United can recover

LONDON. — Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson says the team can overturn a poor start to win the English Premier League soccer title, despite being eight points adrift of leaders Arsenal.
Two wins in the last three games means that David Moyes’s side have recovered from United’s worst start in 14 years.
Ferguson (71) said: “We had bad starts to the season many times.

“We are the only club in that league that can come from behind to win the league because of our history.”
Ferguson, who remains a club director, retired from the manager’s position at the end of last season after winning 38 trophies in a 27-year reign.

And Moyes has struggled to win over some fans after a stuttering start to his United career.
But speaking at the first in a series of Q&A sessions following the release of his second autobiography, Ferguson underlined the unique pressures that came with the job.

He also defended his reasons for publishing the book in which he criticised former players such as Roy Keane and David Beckham, adding that it was “astonishing” that he only had “six issues with players” during his time at Old Trafford.

“I wrote the book for the fans, to help them understand why I had to make certain decisions,” he said at a sold-out Lowry Theatre in Salford.
“(It was) not for the press, that was a book to help people understand how difficult the job is at Manchester United. It’s a massive job, it’s the biggest in the world.”

In “Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography”, which was released on Thursday, Ferguson stressed that many of his decisions were made in order to maintain control at the club.

And he re-emphasised that in front of a 1 700-strong audience, which included Moyes, fellow club director Sir Bobby Charlton and United legend Denis Law.

“In 27 years at the club, I probably only had six issues with players,” he said. “That’s astonishing.
“Of course you have to make decisions for the benefit of the club, and you become unpopular with the players as you have seen from the reaction this week.

“But that’s part of my job to protect the standards of the club, the discipline of the club and make sure the players respect you as manager. I’m the manager and no-one else.”

Ferguson also said Manchester United’s new manager Moyes will never be able to escape expectation at Old Trafford.
Life after Ferguson at Old Trafford has not got off to the start Moyes would have hoped for as some stuttering performances in the Premier League have left them eighth in the table, eight points behind leaders Arsenal.

Famously Ferguson also had a testing start to his reign and he was not following an icon who had just enjoyed a near-27-year trophy-laden spell.

“The thing about coming to a club like United is you can never get away from the expectation and I learned about that quickly,” said Ferguson at a question and answer session for a 1 700-strong audience at The Lowry Theatre in Manchester to coincide with the publication of his autobiography and Moyes was a guest.

“I spent a lot of stupid time looking at history, getting out early results from the 10 previous seasons and it was doing me no good, I was getting nowhere with that.

“I learned you had to look at your own situation. Winning a trophy at any time is important at this club.
“I was there 27 years and that gave me time to look ahead.

“When clubs sack their manger they have no evidence it works. When a manager is consistent in his position the club does better and I strongly believe in that.

“David Moyes had 10 years at Everton and when he joined he inherited a ‘sell, sell, sell’ (policy) but he built the club up.”— BBC Sport-Sky Sports.