Stretford End favorites Norman Whiteside and Paul McGrath were sold because of alcohol problems, they no longer fitted in with the new disciplined attitude Ferguson demanded. They were soon followed by Gordon Strachen, but this clear-out of quality players had a detrimental effect on the team. By January 1990 United were struggling at the foot of the table and chants of "Fergie Out" began to issue from stands and terraces, especially after a humiliating 5-1 defeat at Man City in September 1989.

Martin Edwards always denies it, but Fergie's job was on a knife-edge and it all came to a head in the 3rd Round FA Cup game away to Nottingham Forest. If United lost Fergie would have been sacked, no question about it. If the same situation had occured in today's high pressure football world Fergie would have gone long before then. However, luckily for United, despite a disallowed Forest goal, Mark Robbins struck the winner and United had a narrow 1-0 win.

United went on to put a great run together and win the FA Cup that season, playing every round away from home. After an epic 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace in the final at Wembley, it took a replay where defender Lee Martin scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 victory that gave Ferguson his first Manchester United trophy. Fergie now had some breathing space with the fans and board alike.

1994/95 was anti-climactic, but did see the arrival of striker Andy Cole for £7 million. The title was conceded by one point to Blackburn and the FA Cup Final by a single goal to Everton. There's no doubt United would almost certainly have won a second Double that year had Eric Cantona had not been banned for eight months by the FA after attacking an idiot 'fan' in the crowd at Selhurst Park. Fergie handled the media storm brilliantly and coaxed Eric to stay at United when the whole world seemed against him and the club. The incident showed Fergie's man management skills at their very best.

1995-96 began with fans outrage surrounding the sales of Hughes, Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis over the summer. It prompted more doubting of Ferguson's judgement but he dug in and replaced the departing stars with boys from his youth team. "Fergie's Fledglings" consisted of David Beckham, the Neville Brothers, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, not forgetting the youthful but already first team regular, Ryan Giggs. After an 3-1 defeat on the opening day of the season and Alan Hansen's famous "you'll win nothing with kids" outburst, many pundits thought Fergie and United's glory years were finished.

However, they had all underestimated just how good these "kids" really were. Eight months later this combination of home grown youth talent and the already established stars was unstoppable. They had overhauled big-spending Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United, who at one time had a 14 point Premiership lead. As the Geordies faltered, a superb run of victories between January and April inspired by Eric Cantona's brilliance gave United the title on the final day of the season with a 3-0 win at Middlesbrough. Then, seven days later they did the "Double Double" with a 1-0 FA Cup Final victory over bitter rivals Liverpool - Cantona scored the winner and lifted the cup as Captain, his redemption complete.

Determined to succeed against his new rival in the 1998-99 season Ferguson took a risk and splashed out a combined £23 million on Dwight Yorke and Japp Stam. Playing a brilliant attacking, free-scoring style, United swept all before them on the three fronts of League, FA Cup and Europe. Ferguson's United had strength in depth like no other team, with quality like Solskjaer, Sheringham, Berg, Butt and Blomqvist sitting on the bench.

In the league, the Reds took charge after Christmas and set up a thrilling race to the finish with Arsenal close behind. A superb run in the FA Cup beating great rivals Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal on the way put United in the FA Cup final. In the European Cup Fergie's United, scoring goals everywhere, beat Inter Milan and Juventus to reach the final and set up an unprecedented "Treble".

United clinched the first part of the treble by winning the League title 2-1 against Spurs at Old Trafford on a final, nerve-wrecking day. A week later United beat Newcastle 2-0 in the Cup final to complete an amazing third "Double" in 5 years. Finally the one Ferguson most wanted, the big one, the European Cup. The final in Barcelona saw United take on Bayern Munich. For most of the game United were 1-0 down, until the 90th minute when one of the greatest, if not the greatest comebacks in sporting history saw the reds score two goals in injury time to win 2-1.

Fergie's life-time ambition was achieved, he had done something no British manger had ever done or will likely do again, United were Champions of Europe at last, Champions of England and FA Cup winners all in the one brilliant season. Alex Ferguson soon became Sir Alex Ferguson, receiving a knighthood for his great achievements in the Queen's birthday honours list, a thoroughly well deserved reward for his services to British football.

The first few months were a nightmare for United as defensive problems, individual errors and key players under-performing left the team looking unusually vulnerable. It seemed the shadow of Ferguson's departure was over the team and was affecting the players form. There was too much quality in the side for it to last though and soon United were back on top of the Premiership and on course for Hampden.

