The five managers with the most wins over Sir Alex Ferguson: Wenger, Ancelotti, Mourinho…
Manchester United icon Sir Alex Ferguson is rightly regarded as one of the greatest managers in history – so it makes a large degree of sense that the coaches who registered the most wins against him are mostly legends in their own right.
Ferguson was responsible for some unforgettable managerial rivalries in his time, and it often required something special to get the better of his best United sides.
Here are the five managers that registered the most wins over Ferguson.
=3. Carlo Ancelotti – 7 wins
We’re a little surprised to see Ancelotti’s name on this list, given the Italian’s time in English football was short and sweet. Don Carlo spent just two seasons at Chelsea and Ferguson had long retired by the time he returned to the Premier League for that surreal stint at Everton.
But Ancelotti’s Chelsea often got the better of Ferguson’s United. The tone was set with a penalty shootout victory in the 2009 Community Shield and that season the Blues went on to complete a league double that proved vital in winning the title that season, stopping the Red Devils from making it four in a row.
Chelsea made it three successive league victories in a row the following season, but United got their revenge with home-and-away victories in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Prior to that era, Ancelotti’s AC Milan beat United on four separate occasions – including three Champions League victories en route to the 2005 and 2007 finals against Liverpool.
=3. Jose Mourinho – 7 wins
Mourinho boasts by a considerable distance the best record against Ferguson of big-name coaches that faced him regularly.
The Portuguese tactician lost just three of 16 meetings with Ferguson’s United. Cup games make this a little murky but Ferguson’s average of 0.94 points per match against Mourinho is by far his lowest return of any coach he faced 10 or more times.
Memorable Mourinho wins include Porto’s 2003-04 Champions League 201, Chelsea’s statement-making 1-0 victory over United in the opening weekend of the 2004-05 season and Real Madrid’s 2-1 win at Old Trafford in 2013 – a result that killed Ferguson’s ambitions of bowing out with another Champions League trophy.
“My feeling is that Manchester United were playing very well, were very compact and aggressive in a good way,” Mourinho responded following Nani’s controversial red card.
“I doubt that 11 v 11 we win the match. I know Manchester United are giants, not just physically but mentally. I know they have a manager who can motivate then, but I was waiting for us to play in a different way.”
It was clear even then the silver-tongued devil was angling for a post as Fergie’s successor. Who knows what might have happened had he got the job instead of David Moyes?
=3. Gerard Houllier – 7 wins
The French coach is one of a select few managers that finished above Ferguson in the Premier League era. And he’s the only one that doesn’t have a Premier League winners medal to his name.
Houllier’s Liverpool finished runners-up to Arsenal in 2001-02, with third place United’s joint-worst placing under Ferguson in the Premier League. That season Liverpool completed a league double, following on from a curtain-raising 2-1 victory in the Charity Shield.
That one season aside, Houllier’s Liverpool were undoubtedly inferior to United. You only need to look at their league placings and points tallies for the most part. And yet, the Merseyside club enjoyed a period where they enjoyed the hoodoo over their historic rivals. They won five successive matches from 2000 to 2002. On three separate occasions in the early noughties, unlikely hero Danny Murphy cropped up with match-winners in 1-o victories.
READ NEXT: Recalling Sir Alex Ferguson’s crazy final game as Man Utd manager
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Sir Alex Ferguson’s 30 most-used players at Man Utd?
2. George Graham – 9 wins
While Ferguson cut his coaching cloth north of the border, fellow Scot Graham only ever worked in England, aside from a very brief stint seeing out his playing days with California Surf.
They faced off no fewer than 29 times over the years as Ferguson’s United locked horns with Arsenal, Leeds and Tottenham sides coached by his compatriot.
Graham led all three to victories over United. Arsenal regularly beat United back in the late 80s and early 90s as they enjoyed a period of dominance, while a decade later Spurs beat United on three separate occasions – all at home, all via a 3-1 scoreline.
1. Arsene Wenger – 16 wins
The iconic Arsenal manager tops this list by a country mile.
In part, that’s down to sheer volume of matches. The two men are the two longest-serving managers of the Premier League era by a considerable distance. Wenger was the adversary that Ferguson faced the most often in his career, with 49 meetings between the pair.
Ferguson might have suffered the most losses to Wenger, but United also beat his Arsenal 23 times. The only manager he registered more wins over was Harry Redkapp (30 out of 44).
Their rivalry was legendary, with Arsenal and Manchester United’s title tussles at the turn of the century still the benchmark for white-hot drama and simmering intensity.
There was certainly no love lost between the pair over the years, but it was also plain to see that the two men grew to have great respect for one another.
READ: Celebrating Arsene Wenger’s ‘prettiest wife’ jibe – & how it made Fergie explode