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The career of Manchester United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been extremely long and fruitful. Alex Ferguson has now spent many years in the world of football and although he is now a manager he was once a player in the game. The now Manchester United manager was a striker when he was a player, he started out as an amateur at Queen's Park at the tender age of 16.

In 1964 Alex Ferguson was welcomed to the wonderful world of full-time professional football however by Dunfermline. He'd spend three years at the club before moving on to Rangers for a then record transfer fee between Scottish clubs of 65 000 pounds.

As a player Alex Ferguson was always quite a prolific goalscorer, and when he left the game as a player in 1974 he then went on to become a successful manager also. Three decades on and Alex Ferguson is still going strong, he's been manager of Manchester United since 1986 and seemingly the man can do no wrong. It's not all been success for Ferguson however, the second club he ever managed was St Mirren and from this job he was sacked. His ferocious managerial approach was not appreciated back then and when he was dismissed from St Mirren as manager an industrial tribunal concluded that Alex Ferguson was 'particularly petty' and 'immature' also. As a manager he was excellent, but to work with it would seem that he was a nightmare.

Alex Ferguson actually got his job at St Mirren due to the instant impression he had made at East Stirlingshire. Alex Ferguson spent only four months at this club, winning seven games, losing three, and drawing two. These were fantastic results for Ferguson, particularly given that before he arrived the club was in an extremely bad way. Alex Ferguson had a natural gift as manager it would seem, he took on a club that didn't even have a goalkeeper and made a success of the team through a method of strict discipline and instilling a feeling of fear and fright in his squad. The players wanted to impress Ferguson or else they would have to face his wrath, everyone played to the best of their ability and Alex Ferguson's ferocious attitude worked wonders right from the start.

After successfully leading his first two clubs, Aberdeen happily took Alex Ferguson on board as manager in 1978 and it was then that the excellence of Ferguson as a manager really started to shine through. Ferguson was not instantly successful at Aberdeen however, it took him a season to really get going and in 1979 silverware was achieved as the team

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