Arsenal v Manchester UnitedThis week Alex Ferguson celebrates 21 years in charge at Old Trafford - here, ahead of today's game against Arsenal, 21 players tell the story. Interviews by Daniel Taylor, Stuart James, Andy Hunterand Edward Gibbes
CLAYTON BLACKMORE: 1986-87
League 11th, FA Cup R4, League Cup R3.
"It was nice to play in the first game under Alex even though we lost [ 2-0 at Oxford United]. He spoke to me in the week leading up to the game about what he was going to do. But his accent was so broad I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying to me. We soon realised he was a bad loser. He had to get his emotions out and let you know how he felt. You felt like he was dealing you a straight hand whereas I didn't always feel that with Ron Atkinson."
BRIAN MCCLAIR: 1987-88
League 2nd, FA Cup R5, League Cup R5.
"I was very happy at Celtic and in my last season there I scored 35 goals so things were going well for me. I was at the end of my contract, though, so when United came in for me I was thrilled. They weren't winning trophies at the time but they still had these huge crowds. I just felt that something was going to happen."
BILLY GARTON: 1988-89
League 11th, FA Cup quarter-final, League Cup R3.
"Nobody could believe it when Alex got rid of Paul McGrath, who was one of the best players in the country at the time. Alex took a brave decision but he realised the damage a drinking culture could have. We had to play by his rules. If you turned up for training smelling of beer you would get fined. If you carried on you would be out of the club."
LEE MARTIN: 1989-90
League 13th, FA Cup winners, League Cup R3.
"'People often mention my Wembley goal [ to win the FA Cup in a replay against Crystal Palace] and I never get fed up hearing about it. It never entered my head at the time that there was the possibility of the manager getting the sack. Supporters tell me how important the goal was for Alex, like the one Mark Robins scored at Nottingham Forest to see us through the third round, but as young a lad of 20 I wasn't aware of all the talk about his job."
GARY PALLISTER: 1990-91
League 6th, FA Cup R5, League Cup runners-up, European Cup Winners' Cup winners.
"For all the Premiership titles and FA Cups we won, the best night I had was in Rotterdam [ for the Cup Winners' Cup final against Barcelona]. The whole occasion was unbelievable. I will never forget it.
"It was like a Manchester evening in Holland. It was a rainy, misty kind of night and we were playing a team that were supposedly going to have no problems beating us, but we produced a great performance."
MARK HUGHES: 1991-92
League 2nd, FA Cup R4, League Cup winners, European Cup Winners' Cup second round.
"Our last away game was at Anfield and the Liverpool fans took great pleasure in reminding us that we had lost the league at their ground. That was a bitter pill to swallow but it made us even more determined the following season. Alex didn't break up that team. He could well have thought that we weren't up to the job, broken the team up and started again, but he stuck with us and thankfully we were able to do it the following year."
STEVE BRUCE: 1992-93
League 1st, FA Cup R5, League Cup R3, Uefa Cup R1.
"You can imagine what it was like. The Holy Grail for Manchester United was to win the league, similar to Liverpool now. Manchester United had gone 26 years without winning it - that was the challenge to all of us and, to be fair, the year before we lost the title to Leeds and should have won it. However, 92-93 was a wonderful season. The Sheffield Wednesday game was the defining moment. I think we knew then that we had a chance of winning the league. To get two goals in the last minute, well, if I've been reminded about it once . . . "
ROY KEANE : 1993-94
League 1st, FA Cup winners, League Cup runners-up, Champions League second round.
"Winning the Double in my first season as a United player blew me away. I contributed, but I'm not sure how much. Since Bryan Robson had urged me to get more involved in the build-up, I'd dropped deeper to a more central midfield role, sharing that task with Paul Ince. It was very much a team effort - Eric Cantona scored 25 goals, Mark Hughes 21, Ryan Giggs 17. Andrei Kanchelskis scored 10 times, Paul Ince nine, Lee Sharpe 11."
PAUL PARKER: 1994-95
League 2nd, FA Cup runners-up, League Cup R3, Champions League group stage.
"It was a difficult season. I think the manager was maybe caught short for the only time during his tenure. There was certain things missing from previous seasons and, maybe, he didn't have enough time to strengthen. I had an ankle operation, Sharpey was injured and Andrei had his problems off the field and then there was the Cantona incident at Crystal Palace. But Eric should never have had that length of time out."
DAVID BECKHAM: 1995-96
League 1st, FA Cup winners, League Cup second, round Uefa Cup first round.
"First game of the season, away to Aston Villa, we got hammered. Alan Hansen was the one who said it on Match of the Day: 'You won't win anything with kids.' But by the time we all got home and the experts were writing us off, I'm sure I wasn't the only one getting riled by the criticism. It had just been one game, after all. We were thinking: 'What if we go out and prove the lot of you wrong?'"
RYAN GIGGS: 1996-97
League 1st, FA Cup R4, League Cup R4, Champions League semi-final.
