The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 20 Aberdeen Mission

“The invitation from Aberdeen is a great opportunity and a great challenge.”

--Inscription

In 1978, Ferguson, who was only 36 years old, became the head coach of Aberdeen's emerging team.

Aberdeen Football Club is a team with a history of over 1903 years. The club is located in Aberdeen, a port city in northern Scotland, the "Oil Capital of Europe". Its earliest origin can be traced back to April 4, 14. At that time, three football teams in Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion decided to merge to form a new Aberdeen Club. This is the origin of Aberdeen Football Club.

Aberdeen Newcomers' home ground is Pittodrie, one of the largest stadiums in Scotland. The stadium can accommodate 22,199 spectators, and the record attendance is 45,061, which was reached in a match between Aberdeen and Hearts in 1954. Pittodrie Stadium was built and opened in 1899, and Aberdeen Newcomers used it as their home ground in 1903. It was the first all-seater and fully covered stadium in the UK, and it pioneered the "trench-style" reserve seats. Aberdeen Newcomers originally wore all-white jerseys and shorts, but later changed to black and gold, and were once called "the Wasps". In the mid-1930s, they changed to all-red jerseys and shorts, and were thus called "the Red Team".

After the establishment of the Aberdeen Football Club, it participated in the Northern League of Scottish Football, and was allowed to join the Scottish Football League Second Division the following year. With the reorganization of the league, Aberdeen Young, which won the seventh place in the Second Division, began to participate in the First Division in the 1905-06 season. After Aberdeen Young was further promoted to the top league, they remained in the Scottish top league and never relegated. Aberdeen Young was mediocre in the league for a long time, and its best results were only the runner-up in the league and the cup. It was not until the late 1940s that it ushered in the first wave of glory. In the 1947 Scottish Cup, Aberdeen Young made it all the way to the final and finally defeated Hibernian with a score of 2-1, winning the Scottish Cup for the first time. Seven years later, the team emerged in the 7-1954 season and won the Scottish First Division Championship in one fell swoop. This is also the first league championship trophy in their history.

After winning the league title, the legendary coach Halliday left, and the team eventually failed to defend the title the following year, finishing second in points. Although they won the Scottish League Cup, the team's brief glory came to an end. In the following season, the Aberdeen Newcomers no longer had the power to challenge for the championship, and soon lost their demeanor as a powerful team.

Until Ferguson arrived, the Aberdeen Newcomers had only won one league title and three cup titles.

After entering the late 70s, Aberdeen began to show signs of recovery. They reached the cup finals consecutively and tried to challenge the league championship, but unfortunately they failed.

Donald, then chairman of the club, was determined to pursue higher honors, but the resistance they encountered was huge and stubborn. Scottish football has long been dominated by two super giants, Celtic and Glasgow Rangers are the most powerful "two old friends", and other teams can only look up to them. From the beginning of the history of the Scottish First Division to the establishment of the Scottish Premier League, the two giants almost "two-person turn" to win the championship, which is even more outrageous than the two giants in the Spanish Premier League.

Before Ferguson came to Aberdeen, the two giants had won the league championship for 14 years and never let any championship slip away. It is worth mentioning that after Ferguson left the Scottish Premier League, Celtic and Rangers regained their power and monopolized the league championship for more than years, and no other team has won any championship so far.

Aberdeen Newcomers has always been financially strong, and they continued to improve after entering the 70s. The team won the league runner-up for two consecutive seasons in the 1970-71 season and the 1971-72 season, just one step away from the championship. But in the following seasons, this Scottish Premier League newcomer still failed to break through the siege, and the results became a stable top four in the league. In the 1976-77 season, coach McLeod led the team to win the Scottish League Cup after 21 years, which further stimulated the team's vision. After McNeil took over the coaching position, Aberdeen Newcomers won the runner-up in both the league and the Scottish Cup, just one step away from the championship.

The Aberdeen new team is ambitious and hopes that Ferguson can bring a stronger impact to the team, break through the last layer of window paper and bring surprises to the team.

Outside of the management of Aberdeen Newcomers, there are some noises from the fans. Some fans really dislike Ferguson's background because he played for Glasgow Rangers and was a Rangers fan, making him an "enemy" of Aberdeen. Some fans are dissatisfied with Ferguson's religious beliefs because he is completely different from the mainstream religion in Aberdeen. Some fans doubt Ferguson's ability, believing that Ferguson has no experience in winning the top league championship and is not qualified to lead Aberdeen to the championship.

There were also noises in the media. They thought Ferguson was too young, because he was only 36 years old at the time, not even as old as some of the veterans in the team. In addition, Ferguson's humiliating dismissal from St. Mirren, which even implicated Aberdeen itself, also became a problem in the mouths of reporters.

Ferguson began his coaching journey at Aberdeen despite all the doubts.

The first difficulty Ferguson encountered in the team was resistance from the locker room.

He did not get along well with the players at the beginning. As the captain, center back Willie Miller had many doubts about the new coach and expressed his opposition during Ferguson's first speech to the team.

Ferguson's speech was mainly to motivate the players to strive for success and sprint for the championship, but he used the players of St. Mirren as a template, and always believed that St. Mirren's things were better than Aberdeen's. He also asked Aberdeen players to obey unconditionally and not have any opinions. These remarks obviously angered Miller.