In February 2002 Ferguson made a dramatic U-turn, deciding to abandon his retirement plans. In the end it was his wife that helped persuade him, Fergie felt it would be a waste to retire just yet. He was still healthy, that famous hunger for success was still as powerful as ever and his team were reaching their peak. It just didn't make sense to leave. Peter Kenyon and the United PLC breathed a huge sigh of relief for they had no adequate replacement lined up. In short, nobody seemed to want the job because it would be impossible to follow the great man's achievements. Ferguson quickly signed a new contract ensuring another 3 years as United boss and the problem was solved.

Unfortunately, on the pitch the season ended in dire disappointment. In Europe, United went out to Bayer Leverkusen on away goals in the Semi-final, meaning there would be no Glasgow home-coming for Fergie. Despite leading the Premiership for 3 months after January, the early season disasters took their toll on United's campaign. Arsenal took the glory of another Double as they had done so in 1998.

Once again Ferguson's old rival, Arsene Wenger had returned to challenge him but all United fans were sure the man from Govan would strike back with a mighty onslaught designed to put the pretenders in their place.

However the season started badly and the autumn was littered with negatives for the Old Trafford giants. Just about everything appeared to conspire against the club. Eight points from the opening 18 was the worst return since 1989-90. United were treading water while arch-rivals Arsenal and Liverpool were flying. Roy Keane had a valid point; United's players were dangerously entrenched in the comfort zone. Ferguson's biggest masterstroke was to put seven players under the surgeon's knife. It was a high-risk strategy which would eventually pay handsome dividends. The low point of the season was the 3-1 derby defeat at Manchester City in November. Ferguson read the riot act and the hairdryer was so hot it almost melted.

By Christmas, Arsenal were odds-on to cruise to a second successive title. Arsene Wenger's fanciful claim that Arsenal could go the entire season without losing enraged Ferguson. The first day of December was a turning point as the much-maligned Diego Forlan twice scored to send United to a win 2-1 at Liverpool.

A 2-0 home win over Arsenal followed and the appetite was back. United were hungrier than ever to satisfy the craving of their manager. Ferguson kept telling his players they were good enough to win the Premiership, that Arsenal had overdone talk about how good they were and that his team were still a force. Yet, Arsenal looked certainties when they went eight points clear at the top on the day United lost the Worthington Cup final 2-0 to Liverpool. United were fit and firing on all cylinders and embarked on a 17-match unbeaten run from Boxing Day to 3 May, which saw the Reds erode Arsenal's seemingly impregnable lead and then overtake their title rivals.

Ruud van Nistelrooy's phenomenal 43 goals, including 12 in seven crucial matches during the run-in, helped seal United's championship prize. Even the storm surrounding the "boot incident", David Beckham's eventual transfer to Real Madrid and United's European exit to the Spanish champion's failed to distract rampant United from finishing the job in style.

Two major events would derail everything. The suspension of Rio Ferdinand for a missed drugs test and Ferguson's own legal battle over racehorse Rock of Gibraltar with major United shareholder's John Magnier and JP McManus. Without Rio, the defence crumbled and many points were dropped, whilst Magnier and McManus launched a bitter personal campaign attacking and undermining Ferguson. Fergie would not back down though and it looked like his United days could be numbered as rumours began of Coolmore forcing him out of Old Trafford. Fans and supporters' groups rallied to his cause but in the end the United boss backed down and settled out of court.

By the time United crashed 4-1 to Manchester City in March the league title was over with the Champions 12 points adrift whilst European hopes had been dashed by FC Porto. The only consolation was the FA Cup in which United played their best football. Beating Man City, Aston Villa and Fulham en-route, a titanic semi-final clash with Arsenal saw Ferguson get the better of Wenger again at Villa Park with a steely 1-0 win. A comfortable 3-0 victory over Millwall secured the final and made it a record 5th FA Cup triumph for Fergie.

However, it was still a disappointing campaign by United's high standards and unfortunately in season 2004-2005 the trend continued. Despite the arrival of Wayne Rooney from Everton for £30 million and Leeds hero Alan Smith Sir Alex's team suffered a goal scoring problem with only 58 league goals, the lowest scored since 1991. The absence of Van Nistelrooy through injury was a major factor and critics claimed the team had lost its clinical edge. Only 5 games lost however 11 draws saw far too many points dropped to mount a serious challenge.

