Everyone are talking about the way Manchester United build their great winning formula on the fact that they kept faith in Sir Alex Ferguson, but Sir Alex himself had to use and used rotation and change as a weapon to keep him fresh and always be sure that no one around him had a safe place.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhen he first arrived at Mancheter United he enganged Archie Knox as his assistant. Knox had no real experience from the English game and was with Sir Alex at Aberdeen and moving with his “boss” down to Manchester. Knox stayed with Manchester United for the next five years and left Old Trafford to take up a position as assitant at Glasgow Rangers.
Brian Kidd was pushed up from the youth team and took on the vacant position under Sir Alex Ferguson and a new era could begin, and the first Premier League season ever in 1992/93 was also the first time since 1967 that Manchester United lifted the top league trophy.
Brian Kidd also nursed forward some of his recruits from the youth system with players such as Paul Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville together with Ryan Giggs and David Beckham became the backbone of a team that for many years would be trophy hunters in the PL.
Kidd stayed in the role until 1998 and just a season before the next big moment in the clubs history, winning the first Champions League and for the 2nd time lifting the European Cup major trophy. with a certain Steve McClaren entering the scene as assistant after being seen as one of the best coaching talents in the game.
Embed from Getty ImagesMcClaren’s time at Manchester United was phenomenal and in his first season he was part of a treble winning title group, and his cleverness as coach and assistant had earlier been acknowledged and seen by Sir Alex at Oxford United and Derby County. McClaren was as Brian Kidd lured away with a possible chance to get his big breakthrough in management, moving up to Middlesbrough to take charge at The Riverside Stadium.
When Sir Alex searched for his next man of assistance he went abroad and the name Carlos Queiroz appeared. Queiroz had a broad experience and had in his prior jobs been in charge of Portugal, South Africa and The United Arabs and also been the boss at Sporting Lisbon, Nagoya Grampus Eight and New York Metro Stars. A real globetrotter with a grand football experience took the club into a new era and the contact of the club became more World orientated.
Queiroz was of course a key man when adding Cristiano Ronaldo to the club as Queiroz was a Portuguese himself and of course having a previous life as national coach and manager of the club Ronaldo joined from Sporting Lisbon. This move might not have happened without Querioz in the background of that special affair.
The respect of the job done by Queiroz was at a level so high that Real Madrid came knocking on the door for his services, and you seldom seen that club go abroad to hire an assistant to take charge of their team. But that might have been a bit of a mistake for the club with Queiroz back at Manchester United a year later, and with experienced Walter Smith stepping in to take his place in the time he was gone. Queiroz left Manchester United in 2008 to take over as manager of Portugal for a second time.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter Queiroz Sir Alex had seen the influence of a foreign character and hired Rene Muelensteen and he was eager to again work for Manchester United as he had done before in academy roles and it was an expierienced coach with a former life at the club that returned after a brief spell in Denmark with Brondy. Muelensteen had previously been at the club from 2001 to 2006 and now he did see out another long stint staying on from 2007 to 2013.
Mike Phelan was also among the ment behind Sir Alex Ferguson at the time and the former player at the club did have the role as assistant with Muelensteen being title head coach. Both Phelan and Muelensteen must be regarded as doing a proper job, and strangely David Moyes did not want that team to continue when he arrived and took over from Sir Alex Ferguson.
Embed from Getty ImagesToday Mike Phelan is back at Manchester United assisting Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but his role has been a bit out watered with other heads also being close to OGS.
The fact that Sir Alex did change his coaching staff and manager assistants during his years as the main man at Old Trafford might have given him both a challenge and at the same time a great thrill as the team moved forward and players were recruited and this of course shows an interesting aspect around the talk about continuity and change.