Driven to the end

Alex Ferguson is a knight of the realm, rich beyond his dreams, revered and respected the world over, yet his approach to life and work remain unchanged from when he first rolled up his sleeves in the Clydeside shipyards of the 1960s.

Hard graft, pride in your work, respect for your colleagues and a refusal to back down when you feel you are right were the values Ferguson learned as a boy in the tough streets of post-war Glasgow and which were honed as an apprentice tool-maker in one of the most unforgiving work environments imaginable.

The challenge of gelling the competing egos of his current multimillionaire-playing staff might seem light years from when he set out on his 39-year managerial adventure as part-time boss of minor Scottish club East Stirling, but the values he established from the start remain in place now.

Known as a hard taskmaster, few have crossed him and stayed around long enough to tell the tale, but at the heart of his success is his pure and enduring love of the game.

At 71, with an army of staff at his disposal, Ferguson is still the first to arrive at United's training ground.

He may not now have such a hands-on role in terms of coaching but his presence is everywhere.

He displays the same boyish enthusiasm, whether watching the latest crop of 16-year-old hopefuls among a scattering of friends and family, or overseeing the first team in a Champions League clash watched by hundreds of millions of fans the world over.

Many of those viewers, and United fans whose memories begin with the advent of the Premier League in 1992, will probably never fully understand the depth of the fundamental and surely permanent transformation in the club's fortunes brought about by Ferguson.

Today, United bestride the game on and off the pitch, their worldwide brand ensuring a torrent of income that enables an ever-changing playing staff to win trophy after trophy.

In a sport where managers, even successful ones, have a mayfly lifespan, Ferguson's reign of more than 26 years is nothing short of astonishing.

He has been knighted and honoured by people and institutions the world over, and sits proudly at the top table of the most influential people ever to have had a hand in the sport that dominates every corner of the planet.

Ferguson will walk away from Old Trafford having won 26 major trophies and having established such a level of consistency that United have never finished outside the top three in the Premier League.

Yet when he arrived from Aberdeen to replace Ron Atkinson in November 1986, United were a very different animal.

Not only had they gone 19 years without winning the league, they had barely challenged for it.

Only five top-three finishes, and of course the ignominy of relegation in 1974, underlined that decline.

Despite being the best-supported club in the country, and arguably the most famous in the world, they had only a handful of FA Cups to show for their efforts and were just not a powerful force.

Ferguson certainly had pedigree in breaking down the established order, having ended the dominance of Celtic and Rangers in Scottish football with his remarkable transformation of Aberdeen, which culminated in their beating Real Madrid to win the European Cup- Winners' Cup in 1983.

England proved a tougher nut to crack, however, as Liverpool remained top dogs, ably supported by Everton and then Arsenal.

Finishing second in his first full season in charge in 1986/87 proved something of a false dawn, as 11th and 13th in subsequent campaigns put him in danger of being sacked for the second time in his career, following his dismissal by St Mirren in his fledgling days.

Ferguson was trying to build a base, shipping out some established and popular players in his bid to instil his values and remove the drinking and gambling culture that he knew was undermining the club's prospects, but United's patience was not bottomless.

He showed too that there was no room for sentiment, dropping goalkeeper Jim Leighton, one of the stalwarts of his Aberdeen days who followed him south, for the replay of the cup final against Crystal Palace.

Nobody was too big to go, whether for past-their-best footballing reasons or if Ferguson felt they were getting too big for their boots, as the likes of long-time player Roy Keane, mega-brand David Beckham and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy all discovered.