The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 252 A Brand New World

"The Premier League is not a continuation of the English First Division. It is a brand new league, a game that emphasizes pace and visual effects, and a top show that is moving towards infinite excitement."

--Inscription

The first season of the Premier League was so spectacular that not only the Manchester United fans were excited, but ordinary fans were also very excited.

The new season is full of differences. The Premier League changed its positioning from the beginning, with cool packaging, topic creation, improved broadcast image quality, commentary more like debate rather than introduction, large-scale renovation of various stadiums... The Premier League has been packaged into a big show, a gorgeous stage.

The entire Premier League season is full of attraction, with exciting games, full of suspense, and many gimmicks and highlights. Fans get more, and more fans join in.

The new Premier League brought a new champion, which was an unexpected event. Ferguson won the first Premier League title, which was also the first top league title won by the Red Devils in more than 26 years. The competition for this championship was so thrilling, and the ups and downs of the standings and the suspense of the championship attracted enough attention.

Ferguson's Red Devils got off to a bad start this season. By the 10th round of the league, they had been left behind in the top group of the standings. Various media commentators had already declared that they had "no hope of winning the championship", and even Ferguson himself was booed "out of class". At that time, there were many heroes outside the Red Devils, and the championship situation was very different. New championship contenders appeared, including Villa, Norwich, and Blackburn, which were previously unknown teams. The defending champion Leeds United's championship last season was also largely accidental, and it was not Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and other giants. The Premier League season was a chaotic process from the beginning to the end, and the original traditional giants were sidelined. The championship competition in the standings has always been very fierce, with several teams occupying the top position many times, and different teams overtaking points many times, and the entanglement situation almost lasted until the end.

The Red Devils had a tough time in the early part of the season, and it was not until the winter when Cantona was bought that they began to feel proud. After Cantona led the team to a series of victories, Ferguson's team stood out in the melee and took the initiative. It was not until the last two games of the league that the Red Devils ended the suspense and took advantage of Villa's mistakes to win the championship in advance.

Ferguson could finally hold his head high and proudly face the media's cameras and the broadcast cameras of Sky Sports. The red of the Red Devils finally overwhelmed the red of Arsenal and Liverpool, becoming the most dazzling and eye-catching color in the new era of the Premier League. Whether it was the blue of Manchester City or the blue of Everton and Chelsea, whether it was the white of Leeds United or the stripes of Sheffield, or the black and white of Newcastle, they were all just a foil to the red of the Red Devils.

Ferguson could easily face all the questions and doubts from the media, because the championship was his biggest reliance. Why did he play 433--? Why did he bring in Cantona? Why couldn't he buy Gascoigne? Why was he rejected by Shearer? Why did he reuse a Danish goalkeeper? Why did he buy an Eastern European player? Why did he give his son a chance to start?

......

Endless questions can now be answered directly by a champion.

In the arena, victory is the best answer and championship is the greatest confidence.

The funniest question was about Ferguson's tactics and starting lineup. This was really ironic and funny to Ferguson. The media had previously criticized and ridiculed the Red Devils' lineup, but when they won the championship, they turned into all kinds of flattery and flattery. Giggs was once questioned for only being able to run faster and change direction, Hughes was once criticized for not being able to find the direction of the goal, Robson was also once ridiculed for not being able to walk, and Kanchelskis was even carrying the shackles from Eastern Europe... Ferguson was once questioned for a long time why he gave up 442, why he let Cantona retreat to play in the midfield, why he didn't take a cross from the wing... Some of the false accusations even turned into the Red Devils getting benefits from the Premier League referee, and Ferguson was blessed by the referee. Many years later, the media created a concept of "Ferguson time", the source of which was directly pointed to the key battle of the Red Devils' reversal of Sheffield Wednesday this season.

Of course, these media are unwilling to admit how many unfair treatments and referees the Red Devils have encountered. They will only emphasize that Ferguson, Edwards and others have exerted special influence, making the Premier League games favor the Red Devils.

The competition is fierce this season. The fear of the Red Devils by the Premier League powers and the fear of the Red Devils by the mid- and lower-level teams did not exist before this season. In addition to the Red Devils, various English clubs have also contributed exciting and fierce battles during the season.

Aston Villa finally won the runner-up, which is an honor and a pity for them. They are considered one of the most entertaining teams in the league, and their performance is even more gorgeous and exquisite than that of the Red Devils. Villa's games are fast-paced and open and fierce. The players have both the bravery and violence of the English football style and the fast, simple and fresh style of European continental football, which makes people feel very enjoyable. Villa advocates offense, and they have played many games with big scores. The process of fast offense and defense and active offense fascinates the fans.

Villa is just like Leeds United last season, a dark horse. They are very active in attacking, always holding high the banner of attack, pursuing rapid advancement, and actively attacking. Like the Red Devils, they have become the source of charm of the Premier League that season. Dean Saunders and Darian Atkinson in Villa are the most lethal striker combination. They cooperate well and complement each other. They have scored the most goals in the league, much more than the combination of Cantona and Mark Hughes of the Red Devils. Their brilliance once surpassed the legendary shooter of the league. Villa's central defender "Irish Black Pearl" Paul McGrath (yes, the drunkard that Ferguson sold to Villa at a bargain price) still maintains a high level and performs very steadily, becoming the most critical defensive backbone. He has realized the harm of alcoholism and has gradually returned to normal and played stably on the court. He often turned the tide by himself and played a pillar of strength. His performance even surpassed the star defenders of other teams and Cantona, who was even more popular in the second half of the season. He was named Footballer of the Year by the Professional Footballers' Association of England.