"By the end of November we were down to seventh in the league and not too many were betting on us retaining the title, but a 3-1 win at home to Leicester signalled the beginning of a charge. A fourth title in five years consolidated our position as the dominant force in English football, but some saw it as the end of an era, with Eric [ Cantona] confirming his retirement a week before his 31st birthday."
DAVID MAY: 1997-98
League 2nd, FA Cup R5, League Cup R3, Champions League quarter-final.
"We were on the crest of a wave and expecting to win more trophies but then suddenly Arsenal came along and upset the party. Nobody had expected it, but fair play to them, because they raised the bar. It was a big disappointment for us but the funny thing is sometimes losing isn't such a bad thing over the long term. A defeat like that can help you understand what it means to win and come back again, and I think that definitely happened with United.
PETER SCHMEICHEL: 1998-99
League 1st FA Cup winners League Cup quarter-final Champions League winners
"We played 34 consecutive games without defeat and, in doing so, collected all the trophies we could on our way. This conviction was allied to the underlying philosophy of the team, which was the simplest of all: we need to score one more goal than the opposition, irrespective of how the balance of possession, or any other irrelevant statistic, reads after the 90 minutes. In this manner, we managed to do what no team before us had ever done. But in the end it was naturally all down to Alex Ferguson. He had built up the team, put his trust unfailingly in its ability to deliver."
HENNING BERG: 1999-2000
League 1st, FA Cup withdrew, League Cup R3, Champions League quarter-final.
"'To win the treble was an incredible achievement but we knew it would be very difficult to keep hold of the European Cup and the one disappointment is that we got knocked out by Real Madrid despite getting a 0-0 draw over there. They came back to Old Trafford, beat us 3-2 and showed we weren't maybe as good as we hoped. In the league it was a very convincing performance.
JONATHAN GREENING: 2000-01
League 1st, FA Cup R4, League Cup R4, Champions League quarter-final.
"Teddy Sheringham was on fire that year, he got both the big player of the year awards and pipped Andy Cole to be the club's top scorer as well. For me it was hard to break into the team because they were playing so well. The football we played and the finishing when we beat Arsenal 6-1 was just top quality. It was one of those games where we were unplayable. It was a great win and it finished them off really."
PAUL SCHOLES: 2001-02
League 3rd, FA Cup R4, League Cup R3, Champions League semi-final.
"I wouldn't say I had a good season. I know full well I didn't. The last few months were all right, but the first six months were terrible. I was depressed about how I was playing. Whenever I have a bad game I'm depressed for a couple of days afterwards, but this was more than one game. I seemed to be stuck in a hole, I wasn't scoring goals and I didn't seem to be involved in games. Sometimes it's difficult to get out of a situation like that."
RIO FERDINAND: 2002-03
League 1st, FA Cup R5, League Cup runners-up, Champions League quarter-final.
"We were ninth [ in September] and the obituaries were being written. We stumbled along to Christmas, winning a few, drawing a few and losing games like Manchester City away, which didn't go down well. Then we lost at Blackburn and had a nightmare against Middlesbrough on Boxing Day. But from then on I realised what United were all about. From Boxing Day through to the end of the season we didn't lose a Premiership game."
TIM HOWARD: 2003-04
League 3rd, FA Cup winners, League Cup R4, Champions League second round.
"'I had clauses in my contract that I got a bonus if I was goalkeeper of the year and if we won the FA Cup, and I looked at those and laughed at the beginning of the season, thinking 'I won't hit those in my whole career, let alone both of them in the same year.' Ferguson's a good manager because he makes decisions and when he [ rested me] I came back better than I felt in a long time. We faltered [ in the league] but the big guns didn't hurt us, we hurt ourselves against the other teams."
RUUD VAN NISTELROOY: 2004-05
League position 3rd, FA Cup runners-up, League Cup semi-final, Champions League second round.
"Forming a guard of honour for the champions, Chelsea, at Old Trafford ahead of the 1-1 draw in May was difficult. I wanted to be running out with Chelsea giving us a guard of honour. Doing that is part of what makes United a great club; the players and the fans respect other teams. For me, that's what makes the club different, it's what makes United special."
DARREN FLETCHER: 2005-06
League position 2nd, FA Cup R5, League Cup winners, Champions League group stage.
"We won a trophy and finished second in the league, although we obviously wanted to finish first. Ryan Giggs and John O'Shea exceeded everyone's expectations in midfield. Everyone spoke about us replacing Keane but that will never happen. You can talk about anyone else but they won't replace Roy. That's not taking away from anyone's footballing ability but Roy was a one-off - a great player with leadership qualities on the pitch which nobody else had."
NEMANJA VIDIC: 2006-07
League position 1st, FA Cup runners-up, League Cup R4, Champions League semi-final.
"Everton at Goodison Park turned out to be our most important match of the season and the most important victory. We lost twice to Arsenal but in the end it meant nothing. Yes, the big games are important and we look forward to them, but the less high-profile matches were just as important."
