The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 226: The Beginning of Hell Difficulty

"The first season of the Premier League was a memorable one for Ferguson and the Red Devils because the start was like a nightmare. Not only was it difficult to win a game, but they were also beaten repeatedly, which completely confused the Red Devils fans."

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Before the start of the Premier League, Ferguson once wanted to bring in Beardsley, who had played for Liverpool, but failed. In the end, Ferguson could only rely on internal development. For this reason, Ferguson gave a special speech to the whole team, "We have to rely on everyone's strength now, there is no other help. The new league is a good opportunity for us. We were very close to this goal last season. Now I have the confidence to lead everyone to launch a new impact. I firmly believe that the team is getting stronger and stronger, and even without new superstars, our progress cannot be stopped."

Ferguson was in high spirits, his English voice with a strong Scottish accent echoing in the training base, "We are the strongest contender for the league championship. We don't need the media to be optimistic about us. We just need everyone to go all out. The regrets and lessons we learned last season appear in front of me all the time. This is a painful experience. We must be vigilant and must seize every opportunity to impact the championship!"

The entire Red Devils team was excited. Captain Robson said in an interview with the Manchester Evening News, "We have touched the edge of the trophy, but in the end we still failed - if we can't work harder this season and win the championship, I would say that is our biggest failure! We just want to be champions, this is our season declaration!"

After English League One was promoted to the Premier League, the new season arrived as scheduled in August.

Sky TV repackaged the broadcasted matches and introduced the live host model that was popular in Britain and the United States at the time, turning the matches into a grand party and a series of wonderful performances. They also introduced a lot of advertisements, and the program content was colorful and fascinating. The new league also made some changes to the rules, and British fans saw many new things they had never seen before: for example, participating teams were allowed to use three substitutes for the first time, and for example, the referee's uniform was green instead of the traditional black for the first time.

In addition, Sky Sports and the League Committee introduced more social etiquette, more broadcast footage, and more live content, in order to bring the audience into a wonderful, gorgeous, and exciting performance, changing the previous impression of dull games full of rough fouls and brutal confrontations. In order to make the game more exciting, the League Committee and the English Football Association specially coordinated the introduction of new refereeing rules, further encouraging teams to play offensive football.

Just before the start of the Premier League, the Red Devils had decided to carry out a large-scale renovation and expansion project at the team's home stadium, Old Trafford. The reason was that the pre-sale season tickets were sold out early, and the pre-sale tickets also encountered the enthusiasm of fans to buy tickets. In addition, the huge broadcasting income strengthened the confidence of the managers. At the same time, Arsenal in London also began to expand Highbury Stadium, and more teams joined in.

Before the start of the Premier League season, the Red Devils were not the most watched club, nor were they the favorites to win the title. The media naturally did not think that the Red Devils had enough strength to compete for the Premier League title by only buying a striker from the second division. They were more concerned about Liverpool, Leeds United, Arsenal and Tottenham, even though the Red Devils finished second last season.

The Red Devils reporter who has been following the team has revealed the Red Devils' main lineup early on. The core news is that Dublin will be a rotation player, and some new faces come from the youth training. The main lineup is as follows: the goalkeeper is the new European champion Schmeichel, the four defenders are Parker, Bruce, Pallister, and Irwin, Donaghy, Blackmore and others are substitutes, and the youth training product Gary Neville has also entered the first team list, but no one will pay attention to him; the midfield is Kanchelskis, Robson, Ince, and Giggs. Lee Sharpe, Phelan, Webber and others are rotation players, and Butt, Beckham, Gillespie, Savage and other youth training players are waiting for the opportunity to play. The forwards are still the old partners Mark Hughes and McClair, Dublin is a substitute, and the forward Thornley from the youth training is also on the list.

The advantage of this lineup of the Red Devils is that the players are very familiar with each other. Even the young players promoted from the youth training are familiar with the team's formation and tactics, and have a good understanding of each other. But the shortcomings are also obvious. Some players are old, and their strength and condition are declining rapidly; and there is a lack of rotation players in key positions, and the lineup is very thin. In addition, the gap between the Red Devils' main players and substitutes is huge, which will make it difficult to cope with the long season.

