“Nothing short of a miracle” is how Sir Alex Ferguson has described the most astonishing victory of his managerial career. It came against Real Madrid but not during his 26-year spell at Manchester United. Thursday marks 40 years since Real last encountered defeat in a major European competition final: against Aberdeen in the Cup Winners’ Cup.
Ferguson achieved that 2-1 extra-time win with a group of young players who were a precursor for his “Class of 92” at United featuring Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers. These were Fergie’s first fledglings, and had injury and ill-fortune not hurt their careers, they could have soared to even greater heights.
What the Aberdeen players of 1983 experienced was an even more fearsome Ferguson than the one who eventually ended his career at Old Trafford. “He probably mellowed to a typhoon by then,” says Eric Black, the striker who scored Aberdeen’s opening goal against Real at the age of 19.
“He was a ferocious leader at that time, because he was trying to build a reputation. He was incredibly demanding and he created an atmosphere that was semi-confrontational, within the players as well, to ensure we had that winning mentality and he got the last percentage out of everybody.”
Real have competed in 10 European competition finals since their defeat by Aberdeen in Gothenburg: eight in the Champions League/European Cup, two in the Uefa Cup. What makes Ferguson’s team’s feat even more remarkable is the age of his side. Every Aberdeen player who featured in the final was 28 or under. But four young Scottish players stand out: the goalscorers Black and John Hewitt, 20; and starting midfielders Neale Cooper, 19, and Neil Simpson, the relative veteran of the quartet at 21.
Each would feel the full force of Fergie’s wrath on occasion. Hewitt, the super-sub whose diving header sunk Real on a rain-swept night, had been Ferguson’s first signing at Aberdeen in 1979. He made his debut at 16 but none of this entitled the forward to any special privileges.
“One time we were training in the winter, the weather wasn’t great and there was snow covering the ground so we trained somewhere indoors,” Hewitt says. “We were heading back to Pittodrie stadium, I had a car full of players and Sir Alex was in front of us doing about 10mph in his Mercedes – if he’d went any slower I could probably have got out of the car and walked past him.
“The boys were urging me on to pass him – but as we did, they wound down the windows and waved and that sort of infuriated him. By the time we got back to the dressing room, he burst in and I got the: ‘You bloody maniac Hewitt! What do you think you’re doing? You could have crashed! The roads are treacherous and you’re driving like that with millions of pounds worth of talent in your car?’ He went on and on.”
Hewitt ended up with a fine, £20 taken from his weekly wages, but it could have been worse. He recalls bespoke punishments dreamed up by the manager and the assistant, Archie Knox, a “bad cop, worse cop” double act. They included cleaning one of the pair’s cars or a player babysitting for the Fergusons.
Sometimes even victory was not enough to sate Ferguson. Ten days after that monumental 120 minutes against Real Madrid, Aberdeen met Rangers in the Scottish Cup final and understandably produced a weary and subpar performance. They triumphed nonetheless, cup final specialist Black heading the only goal in extra time.
Unbeknown to the players in the Hampden dressing room celebrating their second trophy of the month, Ferguson, with a face like thunder, was tearing most of them to shreds in a TV interview. “A disgrace of a performance,” he raged, sparing only his two centre-backs. “[Willie] Miller and [Alex] McLeish played Rangers by themselves … winning cups doesn’t matter. Our standards have been set long ago and I’m not going to accept that from any Aberdeen team.”
Black recalls jubilant scenes in the changing room, “then all of a sudden, the door went screaming open – and it was like the sheriff coming into the saloon bar in the wild west. The door was rattling on its hinges and he just went ballistic at us. That put a bit of a dampener on everything.”
The celebratory meal at Gleneagles had the atmosphere of a wake and at least one player, Gordon Strachan, left in protest at the manager’s reaction. In fact, this was a rare occasion where Ferguson apparently realised he’d gone too far and backed down. “He did apologise to some degree,” says Black, laughing. “I think Archie Knox spoke to him and got him to apologise for maybe going overboard a little bit. But I’m not sure it was that genuine to be honest.”
Amid the tough love, however, Ferguson inspired loyalty verging on reverence among his players. As later at Manchester United, his eagerness for promoting youth at Aberdeen was twofold. First it was incredibly cost-effective. Second he could nurture these young players, creating a siege mentality and fuelling an insatiable hunger to win. “Sir Alex didn’t allow anybody to linger on any success; once you’d achieved the aims, it was on to the next one,” says Black.
