TheLegendOfBerti said:
Fergie was on the verge of the sack after what...4 years?
My point is not if continually for 3 years we don't do well, but in 6 months we're not in the top 4 some people on here(who seem to conjugate on the same threads to post their unwavering opinion) will want him out, when I believe 6 months isn't a fair amount of time, especially when an unproven manager in Hughes got 18 months.
With reference to what DD was saying, I can understand his reasoning behind Arsenal sticking with Wenger because he won the double in his first full season.
As for Ferguson though, you're spot on - he didn't win a trophy until his third full season. His first full season (87-88) saw them finish second behind an outstanding Liverpool side so it was fair enough that he bought some time for himself. However, they finished mid-table the following term (88-89) despite spending a lot of money.
They spent even more money in the summer of 1989 and seemed to get even worse again, finishing one place ahead of us in 13th. However, while their league form was largely crap and they were even still in with an outside chance of going down with a few games to go (incredibly Sheffield Wednesday beat them sometime in March 1990 to go well clear of the Rags, us, and everybody else in the relegation dogfight yet contrived to lose every game from thereon in IIRC and went down on the final day), they somehow managed to win the FA Cup which saved Ferguson's bacon (pardon the pun!) and the rest is history.
The point I'm making in all of this though and it's kind of backing up what you said, is that from the opening day of the 1988-1989 season until the final day of the 1989-1990 season the Rags' league form was consistently lower/mid-table. That's 2 full seasons of abject league form. They could've easily sacked him at Christmas 1989 - before they embarked on that FA Cup run - for the poor form of the past season and a half but instead of giving most of the United fans what they wanted Edwards and the board stuck with him.