UNHAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Oliver Holt in the Mirror has his say as Ferguson's twentieth anniversary looms.

Next Monday, Sir Alex Ferguson will celebrate 20 years in charge of Manchester United.

In some ways, I'd like to join in the accompanying orgy of back-slapping and misty-eyed remembrance. But I can't.

I'm happy to acknowledge that after Bob Paisley and Brian Clough, Ferguson has been one of the most successful and brilliant managers in English football history.

He has consistently produced teams that have played breathtaking attacking football and which have been superb ambassadors for our game. He has moulded players and men to admire in his two decades at the helm and built United back up into one of England's leading clubs.

But like celebrating his pal Tony Blair's 10 years as prime minister next May, Fergie's anniversary amounts to nothing more than a lazy and meaningless ballyhoo for a man who has stayed on too long.

Whatever United go on to achieve this season or in seasons to come, nothing changes the fact that Ferguson should have quit in 2002 when he said he was going to quit.

But then, depending on what you want to believe, his nerve failed him, his wife got to him or he found out how much Sven Goran Eriksson was going to be earning as his replacement.

And so he made one of the worst and weakest decisions of his life and decided to stay on. In the four years that have elapsed since, his legacy has been irrevocably tarnished.

We can't include blowing £28million on Juan Sebastian Veron because that happened in the summer of 2001.

But there was plenty else. Most of all, there was his row with United's major shareholders, John Magnier and JP McManus, over wonder horse Rock Of Gibraltar in 2003. Magnier had given Ferguson a share in the winnings of the horse. For nothing. And Ferguson's response was to attempt to sue him for a share of the stud rights.

That not only ruined a beautiful friendship. It set in chain a series of events that led directly to the sale of Manchester United to Malcolm Glazer.

That sale has plunged the club into huge debt, left it with a lame duck chief executive in David Gill and alienated thousands of die-hard United supporters. To make matters worse Ferguson, who prides himself on being a socialist, has turned his back on those supporters and scorned them as self-publicists.

What else? The disastrous signings of Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Park Ji-Sung, Liam Miller. The way he handled the departure of Roy Keane. The premature offloading of loyal servants Nicky Butt and Phil Neville. His catastrophic management of Rio Ferdinand's missed drugs test.

His sale of David Beckham. His negligence in failing to reinforce United's midfield until this season's overpriced acquisition of Michael Carrick.

Of course, the man is a living legend. He belongs in the pantheon with Paisley, Clough and Bill Shankly. But strip it down and under his management Manchester United, who call themselves the biggest club in the world, have won the European Cup once in 20 years.

In the same period FC Porto and Barcelona have won it twice, Real Madrid three times and AC Milan four times.

The European dynasty Ferguson vowed to found never materialised. The win in the Nou Camp in 1999 was a one-hit wonder.

So lavish praise on Sir Alex Ferguson. But don't get too misty-eyed when next Monday rolls around.