page_title: Alex Ferguson
section_title: 2002–2006: Rebuilding and transition
hierarchical_section_title: Alex Ferguson / Managerial career / Manchester United / 2002–2006: Rebuilding and transition
caption_attribution_description: English: Cristiano Ronaldo; image cropped from Image:Ronaldo - Manchester United vs Chelsea.jpg and converted to PNG format.
context_page_description: Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson CBE is a Scottish former football manager and player widely known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is considered by many to be the greatest manager of all time and he has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of football.
  Ferguson played as a forward for several Scottish clubs, including Dunfermline Athletic and Rangers. While playing for Dunfermline, he was the top goalscorer in the Scottish league in the 1965–66 season. Towards the end of his playing career he also worked as a coach, then started his managerial career with East Stirlingshire and St Mirren. Ferguson then enjoyed a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen, winning three Scottish league championships, four Scottish Cups and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1983. He briefly managed Scotland following the death of Jock Stein, taking the team to the 1986 World Cup.
  Ferguson was appointed manager of Manchester United in November 1986. During his 26 years with Manchester United he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, and two UEFA Champions League titles.
context_section_description: In June 2002, Ferguson appointed Carlos Queiroz as his new assistant. The recommendation came from Andy Roxburgh, at a time when United began scouting for southern-hemisphere footballers and wanted a multilingual coach. Ferguson was so impressed with Queiroz after their first meeting, he offered him the job "right away". In July 2002, United paid £29.3 million for Leeds United defender Rio Ferdinand. The club broke the British transfer record once more, though this did not concern Ferguson: "We have the right to try and improve ourselves and there's nothing wrong with that."
  The 2002–03 season began rather poorly for United; the club made their worst start to a league campaign in 13 years. In a column for The Daily Telegraph, Hansen said Ferguson "will recognise this difficult start to the season for what it is: the greatest challenge of his career". Ferguson's response was typically bullish:
  I don't get paid to panic. We have had plenty of stuttering starts. My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment. My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch. And you can print that.
  Several players were sent away for surgery in this period, a "minor gamble" Ferguson took in the hope they would return energised. Defeats, such as the one to Manchester City at Maine Road in November 2002, forced United to change their playing style. The team "moved the ball forward more and quicker rather than concentrating on possession ratios," and the coaching staff tried accommodating Diego Forlán with Ruud van Nistelrooy, before settling with Paul Scholes. United's league form improved as the season went on despite defeat by Liverpool in the 2003 Football League Cup Final and they overhauled Arsenal to win the Premier League for an eighth time in May 2003. The team were eliminated in the Champions League quarter-final to Real Madrid over two legs; Ferguson described the second match, a 4–3 win at Old Trafford as "epic".
  After a season at United, Queiroz left to manage Real Madrid in June 2003. Ferguson anticipated his deputy would return – "Three months later, he was wanting to quit Madrid," and for that reason did not appoint a replacement. In the summer, David Beckham also moved to Real Madrid, while Juan Sebastián Verón joined Chelsea. United in the meantime rebuilt their team: Tim Howard replaced Barthez in goal and Kléberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Cristiano Ronaldo came in to bolster the squad. Ronaldinho might have also joined "had he not said yes, then no, to our offer". Ferguson admitted the signings the club made did not work out in hindsight: "We rushed down the path of buying in proven players – who we thought would match our standards right away."
  In December 2003, Rio Ferdinand was banned from playing football for eight months after he failed to present himself at a drugs test. Ferguson in his autobiography ten years later blamed the drug testers, who "...didn't do their job. They didn't go looking for Rio". The absence of Ferdinand hampered United's defence of the Premier League in the 2003–04 season; the team finished third behind Arsenal's "Invincibles" and Chelsea. In Europe, they experienced defeat at the hands of eventual winners Porto. Ferguson felt it was possible "not because of the performance of the players but because of the referee", who disallowed a legitimate Scholes goal that would have been enough to progress. United ended the campaign as FA Cup winners, beating Millwall 3–0 in the 2004 final.
  At the beginning of the 2004–05 season, teenage striker Wayne Rooney (the world's most expensive teenager at more than £20 million) and Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze joined United while Cristiano Ronaldo continued where he had left off the previous season by putting in more match-winning performances. But the lack of a striker after Ruud van Nistelrooy spent most of the season injured saw the club finish third for the third time in four seasons. In the 2004–05 FA Cup, they lost on penalties to Arsenal. A second-round exit from the European Cup at the hands of Milan and a semi-f
caption: United signed Cristiano Ronaldo in August 2003.
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