LONG, long before he acquired the first of his many high-profile, highly expensive signings for Manchester United, Alex Ferguson caused a stir of his own in the transfer market. On July 31, 1967, he became, in the words of the Evening Times, “the most costly player to wear the famous light-blue strip,” Rangers having signed the goal-scoring Dunfermline Athletic forward for £60,000.
Ferguson, 26, arrived by car at Ibrox at 10.30am “and dashed straight through the doors to meet manager Scot Symon,” though not before he was approached by a couple of young autograph hunters (right, top), who were waiting outside the main Ibrox door alongside a gaggle of reporters.
An hour later he was followed by Dunfermline’s manager, George Farm.
At just before 1pm, Symon, Ferguson and Farm emerged. “Ferguson is signed”, Symon announced. The player was photographed alongside his old boss and his new one, and told the Evening Times’ Peter Hendry: “This is a wonderful day for me. I have always wanted to be a Rangers player, and now my dream has come true.”
The £60,000 fee was £10,000 more than the sum Rangers had paid Dunfermline the previous year to secure the services of Alex Smith.
When his playing career eventually finished, Ferguson began his managerial career at East Stirling in July 1974, switching to St Mirren four months later. He was at Love Street for four years (right, bottom), guiding the team to the Division One championship in 1976-77 and eighth place in the Premier Division the following season before he moved to Aberdeen in 1978.
In his years at Aberdeen he was remarkably successful, and challenged the Old Firm’s supremacy in Scotland.
In 1983 Aberdeen won the Scottish Cup and became the first Scottish team apart from Celtic and Rangers to win a European trophy,
In Gothenburg on May 11, 1983, watched by 14,000 travelling supporters, Aberdeen beat Real Madrid 2-1 in extra time to lift the European Cup-Winners’ Cup. Jim Reynolds’ back-page report in the Herald began: “Aberdeen’s great European dream became beautiful reality here in Sweden tonight as Alex Ferguson’s young men shot down the arrogant Spanish masters in the Ullevi stadium.”
At the final whistle an ecstatic Ferguson was lifted high by Peter Weir and Doug Rougvie (main image, far right, photographed by James Millar).
“The reception when we returned to Aberdeen ... was unforgettable”, Ferguson wrote in his memoirs, Managing My Life. “All the schools in the North East had declared a day’s holiday and it was estimated that half-a-million people were on the streets of the city to welcome its heroes.The emotional current passing through these crowds and linking them with the players reminded me of a remark [Alfredo] Di Stefano [the Madrid manager] made after the game. It was not just a football team Real Madrid had met, he said, but an unstoppable spirit.”
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