Although Villa played many classic games and many stars in the team performed very well, due to the weakness of the team's lineup and the tight schedule of the season, Villa collapsed at the last moment and failed to prevent the Red Devils from winning the Premier League title.

Not only Villa, the sudden rise of Norwich City is also surprising. This team, which can definitely be called a small team, is hard to believe. Norwich, a team that almost got relegated the year before, actually topped the table four months after the start of the season and led the pack by 4 points. If it weren't for the lack of ambition and the team's loss of motivation, it would have been a real dark horse. Even so, Norwich finally ranked third in the league! Not only that, many Premier League teams stood out. The Royal Garden Rangers finally made it into the top 8, surpassing traditional powerhouses such as Arsenal, Tottenham, and Chelsea, ranking first among London teams.

Blackburn Rovers, another new team, attracted much attention. They finished fourth, surpassing many old English teams. Although they did not win the championship, it was an exciting achievement for a team that had just entered the top league to beat Liverpool and Arsenal. The huge improvement made the boss very happy and decided to further increase investment in the new season.

The champion is new, the runner-up is new, and even the top teams do not include traditional giants. The first season of the Premier League has brought enough new ideas to the fans.

The Red Devils were the team that won the most in the first season of the Premier League. The team won the league title, Ferguson was elected Coach of the Year, Giggs won Rookie of the Year for the second time, and Schmeichel, Mark Hughes, Giggs and Cantona were members of the Premier League's best team. Cantona also became the first superstar in English history to win the league title with different clubs for two consecutive years. He was named the best in the Premier League by reporters.

Competition in the Premier League is extremely fierce in every aspect. Due to the injection of sky-high broadcasting fees, the Premier League's revenue far exceeds that of the next level league, so keeping a seat has become the biggest goal of the bottom teams. The relegation teams all tried their best for this. The last round of the relegation battle was full of drama. In all 11 games, 47 goals were scored! The "nerve knife" Alderford team (an offensive team, although ranked 4th from the bottom, but the number of goals ranked 3rd in the league!) defeated Southampton 4-3 and successfully overwhelmed Crystal Palace, which had the same points, with 2 more goals. Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest became the three unlucky ones who were relegated.

Shooters competed for the Golden Boot. Tottenham Hotspur's Sheringham scored 22 goals and won the title of top scorer. But only 22 of these 21 goals belonged to Tottenham, and the other one belonged to his former club Nottingham Forest before the transfer. In this Premier League season, Alan Shearer, who set a record for transfer fees, became the darling of the media. The striker, who officially transferred from Southampton to Blackburn for 330 million pounds, performed very well, scored 16 goals, and became a new generation of striker killer. Shearer has an excellent physique, a calm mind, a good header, a strong foot, and a sharp edge. This season, he also won the main striker position of England and was highly expected by the Three Lions and English fans.

Outside of the league, Arsenal won the FA Cup and League Cup - the king of kings in London proved his strength in other fields. Although the Gunners were only in the middle of the league, they proved their strength in the cup competitions. Some were happy and some were sad. In the finals of the FA Cup and the League Cup, the Gunners defeated Sheffield Wednesday. The poor Sheffield Wednesday became a spectator at Wembley Stadium, becoming the bleak background of the Gunners' coronation.

At that time, Arsenal was still an iron-blooded team under Graham. Winning the double championship also made Arsenal a "double champion", the first team to win two cup championships in a season. Arsenal's playing style is very famous and highly recognizable, but it is completely different from the Arsenal in Wenger's era and the current Premier League. Graham ruled the team with an iron fist, creating an Arsenal team with a strong style of play, tough playing style, and extremely fierce. They are known as the "lumber mill", a water of woodcutting kings. Arsenal players rely on their physical strength and speed, collisions and ferocity to be stronger than the entire Premier League, and overwhelm teams such as Wimbledon and West Ham United that also rely on physical strength. Arsenal has long been competing with Liverpool, relying on extremely strong defense and direct and fierce offense. They always go directly to the body and rush and kill. Arsenal, with Adams as the captain and five veterans in the back defense, has always been a very difficult opponent for Ferguson. Even in the 80s when Liverpool dominated, Arsenal won two league titles from 1986 to 1990!

Under Graham, Arsenal was disciplined and executed their tactics very well. Their conservative triumphism made their games boring. In the face of a large group of lumberjacks at Arsenal, who committed fouls, the tactical coordination was not that great. Graham forged the steel defense of the Arsenal, often using superb offside tactics, and was a steel defense that was famous all over the world. Although this defense has lost some of its luster in the Premier League era, everyone will be in awe of it when they remember their terrifying record of only losing one league game in the 1990-1991 season!

Even in the 92-93 season, Arsenal's defense was still impressive. No one expected that the "Wall of Sighs", the strongest in Europe, would remain as strong as before, but Graham's days at the helm of the Gunners were over.

The red whirlwind is surging, the old powerhouses are silent, and the new elites are rising. This is the Premier League. The new league has exploded with powerful energy and has become a show that everyone is looking forward to.