If Ferguson had said no to United, who would/could have replaced Ron Atkinson?

horsechoker

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Were United linked to any other managers around the time Fergie came?

If Fergie had said no, who could have taken over from Atkinson?
 
David Moyes Sr
 
LawCharltonBest said:
George Graham
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It seems Graham was at Arsenal 6 months before Fergie came to United. I heard Arsenal were interested in Ferguson so we could have had swapped managers.

Then in the 90s, Wenger comes from Japan to become United manager to battle Fergie's arse.
 
When I put his name to the other directors, there was no one in disagreement. Mike Edelson suggested we should perhaps consider Terry Venables, but I’d made up my mind on Alex and was backed by the board.
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As per Martin Edwards. I believe Venables had just left Barca at the time, so would have been an obvious alternative candidate.
 
sullydnl said:
As per Martin Edwards. I believe Venables had just left Barca at the time, so would have been an obvious alternative candidate.
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Venables stayed until the end of the 86/87 season but the last year was tumultuous so I am sure he would have been on the list.

Cruyff had just started at Ajax and could have also been an option.
 
JBG said:
Erik One Hag
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Well done, he was 16 in 1986

Red Star One said:
I don’t know much about ancient football, Endrick would surely come up with a good answer
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:lol:

sullydnl said:
As per Martin Edwards. I believe Venables had just left Barca at the time, so would have been an obvious alternative candidate.
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Yeah that would make sense

Stobzilla said:
Cruyff had just started at Ajax and could have also been an option.
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That's an alternate timeline I'd like to have seen. Was England ready for total football?
 
I was 12 at the time just started going to matches the season before he got sacked was when we had the 10 straight wins.

I can't remember the speculation as to who else they might have gone for, as we only had newspapers and teletext to go off really.

Just remember it was announced it was Fergie and as we all know it wasn't good for a while especially 89 looking back a lot of similarities to now.(No, I'm certainly not advocating EtH should be given more time like Fergie was!)
 
horsechoker said:
Well done, he was 16 in 1986
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This is his great, great, great grandfather... hence Ten Hag, they triple the amount in the middle name per generation.

Edit: can't believe I've used up 2 of my daily posts for a horrible joke, but here we are, the stuff you do when you are out shopping with the missus and bored.
 
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sullydnl said:
As per Martin Edwards. I believe Venables had just left Barca at the time, so would have been an obvious alternative candidate.
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I remember reading that some years later would of made a lot of sense.
 
Stobzilla said:
Venables stayed until the end of the 86/87 season but the last year was tumultuous so I am sure he would have been on the list.

Cruyff had just started at Ajax and could have also been an option.
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Aye, I just saw another quote saying that Maurice Watkins (a club solicitor and later director) had actually recommended Ferguson to Barcelona when the Barca vice-President called asking if they could recommend any coaches to potentially replace Venables. Then a few months later United hired Ferguson themselves.

So Venables was obviously in trouble for a while before he finally left.
 
Probably give him a couple more games until the next international break.
 
Amir said:
I don't think foreign coaches were a thing at the time.
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He would have been the first for sure. But I think he wouldn't have been met with as much suspicion in the same way Jozef Venglos eventually was, as Cruyff had been on English TV as a pundit a few times and already knew the language etc.
 
Clough would never have been accepted by the United board given his enmity towards his employers ar Derby.There were lots of successful English managers at the time. Some mentioned above but also Howard Kendall, David Pleat as well as John Toshack (welsh). Player managers were en vogue (Daglish at Liverpool and Souness at Rangers) so Robson could have been a contender.

Jim Mclean at Dundee Utd was the other obvious British contender given his domestic and European achievements on a shoestring budget. He was miles ahead of his time on player fitness/well being.
 
Strachan8 said:
Clough would never have been accepted by the United board given his enmity towards his employers ar Derby.There were lots of successful English managers at the time. Some mentioned above but also Howard Kendall, David Pleat as well as John Toshack (welsh). Player managers were en vogue (Daglish at Liverpool and Souness at Rangers) so Robson could have been a contender.

