The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 153 Martins and Class 92

"Ferguson obviously didn't just favor the Class of '92. He attached great importance to and cared about all the youth players. He was truly a coach who built his team on youth players."

--Inscription

Ferguson promoted Giggs to the first team, which made Charlton, Kidd and other Red Devils meritorious players more fond of him. They now believe that Ferguson has truly continued the previous Red Devils youth training tradition and opened a new chapter.

Indeed, Ferguson had actively recruited and tried to use young people since the beginning of his coaching career at Manchester United. In 1986, there was no Class of 92, and Ferguson recruited a large group of children of all ages, which was ridiculed by the media.

The media only pay attention to the names of superstars. When Ferguson wanted them to pay attention to the Red Devils' youth training, these guys dispersed, thinking that Alex was thinking too much and "worrying about other people's business."

Ferguson had a lot of experience in training young people at St. Mirren and Aberdeen. When he was "interviewed", he clearly asked the Red Devils' top management: "Are you sure my coaching philosophy is what you want?" Charlton was the first to give a clear response.

Ferguson later recalled: "Sir Charlton told me that was exactly why they wanted me to coach. The Red Devils must return to the path of cultivating and discovering players in their own club. This is very important to me. I hope to get good results quickly, but the most important thing is that the club needs continuous development. I will have long-term plans for coaching the team."

Ferguson began to understand and solve the problems of the team's youth training. In addition to expanding recruitment, he believed that there was a gap between the youth team and the adult team in the club, and they lacked opportunities. Ferguson said: "Atkinson had an outstanding experience at the Red Devils. He is a great coach and the kind of person I would like to play for when I was a player. He values ​​the experience of the players and chooses a safer way. I think there is nothing more satisfying than training young players and achieving success, and the Red Devils have such a tradition. When I went to Lagasse to obtain my coaching qualification many years ago, I knew that I wanted to cultivate the growth of players and accompany them to progress, not just train them and command them."

The demands and pressures of achieving success in a short period of time have made many head coaches eager for quick success. Working like Ferguson did at Manchester United is a huge risk with disproportionate effort and reward. Ferguson received full support from Chairman Edwards, not only in terms of ideas but also in terms of real money. "Every request I made about the youth team was met, which was a very good experience for me. I changed the entire system of the Manchester United youth training. We added 18 scouts, which was a lot of money. Later we also upgraded the scout system, selected the best personnel and paid them a fixed salary. This made it more efficient and more effective. This was never a problem for Martin, he was great in this regard."

The Red Devils Class of 92, which fans talk about with great relish, is actually the second wave of talent cultivated by Ferguson at the Red Devils. When he took over in 1986, the young talents of the Class of 92 were only about 13 years old. Ferguson used the earliest wave of youth training results in 1987-88. They were from the Red Devils youth team that reached the Youth Football Cup final and were also the first batch of players called "Ferguson Boys" by the media. This group of players included Orbiston, Russell Bedsmore, David Wilson, Dinio de Graham and Tony Gill, as well as Lee Martin, Blackmore, Robins and others.

These are the first group of young people who have made great contributions to Ferguson. They are the rising stars who helped the Red Devils win the FA Cup and saved Ferguson's job. They debuted earlier than Lee Sharpe, Giggs and others, and also won reputation earlier. When the Red Devils won their first FA Cup, it was Lee Martin, a youth player, who scored the winning goal. And at the most critical moment for Ferguson's job, it was Robins, another youth player, who scored the goal that defeated Forest and saved his chance to coach. These young people stood out under Ferguson's coaching and were deeply appreciated by the Red Devils fans.

This group of players stood on the stage of the English League One and became the focus of many people's attention by winning the FA Cup. But unfortunately, not many of them were able to persist and create glory under Ferguson.

Ferguson said: "I am impressed by those young people. I admire Lee Martin very much. If he hadn't been injured, he would have been my first choice for left back. Lee Martin will have a very brilliant career and must be a superhero of the Red Devils. If it hadn't been for that serious injury, Tony Gill would have grown into a very outstanding player. And Mark Robins, he is a great finisher with excellent speed and flexibility, able to score all kinds of incredible goals. Maybe some deficiencies will limit him from going further, but he is very good as the final scorer and has scored many important goals for us."

Ferguson carried out youth training work in three aspects. The first was the use of people. Players such as Lee Martin and Robins were already the best of the youth team before he came. Ferguson actively promoted them to become the main players. The second was to introduce suitable young people such as Lee Sharp and Maiorana, who were young talents around 20 years old; the third was to recruit children from the echelon and patiently wait for the newly recruited children to grow up.

Ferguson specifically requested that local kids be given special attention, but he also did not reject outsiders. The Neville brothers, Scholes, and Butt were successively introduced to the Red Devils team. Giggs, who lived in Greater Manchester, Beckham, who lived in London, and Savage and Gillespie were all recruited. At that time, Giggs and Beckham interviewed Manchester City and Tottenham, and Ferguson almost lost these two future legends.

Ferguson broke the barriers between the adult team and the youth team, requiring the Red Devils' first-team players to split up and practice with the youth team players during training, and requiring the adult team and the youth team to split up and practice in reserve team matches. He also required the youth team to regularly use the first-team's training grounds and train according to the first-team's standards. Not only that, Ferguson also required more facilities and services to be tilted towards the youth training camp, breaking the routine of focusing only on the first team.

