I grew up in the 90s/00s and being a football fan, I disliked Sir Alex Ferguson. He won everything at Man United and everyone seemed to be a fan. Now I’ve matured I appreciate that he was the greatest manager there might ever have been. Certainly in the top 5. Looking back it was pure jealousy.

The Sir Alex Ferguson challenge is something that exists in the world of Management Simulation Challenges, more popular in the series that begins with F, than C but it’s certainly something that’s possible within the confirms of C.

Sir Alex was in charge of Man United from 1986 to 2013 – a grand total of 27 years, within CM9798 you get until the end of 2025/26 – a very similar time frame.

For the record he got:

• 13 * Premier League
• 10 * FA Charity Shield
• 5 * FA Cup
• 4 * League Cup
• 2 * Champions League
• 1 * UEFA Cup or Cup Winners Cup
• 1 * European Super Cup
• 2 * World Club Cup         
• Make full use of the “Academy” – which in this version of the game means signing Schoolboys so every season there must be Schoolboys signed.
• Break the Club’s transfer record
• Break the World Record Transfer Fee (Rio Ferdinand/Juan Veron??)

SAF started his journey on the 6^th of November and Man United was 19^th at that point in time. So I need to start my journey on the same calendar date and with the club 19^th in the Premier Division.

I don’t have too far from Salford to travel.

A few moments later we started with a home tie against Villa. Ignore the date, it’s when I got the screenshots! We stunk the place out but we are off and running

Completely derailed when we were sent to Coventry by Coventry.

Early signings made.

We’ve made our schoolboy obligation with Andy Swalwell adding depth to our Centre Mid, Zeddy Saileti is Zambian and Dragan Popov is Yugoslavian, both snapped up from that footballing hotbed – “Minor Team”

All 3 newbies were involved as we got our first win. Pollock is the early contender for “goal machine”

Southampton’s first lead last seconds, their second 19 minutes, and their third will last until the end of time. Yes, that’s Carlton Palmer with a double. Probably not many times that he and Scott Sellars were both going for the match ball in the same game.

Palace next, the bottom of the table. They lead within the first minute. New Boy Darren “brother of John” Sheridan scored on his debut. Shez D came along for £130k

Arsenal came into this one 4^th in the table, and absolutely battered us for the entire game, except for 1 moment when Zeddy Saileti scored his first. Gerry Taggart gets a 10 and was a man mountain at the back. The board said it was very good. It was a flipping miracle smash and grab!

The last game of 1997 was a trip to Anfield. We were absolutely battered for the first 75 minutes, Fowler scored, had one disallowed and missed a penalty. They say you are vulnerable when you are 1 up, so when Peter Beardsley bit the hand that used to feed, they were annoyed. They were positively fuming when Dean Holdsworth nicked the winner. A result that took us outside of the relegation zone for the first time

That feels like a natural place to pause. 1997 complete, a positive start generally. Arsenal and Liverpool put in their place. Just don’t mention Coventry.

Join us next week for the 2nd instalment.