How do you recollect the best moments of your life? You usually associate them with a particular period of your life, or some special person you came across, or even relate to some beautiful places where you had been. For me it is easy, for almost all of them have been provided by one man, Sir Alex Ferguson. If you define happiness as that sudden surge of elation, ecstasy, relief and above all that blissful feeling of 'don't care' about your surroundings, i have had many of those such moments since I started following Manchester United.
For people like us, born in the 80s he is all what we know when we talk about Manchester United. We were spoilt, for we never needed to be worried about the stability of our club while we were mocking Chelsea and City. Even when we occasionally berated some of his squad selection, we secretly hoped the "Sir Alex knows' saying to be true. We reveled in his genius when, 2 years ago, he put 8 defenders in his team against Arsenal in an FA cup tie and still won. The collective sigh of our relief were immense when he backed away from his planned retirement in 2002. From Cantona to Ronaldo, RVN to RVP, Andy Cole to Wayne Rooney, he has always been there.
When Sheringham and Solksjaer prodded those 2 goals past Bayern Munich in the last few seconds in Barcelona, he took all of us from the depths of despair to the promised land. When Macheda transferred the ball from his left foot to right, stopped momentarily, swiveled in a flash and shot past a diving Brad Friedel, we all danced with him, however comic his 'grandpa in party' dance steps were. Incidentally those little jig is something which remained in him from his initial days till now, remarkable for a man who changed his tactics, rivalries, formations and management style to bring success to Old Trafford. The fact that he was ready to change and accept the change on his way was the main reason behind the unbelievable success over the last 26 years. A mere glance towards Arsene Wenger and his almost childish commitment to his methods is the proof of that.
His legacy lies not only in the unmatched supply of trophies since 1986, but making Manchester United a global beast of a football club than just a football team. In the Australian outback or Arabian deserts, the African deepwoods or subcontinental streets, wherever you are, the name Manchester resonates with United. Irrespective of your colour, country, language, religion and ethnicity you can wear a Manchester United T-shirt and become part of a global family. When he took over in 1986, Manchester United was still big but not the money making, trophy winning, awe inspiring giant of today. His vision and courage made all this possible.
And more importantly, he made our lives better too. Even when we miserably failed in jobs, relations and life in general, we found success and solace in winning the premier league. When deadlines missed and hours in office stretched, we somehow found happiness in waiting to watch those 11 men in red play over the weekend. Staying in a far away street in India, we pride ourselves in having the bragging rights in the City of Manchester, when United win a derby. He made winners out of each one of us pathetic losers. Feeling bored, we login to twitter and find a person who we have never met to passionately talk about United for hours as if we were best mates for decades. He united all of us.
Thank you Sir Alex. Thanks for all those wonderfully blessed moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment