Dear Reader, you might have noticed that since the BIG announcement came out of OT about a month ago, yours truly has not been anywhere near the blog.
Many a United fan will tell you that Sir Alex is just like any other great manager and the club shall move on. Yes the club shall move on, but that is not the point, Sir Alex personified everything about the modern day Manchester United. He was the prefect mix of the old Busby traditions such as youth development and the modern demands such as the 4-2-3-1 formation in Europe. Such was his importance to the Manchester United fabric that even though we knew that such a time would come when he'd step down, we never actually knew such a time would come.
Throughout the Premier League years, United have not always had the strongest first team on paper. Hell, even one would argue that this past season, City, Chelsea and possibly Spurs had a better first team than us on paper. It is why out of 27 years, people speak of only three or four sides that the Gaffer had that were head and shoulders above everyone in the league. They'll mention the side of '94, '99 and 2008. What baffled our rivals was why we almost usually turned up top despite the deficiencies in our squad. The reason, as everyone soon realised, was Sir Alex Ferguson. Only with Sir Alex could we win just 5 away games all season in 2011 and still win the title and make it to the Champions League Final. Only with Sir Alex.
David Moyes has real job on his hands to keep the red flag flying, but I feel that his biggest task will be to install himself into that Manchester United fabric that Sir Alex did so well. For instance, it'd be nice to still have the aura of late winners in our stock. It'd be nice to maintain the habit of picking up 3 points in just about every game we play poorly. That notwithstanding, I have every reason to believe that the Scot is the best possible choice under the circumstances. More about him in future posts.
The tributes have flooded the Ferguson family for the best part of a month now and he deserves every bit of the glory poured out to him. There are those that have rightfully dedicated entire newspapers to him. I cannot quite put the measure of the man on these inches of cyber paper, simply because what he stood for is hard to express. God Bless the man for I at FLOM can only say ''Thank You Sir Alex''.