Miller said: "When Ferguson first arrived in Aberdeen, he seemed very reckless and I don't know where his confidence came from. He mentioned a lot of past experiences when he coached at St. Mirren, meaning that he wanted to continue with that approach. I don't agree with this. I don't want others to compare us with some messed-up teams or players. To be honest, he didn't do very well at St. Mirren. This is not suitable for us. This is not our tradition."

Ferguson was confronted in person and he had to endure it.

Ferguson knew very well that he could not fall out with the senior captain at this time, and the chairman of the Aberdeen board communicated with him afterwards and let him know that Miller's doubts had some truth.

St. Mirren is not Aberdeen, in fact, St. Mirren is far inferior to Aberdeen. He was too impulsive in this matter.

The second challenge Ferguson encountered was the tactical style. Ferguson wanted the team to play offensive football and change the team's previous conservative style of play. He insisted that the team's low-position defense and over-contracted defensive counterattack tactics would not have the initiative in the long-term league competition, so he decided to transform the team into a defensive-first, aggressive offensive tactical style.

Aberdeen Newcomers previously had the best defensive statistics in the league, but Ferguson's changes had a serious impact. The slow central defenders Willie Miller and Willie Garner were greatly affected, and the entire team's midfielders and even the two wingers had to undergo major changes.

Besides the defenders, the first to bear the brunt is forward Joe Harper.

The Aberdeen rookie and all-time top scorer was known as "King Joey" by the fans. He had a good goal-scoring ability and was physically strong, but Ferguson could not tolerate his alcoholism and was not satisfied with his running and positioning - he hardly retreated to defend. Ferguson was always ruthless towards players who did not conform to his philosophy, not to mention Harper's bad record of refusing to train and driving under the influence.

Harper was put on Ferguson's "blacklist" and began to be treated coldly.

As for the defensive core Miller, Ferguson has a different approach.

He accepted the captain's rebuttal, which made the other party look at him with new eyes. Ferguson later talked to the captain frequently, helping him to open his mind and realize the rhythm and space problems of the team in offense and defense, which changed his understanding of the team's playing style.

Miller quickly changed, and his influence in the locker room helped Ferguson promote reforms in his playing style, which achieved very good results.

Ferguson was committed to the discovery and training of young players, injecting youth and vigor into the team. The youth training system of Aberdeen Newcomers was already working well at the time, with players like Willy Miller, Alex McLeish, John McMaster and Doug Lagerwey emerging from the echelons, but Ferguson thought it was not enough. He strengthened the team's scouting system and set his sights on players from all over the country. In order to compete with the giants, Ferguson specially established a satellite football academy in Glasgow, which naturally also meant to demonstrate to the "old gangs".

Ferguson worked closely with chief scout Bobby Calder to discover and reuse outstanding young players such as Neil Cooper, Neil Simpson, Eric Blake, John Hewitt, Dougie Bell and Brian Gan.

Ferguson's transformation measures for the team seem very radical, and the entire lineup and system have changed completely.

Will Ferguson’s reforms work?

It was very difficult to change the team as a whole. The players were very disgusted with his very strict requirements for details and were not very willing to make great efforts to fight for a victory. Some players in Aberdeen's new team were already Scottish internationals, such as striker Harper, defender Stuart Kennedy, goalkeeper Bobby Clarke and defensive leader Willy Miller. Some players had already become famous, such as Gordon Strachan, Alex McLeish and Steve Archibald. They were deeply loved by the fans, but they did not completely agree with Ferguson's aggressive attack.

Aggressive tactics, strict training, a young lineup... everything is being worked out with great difficulty.

Ferguson's ideas collided with the players' thoughts, making the team unstable. Although Aberdeen Newcomers had a smooth start in the 978-79 season, with 5 wins and 3 draws in the first 2 rounds, Ferguson suffered his first defeat of the season in the 6th round, and soon suffered a wave of three consecutive defeats. The team's solid defense was completely gone, and the coach was naturally criticized.

After an unacceptable three-game losing streak, Ferguson rarely called the players to a meeting on the court.

This was an unusual meeting as Ferguson wanted the players to speak out their opinions and express their dissatisfaction publicly.

The meeting was open from the start and the discussion became heated. Some players wanted to return to the previous way of playing, but more players believed that they should stick to the current aggressive style of play.

Captain Miller said, "The team cannot rely solely on young players. The players who play in the game must be a combination of old and young to maintain a balance. In dangerous moments, we must rely on the experience of the old players."

Ferguson took the advice.

Captain Miller and Ferguson had many conflicts, including more than one public clash. But as the team gradually adapted to Ferguson's tactical requirements, the two gradually built trust. Miller began to accept the style change that Ferguson insisted on. His defense was no longer cautious, but aggressive, which improved his career achievements and became one of the most outstanding players in Scottish history. He was grateful for this later.

Rising star Strachan suggested that the team needs to reduce mistakes when switching from offense to defense, reduce the kind of aimless long-distance passes, add more tactical routines of running through the frontcourt, and play more group cooperation to advance.

These words impressed Ferguson and were recognized by the entire team.

More suggestions and opinions were raised by the players, and some issues during the previous three-game losing streak also became the topic of heated discussion among the players. It was through this open and honest discussion that Ferguson unified the team's thinking, put down the burden, determined the playing style, absorbed the players' valuable suggestions, and started a new journey.