Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography to be published on 24 October

I'm still enjoying it. About a third of the way in.

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The story with Fergie getting rinsed by Bryan Robson as they were watching Scholes in the youth side is funny.
 
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After reading his views on center backs and him saying he was eyeing Hummels, I'm now convinced that we had some sort of agreement in place for Garay and there was some truth to the stories over the summer.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Don't think you get many of them nowadays, people, especially football managers don't have the time to write them. You wonder if he was making notes of his thoughts or if Paul Hayward asked him loads of questions and the book was compiled. Would Sir Alex have spoken about some of the people he did or was he only answering Hayward's questions.
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I have heard about how they do these sorts of jobs. Talked to a so called ghostwriter at a dinner once. It's a very complicated process with a lot of short meetings. First they try to establish what they want to portrait. The ghostwriter makes some second source research (newspapers, tv) and try to pick out what would be interesting to get the "full story" about - in SAF's book you could mention the Beckham shoe incident.
During the brief meetings they have the ghostwriter will ask questions related to a given article and record these answers on a dictaphone. The ghostwriter presents an idea on how to make his client appear the way he intend with his book. It could be a moment of surprise by showing a softer side of a person by dismantle the picture given by media. People tend to fall for open, soft and humble moments if the person being portraited has a different persona presented in the forms we supporters get to know them. Many people also imagine it to be only the ghostwriter and his client - this is all wrong. If it's a high profile name you'll also have to work together with that persons advisors. So yeah, at the end of the day a person like SAF is mainly asked a bunch of questions.
 
Planned on getting this for my dad for christmas, but from everything I've heard I don't think I'll bother. It sounds quite shit to be honest.

Countless factual errors and seemingly petty slagging off of former players makes it seem like the book was written with the sole intention of making Fergie money.
 
Can't say factual errors or slagging off got on my nerves. I just thought it was dull and poorly written to be honest. Pretty standard football autobiography.
 
Paddy Wong Un 147 said:
Planned on getting this for my dad for christmas, but from everything I've heard I don't think I'll bother. It sounds quite shit to be honest.

Countless factual errors and seemingly petty slagging off of former players makes it seem like the book was written with the sole intention of making Fergie money.
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It should've been better. Managing My Life was far better. But not getting your dad the book because of this seems a bit over the top, because the book is very interesting. Of course it is. And funny.

There are factual errors, but there's nothing to get angry about (or asking for a refund for) because of that. And he's not slagging of former players. He's giving insight into people's character (from his viewpoint, obviously). Beckham (to give an example) comes quite good out of it, Ferguson clearly admires him and like him, even though they had disagreements. I think you'd be surprised if you read the book. The most interesting parts of the book haven't been reported by the media, most of them have just written about things that could be controversial (well, you could understand why) in any way. It's less controversial and bad when you read it in the correct context. I'd say that you need to read the book more than most if this is your view of it.

BUT: As I said, it should've been better. The structure isn't great, and Paul Hayward (a journalist I quite like) doesn't seem to have done good enough work with it. It's not as in depth as Managing my Life either, which is a shame. But for all its fault, it's a good read.
 
Paddy Wong Un 147 said:
Planned on getting this for my dad for christmas, but from everything I've heard I don't think I'll bother. It sounds quite shit to be honest.

Countless factual errors and seemingly petty slagging off of former players makes it seem like the book was written with the sole intention of making Fergie money.
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I think it's worth getting it, you seem to have a shitty opinion of it so I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
 
I enjoyed Fergies book.

And I didn't think it was a bitchfest at all. Sure he was critical of some aspects of some players but he's also full of praise for them.

I don't really understand what people want. He doesn't say anything anyone with a brain hasn't suspected for years - Keane got more bitter as he got older, Becks was a celeb whore, Rooneys a slow learner and influenced by his agent - well that's me shocked. I don't think any of them come out of it looking bad but you're not going to go that length in management without having a few high profile fallouts, and having been the subject of so much discussion, I think he has a right to reply.

It's just the usual media drama and, I'd imagine, one or two old grudges towards Fergie. The amount of comment from the usual rent a quote ex pros, about how he shouldn't be saying this or that, before the book was even out, was ridiculous.

I don't do sports books but this was a must, I'm not sure how any Utd fan wouldn't have an interest in the Fergies thoughts on the last15 years or so.
 
Collina said:
BUT: As I said, it should've been better. The structure isn't great, and Paul Hayward (a journalist I quite like) doesn't seem to have done good enough work with it. It's not as in depth as Managing my Life either, which is a shame. But for all its fault, it's a good read.
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Yeah, Hayward's a decent journalist, but he's not in Hugh McIlvanney's league.
 
I'm half way through it and enjoying it very much. It's basically what is said it is: Answers to questions fans would have had over decisions made in the last decade. Beyond what was already published in the media, I found it highly interesting how critical he was with himself over lack of research regarding some of the players we got, from Kleberson to Veron, and doubts over the likes of Hargreaves. Also stories like Van Nistelrooy asking a release clause to Real Madrid in his second season and Heinze asking to leave after one year. Plenty of interesting stuff.
 
Got an award last night from the BBC at SPOTY ceremony. Not sure what the award was I only caught it when they were handing him it.
 
Got this for Christmas, and have to say I'm pretty dissapointed. Its interesting in parts, but just so poorly written. It seems to jump from topic to topic, and almost comes across as the ramblings of a mad man at times. Also, parts of it are clearly not Fergie's direct words, there's quite a lot that seems paraphrased imo. Sentences that just don't sound like Fergie at all.
 
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