Unlike the smooth start of last season, the Red Devils suffered an unexpected blow at the start.

In the first game of the Premier League, the Red Devils were scheduled to challenge Sheffield United away.

Captain Robson was not on the Red Devils' starting roster as he was injured and could not play. Ferguson sent out all the main players who could play, hoping to win the first game. But things turned out unexpectedly. Sheffield United created an opportunity through simple cooperation at the beginning of the first half. They sent a grenade-like frontcourt throw-in on the right and threw the ball directly into the Red Devils' small penalty area. This serve caused chaos. Sheffield United's striker, 24-year-old Brian Dean, received an assist from his teammates in the chaos, and then held off the Red Devils' defender in the small penalty area, swung a volley and scored the ball, and Sheffield United led 1-0.

Ferguson was extremely angry on the sidelines. The Red Devils' defense had serious problems. The opponent threw the ball out of bounds like Popeye, but it was not strong enough or fast enough. The Red Devils defenders should have easily controlled the penalty area, even if the opponent got the first point by chance, but should not have given the opponent an aerial relay assist and the opportunity to receive the ball and shoot in the small penalty area.

After falling behind, the Red Devils kept attacking their opponents, but they never had a chance to score. In the second half, the Red Devils further strengthened their attack, and even the defenders pressed across the center line. As the Red Devils' offensive in the frontcourt became more and more fierce, loopholes in the back defense began to appear. Sheffield United shrank their defense, but did not give up counterattacks. Under the siege of the Red Devils, Sheffield United made a long pass from the backcourt to clear the ball, but unexpectedly, this clearance ball turned into a counterattack. When the ball flew to the Red Devils' backcourt, Sheffield United became two against one, and the two forwards crossed and replaced their positions, breaking through the Red Devils' defense. The Red Devils' central defender Pallister chased back with difficulty and directly tackled the opponent in the penalty area, a penalty! The referee almost gave Pallister a red card, and finally only took out a yellow card warning, but Pallister's foul could not save the team, and the Sheffield United players unceremoniously scored the penalty kick, 2:0.

Trailing by two goals, the Red Devils were unwilling to give up and continued to organize offensives. Under the fierce attack, Mark Hughes pushed the opponent's central defender in the penalty area, seized the opportunity and shot the ball into the dead corner, and the Red Devils fell behind 1 to 2. At the last moment, the Red Devils launched a massive attack, and Giggs broke into the penalty area alone and was tackled by the opponent's goalkeeper, but the referee turned a blind eye and did not impose any punishment.

The Red Devils eventually lost 1-2, and the fans' imagined good start turned into a bad start.

Ferguson slammed the referee: "Of course we know that Pallister's foul is a penalty, but we don't know why Giggs was fouled in the penalty area by the opponent and it was not a penalty. I can't comment on the referee, but this is a foul. Giggs didn't fall by himself. He was knocked down by the opponent's goalkeeper. At that time, he had the ball at his feet. This is a blatant foul. All the fans present can see it, and all the fans in front of the TV can see it. Say this is not a foul? Unless someone is blind."

The entire Sheffield United team celebrated wildly. Their coach was unwilling to discuss the issue after the game. "We won this rare victory and I am happy for the team. Our players fought very hard and kept fighting. Their performance was perfect. Was Giggs' fall in the end a penalty? I didn't see it clearly and I can't tell what it was. That's the referee's business."

In the second round of the league, Ferguson led the team back to their home ground to face Everton.

In this match, Ferguson's team faced Everton, which had just signed Beardsley. The team had become stronger and had changed its style of play. The Red Devils were eager to attack and score at the beginning of the game, but they launched a counterattack after the opponent cleared the free kick. Everton's defender made a long pass in the backcourt, and Beardsley got the ball in the frontcourt and easily broke into the penalty area to form a single shot and scored in the dead corner.

