight in an empty house." "Some people, like Veron, just seem to be immune to discipline. You cannot build a team with blithe free spirits."
After Christmas 2011 - 3 United players came to training hungover. Fergie ordered them to do extra training and dropped them from the next match. They lost to Blackburn 3-2, and lost the League to Man City on goal difference. Regardless, Fergie felt this was the right decision
"If you assemble 11 talented players who concentrate intently during training, take care of their diet and bodies, get enough sleep and show up on time, you're halfway to winning a trophy. It's always astonishing how many clubs are incapable of doing this."
At Aberdeen, Fergie and Archie would watch as many games a week as possible. This often meant driving for 6 hours, to Glasgow and back. "If we miss one game," they said to each other when tempted to skip one and take the night off, "we'll miss two."