More than Manchester 不只是曼徹斯特 (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. 英國廣播公司的記者麥克．克里克在他替弗格森寫的傳記中有提到，弗格森在接手初期 遇到了大麻煩，他必須要重建他的隊伍。當時足球界酗酒的情況非常嚴重，球員們甚至 從酒商那邊收取贊助費用。弗格森頒布了新的禁令，他趕走了那些不守規矩的球員，此舉 讓曼聯走向輝煌。 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、改變、觀察 這裡有一件有弗格森非常不尋常的事一定要提一下。1980年代他重建曼聯的那批球員不是 英國人就是愛爾蘭人。但是現在這隻要去與巴賽隆納一決生死的隊伍陣中包括了來自法國 巴西、荷蘭、厄瓜多、墨西哥、韓國、塞爾維亞、保加利亞、波蘭和葡萄牙的多國聯軍。 (甚至以前也有過美國人) 到底是什麼改變了這個在藍領階級中長大，從小呼吸蘇格蘭足球 空氣的教練？ 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. 也許我們可以這樣說，就像所有偉大的運動教練，弗格森總是能一眼看出有天賦的球員。 另一方面，他也非常善於更衣室管理。來自不同背景、不同人格的球員在他的麾下都會被 他治的服服貼貼。『他了解與不同的人相處要使用不同的方式。』這也表示著弗格森的律 法也總有幾次會破例：不是每個曼聯球員都滴酒不沾的。 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." 但是最重要的一點，就算在這個改變快速的環境，在這個現今金錢橫流的全球化足球世界 弗格森還是知道他自己在幹嘛。在2009年新政治家雜誌的訪談中，弗格森指出三個領袖的 特質 " 完全的掌控、不要墨守成規和仔細的觀察 " 他還說出了一句充滿歷練及智慧的話 語 『見人所不能見，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. 有時弗格森這個老狐狸會故意把經驗和智慧隱藏的很好，幾乎所有跟我談論過弗格森的人 都說，第一眼看到弗格森時，只不過覺得他就只是個老頭兒，但他是真的不停地在學習成 長，也從不驕傲自滿。如果弗格森聽到了什麼新鮮的玩意兒能讓他的隊伍多拿幾個頭銜， 或是幫助測量球員的表現時，他就會派出他的助手們到全球各地去了解那到底好不好用。 他是第一批會重視球員可能因傷而退役的教練。如果球員們需要重建他們的周邊視覺，那 過不了多久曼聯的訓練室中就會出現幾台高科技的視力儀器。 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. 這位弗格森的好友坎貝爾直言，『弗格森簡直不是一般的人類。他可以從品酒一路講到 政治再扯到美國歷史。他真的超愛南北戰爭的那個年代。而且他也很八卦，如果哪個主 教練下課了，那弗格森一定會立刻跑來跟我說。』 當然，弗格森也不是完美的，許多人對他的人格特質有爭議。如果你觸犯了他，那你一定 會有好幾年的日子不好受。 (就像當年BBC影射弗格森的兒子收受不正當金錢，被弗格森 封殺好幾年的事件) 當弗格森迷人的時候，你將會無法抗拒那驚人的魅力；但當他起肖的 時候，保證你一輩子都不會忘記那個時刻的。 同樣的弗格森調教出來的球員也差不了多少，霸道、愛跟裁判吵架，還有無時無刻的堅強 。 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. 這些對弗格森或是曼聯景仰，對那些不是曼聯球迷的人來說已經夠了。古老的傳統和敵意 永不死。我老哥曾說過，『我支持兩個隊伍，利物浦和曼聯的對手。』這也是為什麼5月28 日當天，我會選擇支持那支完美、充滿地面傳導和贊助聯合國兒童基金會的巴塞隆那。 但是無論曼聯贏或輸，我都要承認曼聯這塊全球性的招牌的確擦得響亮，而就算把弗格森 擺到任何運動的領域相比，他也已經成為了過去50年來這世上最棒的教練。 全文連結 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2072571,00.html --

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