By contrast, Chelsea funded by Abramovich's billions and inspired by Jose Mourinho's confidence were unstoppable and put 9 points between themselves and United at Christmas. By early March the title was once more beyond Sir Alex and Europe had also ended again in failure after home and away 1-0 defeats to AC Milan. The attention turned to the FA Cup as the last hope for silverware and the Reds saved their best form with fine wins over Middlesbrough, Southampton and Newcastle. In the final, United outplayed Arsenal for 120 minutes, creating chance after chance. But just as in the League, the failure to put the ball in the net proved fatal and the Gunners undeservedly took the cup 5-4 on penalties.

In both his upbringing and in the shipyards of the Clyde, Ferguson was exposed to the Scottish working-class work ethic of hard graft and toil. He has instilled that same hard work ethic into Manchester United. All members of his team have a high work rate, even the likes of Beckham, Giggs and Rooney are made to earn their money by backtracking to help out the defence, constantly moving and slogging it out for 90 minutes. No team works harder than Fergie's United and it was an element missing from United in the Ron Atkinson and Tommy Docherty era's whose side's tended to be a bit too cavalier.

United were the first English team in the 90's to use the lightning counter-attack as a deliberate tactic, which Arsenal later copied. His best United teams have been built on a solid defence, wingers on the flanks and some sort of creative genius up front. When United first played in the Champions League, Ferguson was having to learn tactically how to play against European teams.

In 1999, after four failed attempts he got it right. United have now reached the Quarter-finals 8 times and are always amongst the favorites to win the trophy. That said, Ferguson himself has admitted his European record should have seen more sucess. As to why United have not matched their domestic glory on the European stage is a mystery that has prevoked long debate.

When you consider his 21 years at Old Trafford and the amount of players bought, there has been very few failures (Milne, Poborsky, Cryuff, Dembja Djemba, Kleberson?). In 2001 as the club finally gave him more financial clout, Fergie has shelled out really big money on the likes of Veron Ferdinand, Van Nistelrooy, Rooney, Ronaldo and Carrick. Of those only Veron was a flop and he still won a Premiership medal in 2003.

Ferguson went through a rocky buying period between 2001-2004 with the likes of Dembja Djemba, Kleberson, Saha and Forlan but few question his policy now with the success of Heinze, Erva, Vidic, Carrick, Park Ji-Sung and Van der Sar.

And Ferguson is still the master of the bargain buy: Cantona, Schmeichel, Solskjaer, Johnsen, Irwin, Sharpe, Kanchelskis and Van der Sar. Remember, United's two greats of the 1990's, Cantona and Schmeichel cost less than £2 million between them.

In modern football with its coaches and technical directors, he is the last in a long line of the great managers like Busby, Shankly, Stein, Clough, Paisley and Revie. Great personalities who ruled the club and everybody knew it - they always got what they wanted.

Modern managers are often slaves to the media, technocrats who do what they are told. Not Fergie, he is the man at the helm of Old Trafford, the man that really co-ordinates this huge red machine. The Glazer family knew it needed him on their side when they launched their takeover. They could not incur the wrath of the man who built a dynasty. His personal influence based on his record and incredible personality means he dominates the club like a colossus, a Roman Emperor of the Red Empire.

Martin Edwards once talked of how good financial planning has made United the richest club in the world, but everybody knows that without Ferguson's nine League titles, five FA Cups and the European Cup, United wouldn't even be half as rich as they are now. Old Trafford is the physical evidence, holding 76,000 and sold out every game it is a testament to the Ferguson years of glory that have made United the team everyone wants to watch.

When Sir Alex does finally step down who can possibly follow in his footsteps? The club's foundations are too strong for United to go the way of post Busby years and the relegation of 1974, however any future manger will be living in Ferguson's gargantuan shadow with the fans huge expectations like a mountain on his shoulders. Still, we have a few more years of the great Fergie era to go - enjoy it while you can because its like may never come again.

The man who arrived in 1986 looking up to the great Sir Matt Busby, today in 2007 has eclipsed even his mighty achievements. When history looks back in 25 years time, Fergie will unquestionably be regarded as the greatest ever manager of Manchester United. United fans will always be eternally grateful to the man from Govan for making our dreams come true. Sir Alex Ferguson is on a pedestal with the all-time immortals of the game and we will never see another manager like him at Old Trafford, that there can be absolutely no doubt.