This was of great significance to the Red Devils youth training camp. In this situation, not only Lee Martin and Lee Sharpe made rapid progress, but also the new generation of young people grew rapidly. Soon the Red Devils youth team made their mark in the English Youth FA Cup, and then the youngsters who entered the camp in 87 or 88 jumped to a higher age group. Ryan Giggs was the most dazzling new star at the time, and his training even excited reporters and fans. When Harrison took Gary Neville, Beckham and others to do adaptive training at Old Trafford, all the major media reporters were also surprised.

Ferguson required high standards in training, and sometimes he would organize mixed matches. As the big brothers, the high level of the Red Devils' main players in training greatly stimulated the young players. Thanks to Ferguson's effective measures, the earliest batch of young players became promising new stars. At that time, Lee Martin had speed and strength, sharp reactions, and excellent positional awareness. He broke through the opponent's defense on the left many times and was a dazzling rookie in the Red Devils' wing defender at that time. When Hughes and McClair were firmly entangled by the opponent, Ferguson needed Robins to play the advantage of a surprise soldier. In many key games in those two years, Robins lived up to expectations as a surprise soldier and scored the winning goal many times after coming on as a substitute.

This group of young players also won the title of "Red Youth Army" in the media. Many reporters of the Red Devils expected Ferguson to repeat Busby's miracle and lead a new team composed mainly of youth players to rise again. These players brought a breath of fresh air to the Red Devils, but they were still limited by their strength and could not further help the team improve its performance, making it difficult for them to achieve the goal of competing for the league championship.

Under the influence of the first batch of new stars, the Red Devils' echelon worked harder. Gary and Beckham have always been silent extra training, and so have Scholes and Butt. Beckham is the most hardworking and silent one. He worked hard on his physical fitness, free kick skills, long passes, strength and speed, and never relaxed. Beckham was arranged to play in the midfield at the time. He kept thinking about free kicks and trying to shoot after daily training. This kid from London survived the loneliness and pulled Gary to practice with him after training every day. Beckham gave himself a terrible task. Every day, the free kick had to hit all the grids drawn on the goal, and each grid had to be hit more than 20 times. That is to say, the extra free kicks had to be kicked at least 200 times. Counting his not-so-good hit rate at the time, the number of training sessions could be directly tripled.

Gary had to practice his central defender skills. He was the second captain of the team that year, but deep down he was the most depressed and desperate. Gary had no self-confidence at all because of his short stature. The coaching staff believed that this little guy was not physically fit to play as a central defender.

When these pungent opinions reached Gary's ears, he burst into tears. His dream of playing for the Red Devils finally gave him endless motivation. Gary worked hard to practice, not afraid of boredom, and would pester Parker and Bruce for advice whenever he had free time. Whether it was running, marking and assisting defense, long passes and overlapping attacks, strength and jumping... Gary worked hard to practice all the skills and knowledge of a defender. He himself didn't know whether he could play as a central defender or a full-back. Everything depended on fate.

In addition to the hard training, Gary also shamelessly dragged Mark Hughes to practice hard. He asked the old veteran to hone his skills in how to defend the forwards and steal the ball. Every time he failed to steal the ball, Gary would serve as a human wall for Mark Hughes and practice shooting with him. Gary ate a lot of balls, and his face was always bruised and swollen. In the end, he was only stubborn.

Scholes could compete with Ince in long-range shooting, but the Governor-General soon needed a slap to save his face. Scholes almost always hit the target with a long-range shot of about 30 yards. Ince, who was always proud and known as "the best in long-range shooting", could only stare in amazement. After the long-range shooting, Ince would "teach" Scholes to conduct interception training in the midfield alone. It was a real physical confrontation, a struggle of strength and strength. Gary and others saw Scholes' frustrated look and felt lucky that they did not step on Ince's tail.

Butt was most impressed by Robson. The approachable captain always patiently taught him how to observe and analyze the situation in the midfield and prepare for the next move. Butt's idol is a legend like Robson, and he is very happy to receive the care and guidance of his idol. Butt said: "The experience I am most grateful for is that I received guidance from Robson when I was in the Red Devils youth team. You know, he is a hall of fame legend. I am grateful to the captain for taking such care of me throughout my life. I learned quickly at the time and worked hard to train with my partners, develop tacit understanding together, and make progress together."

Unlike many fans, Butt is very courageous. He doesn't want to be teased by the big brothers of the team. He always thinks of various ways to escape and then plays various pranks to retaliate. He once filled Hughes' shoes with water before the training game, prepared a jersey with a hidden water bag inside for Bruce, and poured Parker and Phelan a mixed essence drink with hot sauce or other strange things in it during the halftime break.

McClair said: "Bart is as fast as a rabbit! He always manages to run away after getting into trouble. He is so smart."

Ince would never let himself lose face, he always found a way to catch Bart, but every time he would be fooled by Bart's tricks and let him escape punishment.

Summer passed quickly, and the Cliff base was filled with a confident and positive atmosphere. Both Li Martin and the Red Boys had received new opportunities.

Ferguson's emphasis on youth training has won more and more support. This effort does not have immediate results like signings, and there is also the risk of young players not being able to play well. Without long-term confidence in the club and love for the club, no coach can make such a decision.