ALEX FERGUSON

Statistically, Alex Ferguson is by far the most successful coach in the history of British football. He has enjoyed huge success in both Scotland and England over a period of thirty years, but like many great coaches did not enjoy much success as a player. He began his playing career as a forward with Queen's Park, before moving on to St Johnstone and then to Dunfermline, where he shared the honour of being top scorer in the Scottish league in 1966. His form earned a move to Rangers, but his time there coincided with domestic dominance from Celtic and the closest he came to a major honour was defeat in the Scottish Cup final in 1969.

Finishing his playing career with Falkirk and Ayr United, Ferguson quickly moved into coaching with East Stirlingshire. In a job with almost no resources at his disposal, he made an impressive start to the 1974-75 season and was soon lured to St Mirren. In 1977, he took St Mirren to promotion into the Premier Division, and began to attract the attention of the bigger clubs. In 1978, Ferguson moved to Aberdeen and set about the job of breaking the grip of Rangers and Celtic on the league title, who between them had won every title since 1965.

In his second season, Aberdeen put together a fantastic run in the second half of the season to give Ferguson his first league championship, by one point ahead of Celtic. That success was the catalyst to the most successful period in Aberdeen's history. The Scottish Cup was won in 1982, and retained the following year alongside success in the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Spanish giants Real Madrid in the final. 1984 brought a hat-trick of cup wins and a first ever league and cup double, before a third league title a year later.

Ferguson's success with Aberdeen had led to him joining the coaching staff of the national team, and late in 1985 he became caretaker manager in the most tragic of circumstances. Legendary coach Jock Stein died suddenly of a heart attack on the night Scotland sealed a World Cup qualifying play-off place, and Ferguson led the team past Australia and into the finals in Mexico. Unfortunately, he was unable to guide Scotland past their first round group, and left the job after the finals.

Late in 1986, Ferguson moved to England to take over at Manchester United, being given the job of ending a run without a league title that stretched back to 1967. United struggled in his first few years at the club, and many believe that had he not won the FA Cup in 1990, Ferguson would have been sacked. With that first trophy successfully won, Ferguson took the team from strength to strength. He won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, and after a near miss in the league twelve months later, finally took the title in the first year of the new Premier League in 1993.

Ferguson's United team would go on to dominate the first 17 years of the Premier League era, winning eleven championships in that time including two separate hat-tricks of titles, the first English club to do so. The double was won in 1994 and 1996, and then in 1999 Ferguson achieved his ambition of winning the European Cup, to complete a famous treble alongside the league title and FA Cup. After postponing retirement plans in 2002, he went on to build another European Cup winning side in 2008, adding the World Club Cup later that year. In 2009, Ferguson's United equalled Liverpool's record of 18 English titles.