I just saw a comment on a forum somewhere that made me chuckle. A poster was countering this ‘lost the dressing room’ nonsense by pointing out that Brad Friedel has recently compared Martin O’Neill to Sir Alex Ferguson in terms of his authority, command and respect at Aston Villa. He quite rightly points to this aspect being a key element in Man Utd’s growth to the club they are today.

Another poster totally missed the point and argued:-

Fergie has won the league nearly a dozen times, two European Cups and many other honours. Under his stewardship Man Utd have enjoyed the probably the longest period of sustained success in English football history. MON is not Fergie.

Not only does this miss the point, but if you wish to make a direct, “apples for apples” comparison between the two managers you might be surprised what you discover.

Fergie joined Utd in November 1986 and his first game was away to Oxford Utd with the Reds in 20th place. They lost 2-0. However, Fergie managed to turn their fortunes and guided them to 11th place in the old First Division. As they were already out of the League Cup when Fergie joined, he only had the FA Cup for a possible trophy. He lost to Coventry in next round.

Things were certainly looking up in ’87/88 season. Fergie’s men were fantastic in the league, finishing in 2nd place, 9 points behind champions Liverpool. Utd made the 5th round in both the FA & League Cups, knocked out by Arsenal and Oxford respectively.

The ’88/89 league performance wasn’t so impressive – 10th. They progressed a bit further in the FA Cup getting knocked out in the 6th Round by Forest. However, Wimbledon dispatched Fergie’s team in the 3rd round of the League Cup. They did make the final of the Centenary Trophy – a tournament to celebrate 100 years of the football league – held at Villa Park. They lost 2-1 to Arsenal. Another year without any silverware.

The ’89/90 season was Fergie’s 4th season at Old Trafford and would turn out to be a key season. They were again unimpressive in the league, finishing the season in 13th place. The League Cup too provided little hope, losing at home to Spurs 3-0 in the 3rd round.

Some people dispute this story, but according to other accounts, Fergie’s job was in serious jeopardy by the time Utd were drawn against against high flying Forest in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. The fans and press had turned on the Scotsman and rumours suggest that he would be sacked if they lost, as they were expected, to Nottingham. They won it 1-0 and went all the way to the final.

They were unable to beat Crystal Palace in the final with the game finishing 3-3 after extra time. Back in those days, if there wasn’t a result on the day, a replay was held. So 5 days later, everyone trudged back to Wembley and this time Utd won it 1-0.

1990 was also the year that UEFA announced that they would be lifting the ban on English clubs from European competition the following year and Utd would be able to compete in the Cup Winners’ Cup.

By the way, they beat Barcelona in the 1991 European Cup Winners’ Cup final 2-1 and the rest, as they say, is history.

So Fergie won precisely nothing until the FA Cup in his 4th season and then the Cup Winners’ Cup in his 5th. Martin O’Neill is just embarking on his fourth season with some of the fans starting to get restless… do you still not see the comparison?