Fergie’s Time is up

The phrase "squeaky-bum time" was coined by one Sir Alex Ferguson in reference to the tense final stages of a league competition. But now, with just two games before the 2012-13 season comes to an end, the septuagenarian manager seems to have hit his squeaky-bum time after announcing he will retire at the end of the current season.

Fergie’s announcement comes at the back of yet another successful year in domestic competition that saw him wrestle back the Premier League title from city rivals Manchester City as he led Manchester United to their 20^th Premier League title. The Scot has won 13 of those.

His last game in English football as a manager will be away at West Brom on May 19. Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson is inarguably one of the best managers the football game has ever seen. Be it his intimidating presence on the dugout, man-management, mind games with rival managers, controversial statements against referees which earned him a cumulative 15-matches ban the last ten years, or refusal to give interviews to the BBC, the former Scotland,  Aberdeen, St. Mirren, East Stirlingshire and soon-to-be Manchester United manager was a legend of the game in many ways than one. 

Career in Numbers

1 – Fergie was named the UEFA Manager of the Year just once in 1998-99

2 - IFFHS World's Best Club Coach in 1999 and 2008

3 – UEFA Champions league trophies he has won with the club. The first came in 1990-91 season when it was known as UEFA Cup Winners Cup. Further triumphs came in the famous treble season in 1988-89 and last one in 2007-08

4 – League Cups he has won - 1991–92, 2005–06, 2008–09, and 2009–10

5 – FA Cup titles he has added to the Old Trafford trophy cabinet

6 – the years it took the Glasgow-born manager to win his first Premier League title

6 – the number of clubs he played for during his career as a footballer; Queens Park Rangers, St. Johnstone, Dunfermline Athletic, Rangers, Falkirk, and Ayr United

9 – number of players he has coached and gone on to become football managers; the club’s global ambassador Bryan Robson, Hull City boss Steve Bruce, former QPR manager Mark Hughes, Blakcpool’s Paul Ince, Peterborough’s Darren Ferguson, Molde’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as well as Roy Keane, Chris Casper, and Henning Berg who are all without clubs currently             

10 – the number of times he was named the Premier League Manager of the Season, first in 1993-94 and last in 2010-11

13 -  the Premier League titles he’s won with Manchester United, all coming during the premier league era

15 – the total number of bans he received since October 2003 for abusing and publicly criticizing match officials

17 – the number of years he played professional football

26 – the years he has been at the Old Trafford dugout after he was appointed in November 1986

27 – He was named Premier League Manager of the month on 27 occasions, the first in August 1993 and last one in October 2012

49 – the total number of trophies he has won as a manager, making him the most successful British football manager in history
71 - the Scotsman's age when he announced his pending retirement
79 - the average number of seconds referees extended when Manchester United were losing according to a BBC analysis of what came to be known as "Fergie Time"

171 – his career goals total during his spell as a forward in the Scottish league

317 – total appearances he accrued during his 17 years in topflight football

1499  – the cumulative number of games will have had with Manchester United when the season comes to an end

2,154 – the total number of games he has had in his managerial career

And That's thesteifmastertake!!