FERGIE TRAITS GAVE US THE EDGE!

PERVERSELY for a man of such longevity, Sir Alex Ferguson’s great strength was a capacity for change.

Whether clearing the decks to allow the Class of ‘92 to flourish, hiring young coaches or selling Roy Keane in 2005, the Scot was never afraid to twist on a winning hand.

It is, says Paul Chow, a trait shared by Ian Chandler, the legendary Whitley Bay manager whose unique hat-trick of FA Vase wins may never be matched.

“I spent seven years playing for Chan,” says the striker, who scored 270 goals for the Tyneside club, four of them in those Wembley finals.

“But it’s only now that I appreciate how good he was at improving the team. When I joined in 2007, they’d just won the Northern League. But he signed me, brought Paul Robinson in, and we ended up being two really successful players.

“The following year we got to the semi-finals of the Vase, and you’re thinking ‘If we can just keep this team together…’. But he brought in Leon Ryan and Craig McFarlane and we won it.

“Every year was like that – a couple of changes that changed the dynamic and made us better.

“People would leave and you’d think to yourself, ‘He shouldn’t be moved on’. But the person who came in would invariably help the balance of the team. Chan could always see the bigger picture. Without that, I don’t think we’d have won those three Vases.

“It helped that he probably had his pick of players at that level with Whitley doing so well. But you still have to pick the right ones, and he did.”

Chandler’s eye for talent is perhaps no surprise given that he possessed a considerable amount himself.