Ferguson turned down Villa job.

[cdbearsfan]

Apparently we offered him the job in the 80s, but he turned it down as he didn't fancy working with/for Doug.

Link

[WarszaVillan]

I may be wrong here but as I remember it he was seriously being talked about getting the job after Barton went. Now remember we we're not long european champions  then and Barton had bought in good players like rideout and Steve McMahon. But we got Graham Turner instead - nice one.

[greenwichvilla]

We may have become everything we've learned to hate about them, though.

A few more tropgies would have been nice, though.

[cdbearsfan]

Would Ellis have given him as long to turn it around as Man U did?

[Billy Walker]

Would Ellis have given him as long to turn it around as Man U did?

I don't think so.  Allied to that, I don't think he would have given Fergie the funds to build a top class side. 

I'm sure Brian Clough had a similar view to Fergie's re. managing Villa.  The more I think about it the more it frustrates!  Oh well, those days are long gone now. Thankfully.

[KevinGage]

Just think, eh?

Word was (in BFR's autobiography) that Graham Taylor was Bobby Charlton's first choice to when Ron was coming under pressure in 1986.

But this isn't Trading Places, this is real life.

Much as I dislike the bloke his record is close to untouchable and he has shown a priceless ability to adapt to changes in the game other the years. Rather than just stick to tried and tested methods. That alone probably accounts for a fair degree of his longevity.

No guarantees he'd have seen anything like that success with us, I'm pretty sure Herbert's policy of 'now you see it, now you don't' with transfer funds would have put paid to that.

Dunno what to make of Fergie at times, he has pretty much always played his strongest side against us whenever possible.  That indicates a fair degree of respect. He also said after our 3-1 win back in 95 that a lot of his players were raw and probably weren't up to facing ' a big club like Villa.' Someone on here also had some contact with him when he was Aberdeen manager and he was apparently very complimentary about us, knowing a surprising amount of our history.

Against that, soon after the B-lose came up he said that when he was growing up SHA had always been the biggest club in Birmingham.

And he has turned hypocrisy into an art form.

So on balance, I'd still say he's a tosser.

[dave.woodhall]

Apparently he turned us down. I'm sure he turned a lot of clubs down. And for all the stick we give Doug for not spending enough, Manchester United had a lot more money to give their manager than we ever could have, even in their late-eighties lowpoint.

[KevinGage]

A fair degree of the money he spent (initially at least) was self funded via player sales. Mark Hughes to Barcelona and so on.

He also missed out on a number of first choice targets because the board wouldn't sanction the deals either because of the wages or fees. John Barnes, Terry Butcher and a few others.

United were known back then for being particularly stingy with wages, to the point that a player like Paul McGrath came here and received a pretty substantial pay increase.

[Reality]

If if's and buts were candy and...

[darren woolley]

It's a case of what could have been, he his still a twat though.

[olaftab]

He is not that good. I would have had more  respect for him if he had left Utd and taken say us, Spurs or Everton to a PL title.  Not as good as Cloughie or many Euro coaches who have achieved great success with mutiple clubs.

[cdbearsfan]

He is not that good. I would have had more  respect for him if he had left Utd and taken say us, Spurs or Everton to a PL title.  Not as good as Cloughie or many Euro coaches who have achieved great success with mutiple clubs.

Clough achieved serious, trophy-winning success, with two clubs. So has Ferguson.

[puppyfeat]

Even if Fergie had joined us you can bet he wouldn't have stuck around for anything like as long as at United - 4 years max.

[cdbearsfan]

Not many Villa managers last more than four years.

[Dante Lavelli]

He is not that good. I would have had more  respect for him if he had left Utd and taken say us, Spurs or Everton to a PL title.  Not as good as Cloughie or many Euro coaches who have achieved great success with mutiple clubs.

It's generally quite hard to have success with multiple clubs if you stay at the same place for over 20 years.