Alex: The Man Behind The Legend

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United won the League Cup and European Super Cup; both for the first time, but lost out on the league title to rivals Leeds United after leading the table for much of the season. Ferguson felt United's bid to regain the Premier League began indifferently because of their commitments to other competitions.

Van Nistelrooy, however, failed his medical, but Ferguson reassured him that "we might yet find a way out of the nightmare". Manchester United faced Barcelona again on 28 May 2011 in the 2011 Champions League final, their third in four years, but United lost 3–1.

He also made at least one approach for the Sheffield Wednesday striker David Hirst, but manager Trevor Francis rejected all offers and the player stayed put. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time and has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football. Analyst Alan Hansen stated that he believed Ferguson was "the key component" in United's success that season, so key in fact that "[he] would have claimed the crown with any of the other top sides had he been in charge of them". The player reportedly moved because of claims in his autobiography Head to Head; Stam implied that Ferguson illegally contacted him about a move to Manchester United, before informing PSV. Ferguson felt that his failure to secure the signing of Mick Harford from Luton Town had cost United the league, and that he needed "an extra dimension" to the team if they were to win the league the following season.

Ferguson played as a forward for several Scottish clubs, including Dunfermline Athletic and Rangers.Ferguson took the blame for the defeat, saying he should have made changes to the team for the replay. The team were eliminated in the Champions League quarter-final to Real Madrid over two legs; Ferguson described the second match, a 4–3 win at Old Trafford as "epic".

The phrase "squeaky-bum time" coined by Ferguson in reference to the tense final stages of a league competition has been included in the Collins English Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary. Ferguson contemplated his team selection against Bayern Munich; suspensions to Scholes and Keane ruled both players out of the match.During his 26 years with Manchester United he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two UEFA Champions League titles. In December 1999, the club beat Palmeiras in Tokyo to win the Intercontinental Cup, [117] but a month later exited at the group stage of the inaugural Club World Championship, [118] [119] although Ferguson stated the tournament was "fantastic".

The term got wider coverage when United came from behind to win the 1999 UEFA Champions League final with two goals in injury time. During the season, Ferguson managed his 1,000th game in charge of United in a 2–1 home win against Lyon. He was a man and, as Adam Zamoyski presents him in this landmark biography, a rather ordinary one at that. The following October, Nottingham Forest wanted to sign Ferguson, [31] but his wife was not keen on moving to England at that time, so he went to Falkirk instead.

The season began well with a 4–1 win over defending champions Arsenal on the opening day, but United's league form quickly turned sour. There were newspaper reports that Ferguson was also going to sign highly rated 21-year-old striker Chris Sutton from Norwich City, but the player headed for Blackburn instead. On 21 May 2008, Ferguson won his second European Cup with Manchester United as they beat Chelsea 6–5 on penalties in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, following a 1–1 draw after extra time in the first ever all-English UEFA Champions League Final. This sparked violent protests from United fans, [151] and disrupted Ferguson's plans to strengthen the team in the transfer market.