No Saint @ All

During his time as team manager of the Scottish second division club St Mirren Football Club, Alex Ferguson took the whole team around the surrounding villages, made house visits with players and organized public events. In doing so, he created a community feeling around the team, which firmly bound fans and sponsors to the club. He turned the team into a figure of identification, the “Buddies”, and many people began to support their success and well-being on their own initiative (Forsyth 2013). As a result, the team was promoted to the Scottish Premier League and attendances increased twenty-fold from just under a thousand when he began (Unbekannter Autor 2008).

Which stratagem did he use?

The positive form of the inversion of number 19, “Steal the firewood from under the pot”: “Add more firewood under the pot”.

The original stratagem means metaphorically 'cutting off your opponent's water', meaning taking measures to cause them to lose resources and support in order to weaken their infrastructure. In contrast, the positive reversal of the Stratagem creates a foundation on which you can stand more securely in the future because you have a broader base. You gather resources, broaden your support network and expand your infrastructure (Senger 2004: 71-155).

Ferguson invested heavily in marketing and public relations at a time when most clubs relied on patronage for financing and management. The extensive groundwork he laid both on and off the pitch meant that the team did not perform as well as some had hoped in the initial years following his takeover, necessitating a reliance on the board's trust for a relatively long period. He received that trust.

In his third year at St. Mirren, the breakthrough came: the team was promoted to Premier League and managed to stay in the league, with attendance rising to 20,000 (Unbekannter Autor 2008).

By literally going door-to-door with his team, Ferguson strengthened the bond between the club and the local people in the long term. Seeing “our boys” standing in your living room creates a completely different sense of community feeling than just seeing the players on the pitch or their results in the newspaper: an abstract closeness turned into a very real one.

Ferguson added more “firewood under the pot” so that the fire could burn better, stronger and longer. He continually expanded the fireplace and added larger and larger boilers, as evidenced by St. Mirren's rapidly growing following and sponsor pool.

Thanks to the larger foundation, the team was also able to tackle bigger tasks. The highlight came in 1980, when the Saints sensationally became the first (and only) Scottish team ever to win the Anglo-Scottish Cup, defeating Bristol City with an aggregate score of 5-1 over the two-legged final (Halliday 2020).

By this time, however, Alex Ferguson was no longer a “Buddy”, after St. Mirren's president kicked him out in May 1978 when he used the 19th stratagem against his club and tried to poach players for his imminent departure to Aberdeen, which constituted a breach of contract and led to instant dismissal (Unbekannter Autor 2008).

Sir Alex was no saint, which is probably why he wasn't a long-term fit for St. Mirren. He had tried the Saints, but was more of an advocatus diaboli type with higher ambitions than those Buddies could offer him due to their geographical limitations.

The sky was his limit, not the little heaven some Saints could offer their buddy as sanctuary.

Sources:

Forsyth, Paul (2013): Alex Ferguson: From Firs Park to Old Trafford. Football. In: The Scotsman, 12.05.2013. Online under https://www.scotsman.com/.../alex-ferguson-from-firs-park..., last checked on 07.02.2024.

Halliday, Stephen (2020): When Saints were kings: How St Mirren made history in the Anglo-Scottish Cup 40 years ago. Football. In: The Scotsman, 16.04.2020. Online under https://www.scotsman.com/.../when-saints-were-kings-how..., last checked on 08.02.2024.

Senger, Harro von (2004): Strategeme. Band Zwei (Strategeme 19-36). Bern: Scherz Verlag. 3rd ed.

Unbekannter Autor (2008): 31.05.1978: Alex Ferguson is fired by St. Mirren. Manchester United. In: The Guardian, 31.05.2008. Online under https://www.theguardian.com/.../31/manchesterunited.stmirren, last checked on 08.02.2024.

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