Football
Mark Rodden 8y

Sir Alex Ferguson: German bosses can succeed in Premier League

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson sees no reason that German coaches like Liverpool target Jurgen Klopp cannot be a success in the English Premier League.

Klopp, 48, is set to be named as Brendan Rodgers' successor at Anfield later this week.

If he does take over at Liverpool, the former Borussia Dortmund boss would become only the second German boss to coach at the highest level in England.

The first was ex-Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath, who could not prevent Fulham's relegation after his arrival in February 2014. The 62-year-old was sacked seven months later as a result of his side taking only one point from their first seven matches in the second tier the following season.

But Ferguson, 73, believes a German coach can adapt to the Premier League -- pointing out that a host of other nationalities have already done so.

"Absolutely," he told German football magazine kicker. "Of course. Only a few English managers work in the Premier League -- the last time one won the title was in 1992.

"Scots, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italians work successfully here so why not Germans? There's no reason why they couldn't approach it with confidence."

One potential explanation for a lack of German managers in England is that they are regularly supported by a sporting director in the Bundesliga.

But Ferguson, who won 38 trophies in 26 years at Old Trafford, believes that Premier League clubs are moving closer to the German model.

He cited one example being the fact that managers at English clubs now play little part in negotiating a player's contract.

"It's changing a little in England," he said in an interview carried out before United's Champions League game against Wolfsburg. "The days when a manager has control at a club the way I had at United are gone."

With clubs getting bigger, Ferguson said managers had to delegate more and trust more people, especially those they had worked with for a long time.

There has already been plenty of speculation about whether Klopp could work with Liverpool's transfer committee in the same way that Rodgers did, but that is one area where Ferguson feels managers need to retain control.

"Although a lot of things have changed, the manager still has to have the last words on buying players," he said. "There are organisations that say to a manager, 'These are our players for next year.'

"I doubt that I could deal with that. They take away responsibility from you but you don't know who you'll get."

^ Back to Top ^