Ferguson was on a part-time contract with St Johnstone, and he combined working in a Govan shipyard with training at night in Perth. He did not speak to her for six weeks, confiscated her keys and communicated only through a 17-year-old assistant. United also reached the League Cup final but lost 3–1 to Aston Villa, managed by Ferguson's predecessor, Ron Atkinson. Towards the end of his playing career he also worked as a coach, then started his managerial career with East Stirlingshire and St Mirren. According to his brother, Ferguson was so upset by the experience that he threw his losers' medal away.

He briefly managed Scotland following the death of Jock Stein, taking the team to the 1986 World Cup. Although the team had a slow start to the 2008–09 season, [180] United won the Premier League with a game to spare, [181] making Ferguson the first manager in the history of English football to win the top division three times consecutively, on two separate occasions.

The only constant element has been the quality of the manager's league-winning squad and United's run of success, which included winning the Champions League for a second time in 2008.

The beating did not concern Ferguson, though he described his team's defeat by Arsenal in September 1998 as "a lot less tolerable". P. McManus agreed to sell their shares to American business tycoon Malcolm Glazer, it cleared the way for Glazer to acquire full control of the club.

Find out how he recovered from his brain surgery in 2018, why he appointed David Moyes as his successor, how livid he was when Moyes was sacked 10 months later, what he thought of Louis van Gaal’s tenure as Manchester United manager, what he thought of Jose Mourinho’s reign, and just how big a role he played in the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.