RICKY SBRAGIA found the 3½ years he spent working under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United so personally and professionally rewarding that he regrets the fact he ever left.
By rights, the Scotland Under-19 coach should have been trading up when he swapped a youth coaching role at Carrington for a first-team coach's gig at Bolton Wanderers, but when he dwells upon his career with the benefit of hindsight, he is not quite so sure.
"It was probably the best 3½ years I've had in football," said Sbragia. "It was absolutely fantastic. There was a family atmosphere and a work ethic amongst everyone – from the groundstaff up. Looking back, I probably wish I hadn't left, even though I moved on to be first-team coach at Bolton. Why leave the best club in Europe?"
Now it is Ferguson who is moving on and, while his departure leaves a vacuum at the top of the British game and some classy shoes to fill, Sbragia feels his legacy will continue to penetrate every aspect of the club. Sbragia – who left Old Trafford on decent terms, the two men speaking again after he was appointed manager of Sunderland – still remembers the pep talk he received on his first day in the job and feels that certain elements of the club now almost manage themselves.
"He [Ferguson] told me to enjoy it and work hard, but it's the only club I've ever been to where I had a week of walking around instead of coaching from day one," he said. "I was taken round everything, from Academy level to the first team, to watch how things were done. I thought I was a decent coach until I went there but I was miles away. Nothing's overly difficult but everything's done right – from the recruitment to the coaching. It's a massive machine and it's all down to him. He's interested in everything, right down to the under-9s.
"It's a sad day to think I won't see him again in that dugout chewing his gum."
Ferguson has been known to refer half-jokingly to Scots as the "master race" and Sbragia, who was as surprised as anyone to hear the news, hopes the Scottish connection at the club continues. With Everton's David Moyes the clear frontrunner, Sbragia feels Ferguson's presence as a director and ambassador at the club should be a boon.
"I think he [Ferguson] is the greatest ever," Sbragia said. "His longevity is something else. Sir Alex once told me to read a book, How Scots Invented The Modern World. Manchester United are what they are because of him but if it is to be David Moyes then I think he could cope with it. He'd have that extra help from Sir Alex so I think it will keep rolling on. They'll be successful next year and the year after."
Whatever the future has in store for Ferguson, odds of a return to the SFA are, for the moment at least, remote. Instead, Sbragia is one of the men charged with looking after the next generation of youngsters, and he feels that the injury-hit squad which he takes out to contest the elite round of the under-19 championships against Belgium, England and Croatia later this month still have plenty to offer. Headline acts include Chelsea's Islam Feruz, Everton's Matthew Kennedy, Bournemouth's Ryan Fraser, Rangers' Lewis McLeod and Dundee United pair John Souttar and Ryan Gauld. "We have three very difficult games," said Sbragia, "but we said that ahead of the ties in the last round against Switzerland and Romania too."
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