The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 187 The Hero Behind the Scenes

"Without Ferguson, there would be no Manchester United resurgence and great revival, nor the extraordinary success of Manchester United's youth training; but without Harrison, there would be no legendary story of Manchester United's Class of 92."

--Inscription

In the summer of 1991, many young players from the Red Devils' youth training camp got their first professional contract in their lives, officially became professional players, and had the opportunity to join the first team training and have the opportunity to participate in first team games.

For young people, this is an extremely important step in their career.

The Red Devils Youth Academy began to achieve the first success of the Ferguson era. Sending outstanding young people to the first team was the greatest significance of the existence of the Youth Academy. For the then head coach Harrison, this was an important work achievement and a key moment to fulfill his promise.

As the head coach of the youth team specially appointed by Ferguson, Harrison worked hard for four years and now finally saw that his hard work was recognized and the efforts of the entire youth team finally bore fruit. Witnessing all this with him was his assistant Stiles, a great Red Devils legend. As a member of the Busby Babes, Stiles was a meritorious player in the last glorious era of the Red Devils. He once helped the Red Devils win the first European Champions League and was the core cornerstone of the Red Devils dynasty in the Busby era. Not only that, he also helped England win the World Cup and is a superhero in the hearts of English fans.

After Ferguson took office, he quickly reorganized the management structure of the youth training system and reappointed the person in charge. He successively appointed Harrison and Stiles to be in charge of the Red Devils youth training, which means that Ferguson attaches great importance to youth training and puts youth work in an important position, and is determined to make achievements in youth training. You know, the level of Harrison and Stiles is enough to be the head coach of the English League One club.

Eric Harrison is the soul of the Red Devils' youth training. The Red Devils' 1992 FA Youth Cup-winning team, later known as the Class of 92, was trained by him. So some journalists in the English football world call the Class of 92 "Harrison's Children", which is not inconsistent with the "Red Devils Class of 92".

Giggs, Beckham, Gary Neville, Butt, Scholes, Phil Pneville, Cook, Savage, Gillespie... Harrison gave them the best training in the youth training camp and improved their abilities to the standards of the Red Devils. If these young people did not have Harrison, they might not even have the opportunity to start.

Harrison's career as a player was very dull. He only played for one year under the famous British coach Brian Clough, and his career ended in a hurry. Harrison later said: "No club coach will train young players step by step, and the famous Clough is the same. If you play well, you will not get a word of praise. If you play badly, you may not be in the next game. We don't feel valued and cared for. I don't like this model."

Harrison joined the Red Devils in 1981. When Ron Atkinson was the head coach, he hired him to work on the youth training, but he was only a member of the youth training coaching team. When Ferguson took over the coaching position, he not only did not dismiss him, but he took it a step further and asked Harrison to take full charge of the youth training. Not only that, Ferguson also added more staff to him, expanded his power, massively expanded the scale of the youth training camp, and gave him more important responsibilities.

Ferguson's appointment of Harrison to continue as the youth team coach does not mean that he is very satisfied with the youth training when he just took over.

On the contrary, Ferguson was not satisfied with Manchester United's prestigious youth training camp at the time, because under Atkinson's leadership, the youth training camp followed the routine and did not achieve any outstanding results. There were not too many or too few youth training players, which was roughly maintained at an English average level, and the talents cultivated could not be compared with the youth training camps of clubs in London and Liverpool.

Ferguson hoped that Harrison and his team would start from scratch, build a new structure, recruit more talents, and train them better. Ferguson promised to invest more resources and open better venues. Ferguson himself even became a scout to help the club discover young players.

Harrison was deeply excited and began to carefully cultivate the young players with enthusiasm. Harrison has always loved youth training, and at this time he decided to introduce a high-level training system and carry out the "Harris training method" in the team. The high level of training these young players received was extremely rare for children of 14 years old. This was the result of Harrison's meticulous and in-depth training plan.

To what extent is Harrison meticulous? He will study the characteristics of each young player in detail, formulate a training plan for each of them, and give individual training to key players to improve their special abilities. In addition, in order to help the young players adapt to club life as quickly as possible, Harrison often talks with the players, dispelling the loneliness and helplessness of the children like a gentle spring breeze.

Harrison was very strict on the training ground and always represented high standards. He would yell at Gary and Casper, who were in charge of defense, because the opponent scored with a header, and his voice was louder than thunder; he would yell at Beckham for "Hollywood-style passes", which would wake Beckham up in his sleep; he would yell at Butt and Scholes for losing control of the midfield, scolding them not to be as spineless as two women. Even Giggs would be fired by him because he did not show enough enthusiasm for scoring. Harrison was as devilish as a devil, and required the children to treat every team game as a final, and all players must do their best.

Harrison was very strict during training, and the young players soon became overwhelmed. Gary said, "Harrison almost twisted our heads off during training, and his roars echoed throughout the base. He was too strict, and his standards were too high. Almost every one of us was punished by him, but fortunately we got used to it later."

Harrison explained why he was so strict, saying, "If you can't get the kids to give their all in training, it's a waste of time. These little guys are talented, but without hard training, they won't have a chance to play." Harrison has always been so strict, and there is an additional benefit, which is that the youth team has adapted to the standards of the adult team very early. A few years later, during the England national team training camp, newly selected players such as Gary Neville, Beckham, Butt and Scholes ruthlessly tackled other teammates during practice, which made the other team very dissatisfied. "Come on, buddy, this is just training." Many internationals from other teams found it difficult to understand, but Gary disagreed, "Our Red Devils players are always like this. We have been educated and trained like this since childhood. Isn't this normal?!"

