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Thursday 8th January 2009 Make us your HOME PAGE  What is RSS?
 

FOOTBALL

A KNIGHT TO REMEMBER

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Sir Alex Ferguson: United's inspiration

Sunday May 25,2008

Chief Football Correspondent JOHN RICHARDSON was in Moscow to hear Champions League winners Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand reveal the secrets of United’s success

If Wayne Rooney needed any inspiration for his forthcoming wedding speech, then it came from within the Luzhniki Stadium – words which lifted the hairs on the back of his neck.

Chelsea boss Avram Grant may have portraits of leaders like Winston Churchill, Gandhi and Martin Luther King to motivate him, but Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson simply delves into his vast resources of experience and energy to light up a dressing room.

Rooney was still wearing his Champions League winners’ medal when he revealed the drive and vision of his 66-year-old manager.

“His desire to win after all these years is just unbelievable. All the trophies prove how good he is,” Rooney said. 

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His desire to win after all these years is just unbelievable
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Wayne Rooney


“Just listening to him before we went out to face Chelsea was unbelievable. It made the hairs stand up on the back of my head. You have to respect him.

“It was a big moment before we went out. With all his experience you have to listen to him. He really inspired us to go out there and do the business.

“I won’t reveal the actual words because that has to remain in the dressing room but it was great to listen.”

Ferguson celebrates his 22nd anniversary as United boss in November, so how can it get better for this venerable pensioner?
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Maybe it is time to ride away into the sunset and indulge in his passion for horseracing?

Rooney’s incredulous look at that suggestion prefaces this answer: “I very much doubt he is going to walk away right now.

“He enjoys coming to work every day. He enjoys passing his knowledge down to the younger players. I can’t see him walking away.

“There are a lot of young players here keen to learn from him. What an example. 

“In training every day he is on the pitch laughing, smiling, joking. He is really happy. He has been fantastic for me.”

Rooney might have arrived from Everton as a £27million investment but he was Old Mother Hubbard when it came to medals and trophies.

He added: “I won the Carling Cup a few years ago with United, then I wanted to win more trophies.

“I have managed to do that in the last couple of years. This is what you play for and hopefully there will be more to come.”

Rooney will marry childhood sweetheart Coleen next month in Italy. He pointed to his prized Champions League medal and  smiled: “This is a nice wedding present. You could say it’s the first one.” Don’t be surprised if it’s still hanging around his neck when he goes down the aisle in Portofino.

“Of course I want more success. There are a lot of young players here who are still finding their feet and will get better and better,” he said. “This team will get better because the ability and the potential are definitely there.”

Ferguson intends staying around for a while yet. Despite the huge age gap, the way he shared the banter and the hugs with Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo in Moscow’s driving rain – way past his normal bedtime – proved what special glue holds this special team together.

Rio Ferdinand said: “I think the manager was calmer for this game than before the semi-final against Barcelona. That is experience for you and I think that helped the players.

“I think he is the best manager ever to have worked in Britain. It is a pleasure to play for him.”

In addition to that stirring team-talk, the build-up to United’s big night had involved watching the last Champions League success in 1999.
 
Ferdinand added: “He let us watch a video of the 1999 team and showed us that it’s not easy because they had a bit of luck that night as well. If you’ve got the bottle to do it, you get your luck.”

So was this penalty shoot-out success more dramatic than the late, late show against Bayern Munich in Barcelona?

“Hell, yeah!” Ferdinand replied. “I think Ferguson’s heartrate must have gone up a few times.

“But this is what we play football for. People talk about all the stuff surrounding football and the upside to being a player, with all the money that is involved. 

“But there is no amount of money that can buy the feeling we have now.” 


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