Man Utd boss Ferguson: Player-power
increasing
tribalfooball.com - October 03, 2006
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes player power
is the biggest challenge facing football managers nowadays.
Much of the fiery Scotsman's success has been built on the
foundation of strict loyalty and adherence to the fact that no one
player is bigger than the club.
"There is a player ego that you have to deal with. As a coach the
one thing you must have is control," Ferguson told The Tactician
magazine.
"You can't afford to let players take charge of a training session,
there has to be a strong discipline in the training and in
general.
"Simple rules must apply such as time-keeping and concentration at
training.
"More and more we are dealing with player power. I grew into all of
that but a young coach must realise that he is walking straight
into all of that.
"They have to find a way of navigating all of these
pressures.
"Another thing of course is the pressure of results. When I came
into the game the media demands were less than we have today, and
there were no agents or freedom of contract back then.
"If you have a good chairman and board you are lucky, if not then
you have to handle that situation as well."