Harrison's severity made Gary Neville and others feel awed. Gary said, "Compared to Kidd, who was like a close friend, Eric Harrison, the terrifying Yorkshireman, brought a huge sense of oppression to our training. Sometimes we even trembled when we saw him."

Indeed, the children were terribly afraid of him. Only when they got a chance in the first team later did these young people understand Harrison's painstaking efforts. Harrison's wife once stopped by the training ground to visit her husband, and she couldn't stand Harrison's harshness from the beginning. She was very angry, "What are you doing? Don't you know that these are still children? Why are you so mean to them and have no humanity at all?"

Harrison explained to his wife that if he was not so strict, they would not be able to face Ferguson's high standards when they got to the first team. Harrison said to his wife: "Think about it, these kids will face Ferguson in the future. If I don't let them adapt in advance, they won't have a chance."

Harrison is very good at finding the strengths and weaknesses of players during their growth, such as moving Gary from midfield to center back. Harrison said, "If you want to play well, you'd better be a defender. More importantly, you'd better start tackling."

After joining the first team, Gary was not able to play as a central defender in the main team due to his lack of height. Harrison first suggested to Ferguson that he should play as a full-back, which helped the Red Devils to find an excellent right-back. In response to Beckham's gentleness, Harrison told Beckham that a man should be tough on himself; in response to Scholes's thin body, Harrison's advice was to try to get in from behind instead of hiding in the opponent's crowd.

I have to say that these teachings and help have truly benefited Class 92.

Beckham and his friends remember Harrison's kindness the most. When they mention the people they want to thank in their careers, Harrison's name will always be at the forefront. When Harrison retired in 1999, all the members of Class 92 presented him with a precious gift. After Beckham joined the first team, he often called Harrison to ask for advice, report on his work, and seek more suggestions. Harrison liked Beckham very much. He thought Beckham was smart and modest, and a well-educated young man. When Beckham broke up with Sir Alex Ferguson and left Real Madrid, Harrison often went to Madrid to see him during the unhappy days in Real Madrid. When Beckham opened a football school after retiring, Harrison was also very happy to participate in the school's ceremony and personally attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Scholes' memory of Harrison is very special. Scholes lacked confidence at the time, and asthma and eye problems kept eroding his confidence. Harrison was determined to use an accident to stimulate the 17-year-old Scholes and change his negative and pessimistic attitude.

Harrison had a special talk with Scholes, "Ferguson and I both agree that you can become a starter, which is a bonus."

Scholes was stunned, and then looked at Harrison with shining eyes. Harrison said: "I was really worried that Scholes didn't have the courage to persevere. He looked like he would voluntarily apply for withdrawal from training at any time. That day I told him the news of joining the first team, and this guy suddenly became a hundred times more confident. His original listlessness turned into a fierceness!"

Since his wife also suffers from asthma like Scholes, Harrison took extra care of Scholes, and was very meticulous in diet and recuperation, doing a very good job to help Scholes recover smoothly. In order to help Scholes, he specially edited Cantona's game videos and gave Scholes a special lesson on how Cantona protected the ball, how to change the rhythm, how to observe the situation on the field, how to retreat and then run ahead, how to change the direction of attack, how to attack with the ball, and how to enter the shooting mode. All this benefited Scholes a lot, as if opening a new door.

Harrison is an excellent motivator. He will not miss any progress of the youth team and will praise them vigorously to make the young people more confident. Harrison also actively uses the inspiration of the young guys and encourages young people to improvise and perform on the spot. He believes that youth training coaches should break the rigid thinking and should not be mentally imprisoned. They should let the children restore their nature and give full play to their inspiration.

Harrison always hoped that the players would play creative and inspired football in addition to strict training. Strict requirements and free play are two sides of the same coin, but Harrison did it magically. Under his encouragement, the children in Class 92 often used their imagination to play some whimsical cooperation. This also had a great relationship with Ferguson's bold promotion and use of Class 92 later, because Harrison made Ferguson believe that this group of children was full of artistic inspiration, imagination and creativity, and would definitely bring new things to the team.

Harrison pays great attention to cultivating the children's self-confidence during his coaching, and teaches the young people the spirit of going all out to win. Harrison actively instills in the youth team the following understanding: Wearing the Red Devils badge and the Red Devils jersey means that you have to win honor for this great club, which is a rare honor, and everyone must fight and give everything for the team's victory.

When the youth team played, Harrison would often invite first-team players to watch and cheer, which made the young players very happy. The guidance and supervision of the big brother were extraordinary, and these young people suddenly felt as if they had grown to 3 meters tall and became omnipotent and invincible giants.

Harrison's wholehearted dedication has turned the Red Devils youth team into a brand new team. The young team showed a vigorous vitality and overflowing passion. They are very aggressive, their offensive kicks are extremely sharp, their passing and coordination are full of imagination, and their coordination is smooth and pleasing to the eye.

The Red Devils Youth Team emerged out of nowhere and quickly dominated the youth team competitions in English football. The Red Devils Youth Team swept through their opponents like cutting melons and vegetables, crushing all challengers with better skills and more acumen. In the FA Youth Cup, the young guys' strong fighting power and vigorous momentum made everyone's eyes shine.