More than Manchester 不只是曼彻斯特 (下) Ferguson, however, could not challenge Liverpool until he had reformed his team. And he had a problem: as BBC political journalist Michael Crick wrote in his biography of United's manager, "While the links between drinking and football are close at the best of times, at Manchester United in the 1980s stars seemed to take sponsorship by the drinks industry to extremes." Ferguson laid down the law: he got rid of the worst offenders, and the long march toward pre-eminence began. 英国广播公司的记者麦克．克里克在他替弗格森写的传记中有提到，弗格森在接手初期 遇到了大麻烦，他必须要重建他的队伍。当时足球界酗酒的情况非常严重，球员们甚至 从酒商那边收取赞助费用。弗格森颁布了新的禁令，他赶走了那些不守规矩的球员，此举 让曼联走向辉煌。 Control, Change, Observe But here's one of the extraordinary things about Ferguson. The squad that he knocked into shape back in the 1980s was drawn exclusively from Britain and Ireland. The one that he will take to the Champions League final also includes players from France, Brazil, the Netherlands, Ecuador, Mexico, South Korea, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland and Portugal. (He's had Americans on the team too.) How has someone who grew up steeped in the working-class traditions of Scottish football been able to lead a collection of stars drawn from all over the world? 掌控、改变、观察 这里有一件有弗格森非常不寻常的事一定要提一下。1980年代他重建曼联的那批球员不是 英国人就是爱尔兰人。但是现在这只要去与巴赛隆纳一决生死的队伍阵中包括了来自法国 巴西、荷兰、厄瓜多、墨西哥、韩国、塞尔维亚、保加利亚、波兰和葡萄牙的多国联军。 (甚至以前也有过美国人) 到底是什麽改变了这个在蓝领阶级中长大，从小呼吸苏格兰足球 空气的教练？ Part of the answer is that, like all great sports managers, Ferguson respects talent wherever he sees it and whoever has it. And part of it is that he is a good man manager, engendering intense loyalty among those around him and tailoring his style to the very different individuals, from very different backgrounds, that he has to work with. "He finds different ways of getting the best out of people," says Crick, which means that he will sometimes bend his own rules: not every United player since 1986 has been teetotal. 也许我们可以这样说，就像所有伟大的运动教练，弗格森总是能一眼看出有天赋的球员。 另一方面，他也非常善於更衣室管理。来自不同背景、不同人格的球员在他的麾下都会被 他治的服服贴贴。『他了解与不同的人相处要使用不同的方式。』这也表示着弗格森的律 法也总有几次会破例：不是每个曼联球员都滴酒不沾的。 But the key to Ferguson's success in a changing environment, as money has flooded into football and the game has gone global, is quite simple: like all great managers in any industry and in any society, he thinks about what he is doing. In a 2009 interview with Campbell for the New Statesman, Ferguson said that the three most important qualities for leadership were "control, managing change and observation." Pressed to flesh out the last attribute, he said, "Spotting everything around you, analyzing what is important. Seeing dangers and opportunities that others don't see. That comes from experience and knowledge." 但是最重要的一点，就算在这个改变快速的环境，在这个现今金钱横流的全球化足球世界 弗格森还是知道他自己在干嘛。在2009年新政治家杂志的访谈中，弗格森指出三个领袖的 特质 " 完全的掌控、不要墨守成规和仔细的观察 " 他还说出了一句充满历练及智慧的话 语 『见人所不能见，知人所不能得』 He has tons of both, though he sometimes hides them. All the people I interviewed about Ferguson for this article, whether they wanted to be quoted or not, said that even though at first glance he looks like a typical old-school football type, he is constantly innovating. One of his secrets, says Crick, is "never being complacent." If Ferguson hears of something that might add a point or two to United's total at the end of the season — some new training method, some sports-science wisdom or a new technology that can measure a player's performance — he's on it, sending his assistants all over the world to figure out what's what. I was told, for example, that he was one of the first managers to understand that after being laid off because of injury, players need to rebuild their peripheral vision, and that there's some high-end vision-science technology at United's training facility. 有时弗格森这个老狐狸会故意把经验和智慧隐藏的很好，几乎所有跟我谈论过弗格森的人 都说，第一眼看到弗格森时，只不过觉得他就只是个老头儿，但他是真的不停地在学习成 长，也从不骄傲自满。如果弗格森听到了什麽新鲜的玩意儿能让他的队伍多拿几个头衔， 或是帮助测量球员的表现时，他就会派出他的助手们到全球各地去了解那到底好不好用。 他是第一批会重视球员可能因伤而退役的教练。如果球员们需要重建他们的周边视觉，那 过不了多久曼联的训练室中就会出现几台高科技的视力仪器。 Campbell is up-front about his friend: the first thing to say about Ferguson, he says, is that "he is an exceptional human being." He's one of those men who can talk about any number of things, from fine wine to politics to American history; he has particular fascination for the Civil War era. He remembers his friends: if a football manager gets fired, he will quickly hear from Ferguson. He is not, of course, flawless. Ferguson has been involved in plenty of controversies, and if you cross him, he will bear a grudge for years. (Smarting over a perceived hatchet job regarding one of his son's business dealings, he has given virtually no interviews to the BBC since 2004.) "When he's charming," says Crick, "it's on a scale that you can't believe." But when he's not, Crick continues, that is an experience just as memorable. Ferguson's teams — which draw their character from the Boss — have long had a reputation for being complaining bullies, hectoring referees and constantly feeling hard done by. 这位弗格森的好友坎贝尔直言，『弗格森简直不是一般的人类。他可以从品酒一路讲到 政治再扯到美国历史。他真的超爱南北战争的那个年代。而且他也很八卦，如果哪个主 教练下课了，那弗格森一定会立刻跑来跟我说。』 当然，弗格森也不是完美的，许多人对他的人格特质有争议。如果你触犯了他，那你一定 会有好几年的日子不好受。 (就像当年BBC影射弗格森的儿子收受不正当金钱，被弗格森 封杀好几年的事件) 当弗格森迷人的时候，你将会无法抗拒那惊人的魅力；但当他起肖的 时候，保证你一辈子都不会忘记那个时刻的。 同样的弗格森调教出来的球员也差不了多少，霸道、爱跟裁判吵架，还有无时无刻的坚强 。 For those who aren't United fans, that's enough to temper the admiration that comes from watching the squad play. Old loyalties and enmities die hard — "I support two teams," my brother says, "Liverpool and whoever's playing United this week" — which is why on May 28, I will be supporting Barcelona, with its wonderful, intricate passing game and its global partnership with UNICEF. But whether United wins or loses, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to acknowledge what an extraordinary job the club has done in building a global brand that values important things like talent and work ethic. And to recognize that over the past 50 years, Alex Ferguson has been the finest manager that team sports have seen — in any sport, anywhere in the world. 这些对弗格森或是曼联景仰，对那些不是曼联球迷的人来说已经够了。古老的传统和敌意 永不死。我老哥曾说过，『我支持两个队伍，利物浦和曼联的对手。』这也是为什麽5月28 日当天，我会选择支持那支完美、充满地面传导和赞助联合国儿童基金会的巴塞隆那。 但是无论曼联赢或输，我都要承认曼联这块全球性的招牌的确擦得响亮，而就算把弗格森 摆到任何运动的领域相比，他也已经成为了过去50年来这世上最棒的教练。 全文连结 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2072571,00.html --

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