My take on why the above picture was never likely to occur, as published in the August Edition of the Gooner MagazineImage if you will a parallel universe, as described by walking Jimmy Greaves Scots Goalkeeping cliché Jim Leighton. It’s May 14th 1986 and in strolling through the doors of the marble halls, on their way to an awaiting press are two Scotsmen. One is making a long awaited return to the scene of the greatest triumphs of his footballing career after a 14 year exile. He is fresh from transforming Millwall from the brink of the fourth tier of English football and put them on a course which would eventually result in their only ever outing at English football’s top table by the end of the 1980s. The other is a former shop steward of the Clyde shipyards, fresh from breaking the Celtic-Rangers duopoly on the Scottish title (a duopoly that would resume on his exit) and establishing Aberdeen as a major domestic and European trophy winning outfit. He is also on his way to the Mexico 86 World Cup with the Scottish national side, a placement which will terminate with Scotland’s exit from the tournament for Ferguson to take up his post with the Arsenal and lead Arsenal into a brave new era.
The above scenario however never did come to pass. Though Graham did arrive here in May 1986 Fergie obviously didn’t and later took up the offer to lead another iconic English footballing institution roughly 6 months later. However the thought of a Ferguson/Graham double act would certainly have been a cause for great optimism for Arsenal fans starved of success in 1986 and judging from Richard Buxcey’s online Gooner article in June(http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=1203) it’s one that relatively success starved Gooners of the present day would ponder while looking on in envy after watching Ferguson march to a second hat-trick of titles in less than 10 years. However my own take on this vision is that had the above scenario come to pass, the Arsenal of today would be a very different outfit, but not necessarily for the better. Buxcey claims in his article that ‘Part of me thinks that maybe he had an even stronger platform from which to start here, than that he had when he took the reins at Old Trafford. The basis of the ‘89 title winners was already in place in 86/87’. This is a point I strongly disagree with.
An imperious Fergie North of the Border, alongside his United predecessor who contrary to folk myth also had some silverware of his own to parade.
In the summer of 1986 there was far more of a transformation required at Highbury than at Old Trafford. Ferguson, like George Graham at Highbury had taken over a club where many of it’s biggest stars were embroiled in an after hours drinking culture, however despite 19 years without a league title (a gap of only 4 years longer than our own at the time) they had won two of the three cup finals that they had reached in the previous four seasons. Contrast this with Arsenal in 1986 who had not won a trophy or reached a final for 6 years, they had in fact won only 1 trophy since the double of 1971. Despite the fact we had several international players on the books it was blatantly obvious that Arsenal Football Club were deeply mired in a culture of underachievement by this point.
Despite Ron Atkinson’s poor start to the 1986/87 season (which began with a 1-0 defeat at Highbury in August) the United squad had a great deal of strength to it. They had started the season before winning all of their first ten games, which is still a top flight record to this day. Amongst the United squad at this point had been often injured, but still no less vital, captain marvel Bryan Robson. Also among their squad were players eventually sold by Fergie who had continued to be effective at the top level into the 1990s, such as Gordon Strachan, Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran. United also had the talents of Norman Whiteside and Jesper Olsen starring at Mexico 86 the previous summer, as well as the reliable and experienced former Gooner Frank Stapleton. Despite being bottom of the table United were a still a strong squad on Fergie’s arrival, with many players who had recent experience of winning trophies, yet Fergie still took 4 seasons to win his first silverware at Old Trafford.
It’s very easy to forget Fergie’s standing in English football as the 1980s drew to a close. He was at this point in grave danger being the managerial equivalent of Charlie Nicholas, in that once he had came to England he had started to look a pale shadow of the imperious and all conquering figure he been north of the border. In Fergie’s first four seasons at Old Trafford United had only finished in the top ten once and outside of their victorious 1990 FA Cup run posed no challenge in cup competition whatsoever. In this clip here Ferguson is quick to less than subtly remind Sky Sports reporter Geoff Shreeves of this less than glorious period in his reign at Old Trafford (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1r1av1Shn4).
By May 1990 Fergie had spent £12.9 Million in transfer fees and recouped £3.1 Million in players sold, equaling a net loss of £9.8 Million. Compare this to George Graham who had picked up his first trophy 11 months into the job, who had only paid out £75,000 for Perry Groves and had recouped £1.2 Million from sales, equaling a net gain of £1.125 Million. Ferguson’s route to success had been a costly one that the Arsenal of May 1986 could not afford, especially if you take into account an alleged debt of £1 Million and crowds regularly under 20,000. Man Utd in contrast had average attendances regularly around 40,000 and were even back then the most supported club in the country.
One major benefit that Arsenal had had with regard to saving on transfers at this point had been the produce of our youth system, which had came into fruition under Graham. Would Fergie have got the same results with such raw talent? Richard Buxcey highlights his 90s fledglings as testament to Fergie’s abilities in this field; however here too Fergie had also been a late bloomer. His original fledglings of the late 80s had also been tipped for great things; however are Russell Beardsmore and Mark Robins held in the same esteem as Adams or Rocastle? Until the emergence of Ryan Giggs, Ferguson had no reputation for developing young talent whatsoever and preferred to buy big name stars for big money.
Of course it goes without saying that Ferguson did eventually rise up to easily become the most successful manager of his era, largely due to the faith and persistence of the United board despite fans remaining largely unconvinced about Ferguson right up until his first title in 1993. Would the Arsenal board have given as much time for Ferguson to have come good? Richard Buxcey believes so citing the faith in Wenger after a fourth potless season. However the faith is accorded to Wenger due to past successes at the club. There isn’t any real modern precedent of Arsenal remaining as faithful to a manager trophyless from the inception of his reign, for as long as United did without wielding the axe. It’s also highly doubtful that a man as ruthlessly ambitious as George Graham would have remained as Ferguson’s number two to wait patiently for his chance at Highbury and in all likelihood we would also have lost the man who did turn out to be our real savior in the late 80s.
In all likelihood therefore if Ferguson were appointed manager of Arsenal in 1986 it may well have been yet another false dawn for the Highbury faithful. It too may have been disastrous for Fergie, as failure at Arsenal may well have soiled his reputation south of the border and seen him return to what became a far less competitive Scottish league once David Murray’s millions became a factor at Ibrox. Thankfully in hindsight it looks like both Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson collectively dodged a bullet with this one.
Lest we forget that from the same era as the above, this had also occurred......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3SoLyyNOGk
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