The Red Devils, who were behind, were eager to equalize the score. They pressed forward with all their might, but were counterattacked by their opponents. In the 61st minute of the second half, the Red Devils organized an offensive, but Irwin's powerful shot at the edge of the opponent's penalty area was blocked, and Everton immediately launched a quick counterattack. After Everton defended Manchester United's shot, the central defender quickly passed the ball forward. Manchester United's central defender Pallister pressed near the midline at this time, but was quickly passed by the opponent's side forward with a fake move when he tried to steal the ball. Everton's counterattack became a one-on-one attack, and the striker dribbled into the penalty area. Schmeichel was unstoppable when he came out to meet him, and the opponent easily shot in the penalty area, and the Red Devils fell behind 0-2!

The Red Devils were in very poor form in this game, while Everton played with full confidence. Their counterattack tactics were very simple, but they were very effective against the Red Devils. At the last moment, the Red Devils continued to attack fiercely. After Everton successfully defended, he kicked the ball to the front court with a big kick. This clearance was originally not threatening, but Schmeichel made a serious mistake. He ran out of the penalty area and stopped the ball with his chest. At this time, the opponent's forward had not rushed to him, but Schmeichel then waited for the ball to land inexplicably without directly handling it. The opponent's forward approached quickly, and Schmeichel was in a hurry. He had no time to clear the danger and could only be forced to kick the ball with the opponent, hoping to kick the ball faster. The slow Schmeichel was not as fast as the opponent's forward. He watched helplessly as the opponent poked the ball away with his toes and easily scored an empty goal.

Schmeichel was extremely embarrassed at that moment. The halo of European champion and best goalkeeper of the European Cup was shattered to the ground.

After two consecutive defeats, the Red Devils ranked last among the 22 teams. The runner-up last season fell into such a state. Newspapers and television were gloating and making fun of it. Some people on Fleet Street even said that Ferguson was about to enter the countdown to his dismissal. "Ferguson was pressed to the floor and rubbed...", "Ferguson couldn't adapt to the new Premier League. His team was lifeless..."

Ferguson also had a gloomy face when he was interviewed. The huge stadium with his back looked bleak, which made the fans' hearts sink.

In the third league match, Manchester United played against Ipswich. Facing a weak team, the Red Devils were still in poor form, and after much difficulty, they managed to tie Ipswich 1:1 with a long shot from Irwin.

After three league games, the Red Devils only had one point. This was a terrible start, and all the Red Devils players felt tremendous pressure, ready for Ferguson to start the hair dryer at any time, ready to be criticized. Even the members of the Red Devils coaching team did not know how terrifying Ferguson was when he got angry.

Ten minutes after the game, Ferguson approached Paul McGuinness, the youth training director, and said, "Give me Paul Gibson's home phone number."

"what?"

While Paul was still confused, Ferguson had already called Gibson's parents to start a conversation. The topic started with the U16 goalkeeper's broken nose in a match earlier that day, and then went into Gibson's training and growth in the Red Devils, as well as various fragments of his life, some interesting stories about the Red Devils' youth training, and his analysis and hopes for Gibson's future growth.

Gibson's parents are also die-hard fans of the Red Devils. They were deeply disturbed and repeatedly checked with Ferguson what had happened until they were sure that everything was fine. Gibson's father said, "We couldn't believe that it was Ferguson on the other end of the phone at that time. So many things happened in the first team, we couldn't believe that Ferguson would call us specifically for this matter."

"We were surprised and delighted, and we couldn't believe it for a long time. It was a long time later, even after the end of the season when we won the championship, that I thought that Ferguson might need to talk to someone and relieve his depressed emotions. We certainly hoped to comfort him, but we didn't think about it at the time. What shocked us was that Ferguson didn't complain. He was very familiar with our children and said a lot of encouraging words. His concern was not pretended, but real and sincere."

After chatting with the parents of the young players, Ferguson returned to preparing for the league.