This piece appears in full on TEAMtalk.
As Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates 25 years at Manchester United, TEAMtalk guest Adam Bate puts the manager’s longevity down to his adaptability.
For many the personification of genius is the wizened portrait of Albert Einstein in old age. And yet, the famous professor was in his early forties when he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Moreover, his key research on the subject had been done while still in his twenties.
Likewise, the iconic image of the football manager remains the grey-haired suited figure on the touchline – a man who has seen and done it all. In other words, it is of a man who looks very much like Sir Alex Ferguson.
Again, the reality is somewhat different. Indeed, 17 of the last 20 coaches to lift the European Cup were under the age of 50 when they first did so. Even football management, it would seem, is a young man’s game. And Ferguson – the old maestro – is somehow continuing to buck the trend.