Jim Mclean at Dundee Utd was the other obvious British contender given his domestic and European achievements on a shoestring budget. He was miles ahead of his time on player fitness/well being.
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Great background. I was only born in 87. How about Bobby Robson? I guess back then it would have been just as controversial were he to have left England especially after what Revie did although didn't he take enormous stick from the media?
 
Wonder why Bobby Robson never mentioned, both managed at Mexican world cup,
 
Terry Venables and Ale Ferguson was the two linked before the 1986/87 season started. Big Ron's was sacked the day after a 4-1 home defeat and league cup exit to Southampton and Ferguson was appointed 24 hours later. They don't work that swiftly anymore...
 
Edwards had wanted Ferguson since ‘84. Venables was mentioned but there was no one else really in the running. It was Fergie or stick with Big Ron.
I went to both Ron’s last game and Fergie’s first. It was a shame making the change but it had to be done. Our decision making in spending the Hughes money was poor, but our football fell off a cliff and something had to be done.

Just wish Charlton would have supplemented Ferguson’s arrival with approving wages for Butcher and Lineker. I’d have certainly enjoyed the second half of the eighties better for sure!
 
Speako said:
Edwards had wanted Ferguson since ‘84. Venables was mentioned but there was no one else really in the running. It was Fergie or stick with Big Ron.
I went to both Ron’s last game and Fergie’s first. It was a shame making the change but it had to be done. Our decision making in spending the Hughes money was poor, but our football fell off a cliff and something had to be done.

Just wish Charlton would have supplemented Ferguson’s arrival with approving wages for Butcher and Lineker. I’d have certainly enjoyed the second half of the eighties better for sure!
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Interesting. I’ve heard that United weren’t even doing badly under Big Ron, until the run of form that saw him get the sack, so it’s not really a surprise nobody else was in the frame.
 
John Lyall was West Ham manager at the time and they were playing well, a bit like Atkinsons Baggies. It would have been someone like him, if not Fergie.
 
As others have said….Venables. I was really young at the time but I remember my Dad having a debate with a friend of his who wanted Venables as the new manager. This was before Big Ron was sacked, but a sacking looked on the cards. I remember my Dad extolling the virtues of SAF. One of a very short list of things I ended up revering my father for.
 
Ferguson was tapped up by Charlton at the World Cup as the writing was on the wall for Atkinson even though he started the next season. Venables was strongly linked.

When Atkinson was sacked I had hoped Kendal would come in and bring Lineker. What the hell did I know?
 
geelong said:
Was Brian Clough ever mentioned to take over?
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Yes when Atkinson got the job, but the word was already out by 83 that Clough was on the bottle and way past his best. No chance by 86 when everyone knew he was a car wreck
 
Amazing really that Ferguson's Aberdeen beat Real Madrid in a European final in 1983 and he was still with the club 3 years later.

Different times, but if a manager achieved anything like that with a Scottish club now, he'd be snapped up by a big English club that summer!
 
Venables was an outstanding coach and man manager, but he wasn't a disciplinarian and had a "boys will be boys" attitude to players' behaviour. I don't think he's what United needed at the time.

The team would have probably played great football, maybe won a few cups under him, but I don't think the underlying drinking culture of the club would have been tackled like it was under Fergie.
 
Fr. Todd Unctious said:
Venables or Bobby Robson probably


I'm almost certain Edwards said previously that Robson was someone they were looking at.
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They may have looked but there was never any chance that Robson would have left the England job and they must have know that
 
Oscar Bonavena said:
Amazing really that Ferguson's Aberdeen beat Real Madrid in a European final in 1983 and he was still with the club 3 years later.

Different times, but if a manager achieved anything like that with a Scottish club now, he'd be snapped up by a big English club that summer!
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Di Matteo stayed at Chelsea without moving to a top club, though.
 
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