After Dinner Speakers: Alex Ferguson, Richard Briers, Jayne Middlemiss

Sir Alex Ferguson is the man responsible for making Manchester United the foremost football team of the 1990s. Ferguson has established himself as the most successful British manager of all time and in doing so has made Manchester United, a club that couldn’t win a League title for 26 years, the most successful and best-known team in the world. In times when managers frequently come and go, Alex Ferguson has proved an immovable object. Honest, fierce, driven, obsessive, charming, humorous, stubborn, aggressive: all these words have been used to describe the ‘Scottish saviour of Manchester United’. Born in Govan, Glasgow, Alex Ferguson was an apprentice toolworker on the cold hard-working shipyards of the Clyde until he was 23, during which he played for Queens Park, St Johnstone part time. He turned professional and joined Dunfermline in 1964 before his heroes Glasgow Rangers bought him for a then record Ł65,000 in 1967. However his time at Rangers was not really a success and he moved to Falkirk in 1969 and Ayr in 1973. Eventually he gave up playing in 1974 to become manger of East Stirling where he was quickly spotted by St Mirren, whom he manged for 3 years until 1978. He had done well at St Mirren with limited resources but was surprisingly sacked. Aberdeen soon took advantage of his availability and the Ferguson managerial legend began. Again with limited resources, he turned the average Aberdeen into a team that dominated Scottish football during the early 1980s and broke the traditional iron stranglehold of the mighty Glasgow "Old Firm" of Rangers and Celtic. It was only a matter of time until the big guns came after him. He was approached by no less than Barcelona, Arsenal, Rangers and Tottenham (whom he seriously considered), but destiny made him choose Manchester United and the rest… is history. Rumours of his retirement were quashed in 2001 and Ferguson continues to dominate the English league game. A true grit leader, he is constantly in demand to extend his Midas touch outside the arena of football.