What stands out about Aberdeen’s Cup Winners’ Cup triumph is that the lineup of teams was extraordinarily strong. The quarter-finals also included Barcelona, Internazionale, Paris Saint-Germain and the team Aberdeen defeated to reach the semi-finals: Bayern Munich. “Bayern were laden with West Germany internationals – by far the best team we faced in the competition,” says Hewitt.
Bayern, who had been in the previous season’s European Cup final, were shocked by Aberdeen in a style that would become familiar to followers of Ferguson’s United. After a 0-0 draw in the first leg, Bayern led 1-0 then 2-1 in Scotland. Aberdeen scored twice with less than 15 minutes left, Hewitt – in a prelude to the final – coming off the bench to score the winner.
Aberdeen went on to win the following season’s Super Cup, defeating Hamburg over two legs, and broke apart the Old Firm stranglehold at home. But the question asked later was why this quartet of youngsters, who played a vital role in besting some of Europe’s elite, did not have the longevity to match their dazzling early success.
Black retired at 28 because of a persistent back injury. Hewitt, Simpson and Cooper also struggled badly with injuries in their late 20s, causing their careers to tail off. Between four players who looked like the nucleus of a future Scotland team, only seven caps were earned (two for Black, five for midfield dynamo Simpson).
Michael Crick’s 2002 biography, The Boss: The Many Sides of Alex Ferguson, posits the theory that the manager would later come to believe he had possibly pushed these young footballers too hard, too young. “There were players shattered at 25 and you have to ask yourself why,” Ferguson is quoted as saying. “Maybe they had too much first-team football with all the pressure that brings.”
Cooper, the team’s grinning, golden-curled holding midfielder who performed a spot-on Ferguson impression, told the Scotsman in 2016: “We were overplayed and Fergie admits that. I’m wrecked now and couldn’t go for a run if I wanted. Playing golf the other day I had to use a buggy but still ended up hurting my left knee … Eric’s in so much pain with his back. If you were slightly injured you were scared to say because you’d be thought a jessie so you played anyway.”
Cooper died in 2018 at the age of 54. But his friends and former teammates reflect his overall views when they say that the benefits of Ferguson’s influence on their lives far outweigh any negatives. Black says of whether being overplayed at a young age contributed to his injury issues: “I really don’t think so to be honest. I look back on it now and I wouldn’t change it for anything … I certainly don’t blame anybody. It was what it was. And I was very fortunate to be a part of that Aberdeen team.”
Hewitt’s view is that it was more of a reflection of attitudes in the 80s, when rotation and managing workloads were barely a concern, rather than anything particular to Ferguson. “When we were young, you used to play for your school on a Saturday morning, with your boys’ club on a Saturday afternoon, you’d be playing again on a Sunday,” he says. “It was three games in two days. Nowadays it’s so different for the young players. Things have moved on, it’s all about sports science, diet, recovery.”
Nonetheless, Ferguson’s treatment of young players at United gradually altered. Although the generation of Giggs, Scholes and Beckham were given responsibility at a young age – particularly during the 1995-96 “You’ll never win anything with kids” season – they were also rigorously protected; both from intense media interest and from themselves as the manager keenly monitored their playing time. This may, in part, explain their extraordinary longevity compared with their counterparts a decade earlier at Aberdeen.
In Ferguson’s defence, the prevailing wisdom was that if you were good enough, you were old enough. And not one of his Aberdeen players look back with regret over that trophy-laden era.
When Ferguson first met Alfredo Di Stéfano, the Real legend and the club’s manager in 1983, he came armed with a bottle of whisky. Inspired by the legendary Jock Stein, then the Scotland manager, Ferguson presented it to Di Stéfano as a gift. “Let him feel important,” Stein advised, “as if you are thrilled just to be in the final.” Whether or not Di Stéfano knew Ferguson was acting starstruck while plotting his side’s downfall, he was generous after the match. “Aberdeen have what money can’t buy: a soul, a team spirit,” he said.
Hewitt reflects now that: “It was so nice to be part of a special group of boys, being managed by the best there’s ever been – it’s something I can’t fully explain. The city was buzzing back in the 80s, the fans were getting to cup finals every season, they were travelling in Europe – we the oil boom as well – so everything was blooming about the city. I was so proud to be a part of it.”
Aberdeen ’83: Once in a Lifetime is on BBC iPlayer from Thursday 11 May.
