Replacing Sir Alex Ferguson in the hot seat of Manchester United is not an easy task. Just ask David Moyes.
But United only needed a mortal to get on the board when they were facing local rivals Manchester City in Maine Road on November 18, 2000.
Ferguson followed in the footsteps of each Sunday League manager by missing a match because of family obligations.
“I watched the international competitions for the season and originally I had fallen as an international date in February 18,” Ferguson told The Sunday Express.
“My son went for his wedding before that date, only for the competitions to be changed.
“We found out that instead of having a free weekend, we play Manchester City – it couldn't have been worse for me.
“The wedding is in Cape Town, so there is nothing I can do.”
Although players can briefly move to different clubs about emergency loan agreements, the same rule does not apply to managers.
The idea of Ottmar Hitzfeld, Vicente del Bosque, Carlo Ancelotti, Carlos Bianchi or Marcello Lippi who managed United for 90 minutes was simply not possible.
Eventually the man was filling the incredibly large boots of Ferguson United Assistant Manager Steve McClaren.
McClaren, who started coaching in Oxford United and Derby County, became Ferguson's right-hand man halfway through the 1998-99 season and soon helped them win the Treble.
He was also on the couch when United won the Intercontinental Cup and won a new Premier League title the following season.
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Read: Boro, FC Twente & Steve McClararen's bizarre up and down career
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McClaren had proven his coaching references and settled as a brilliant number two, but he knew that managing the team would be a completely different – and more discouraging – prospect.
“Knowing what happened so early was a bonus in many ways, but it also gave me sleepless nights for a few weeks,” McClaren later told the official United website.
The competition was the first competitive Manchester Derby since April 1996, because City had spent the previous four seasons in the lower competitions.
Local bragging were at stake and the bitter feud between Roy Keane from United and City's Alf-Iing Haaland added to the drama.
While Mike Phelan once Deputte for Ferguson in a competition cup against Scunthorpe, McClaren was thrown in the deep for his management experience of management at the highest level.
“It was a hugely important game and there was no mess about it,” he added.
“Personally I felt absolutely enormous pressure. Huge responsibility. It was my first right taste to be on the touchline and to be the man at the front.”
Fortunately for McClaren, Ferguson had already chosen the starting XI. But the stand-in manager still had to stamp his authority and ensure that he did not come across as a child who had won the prize in a lottery.
“I was lucky because I had instructions, I had picked the team and the team that was chosen knew how to win the game, but I still had decisions,” he said.
'You come for the game in the dressing room and you are not Alex Ferguson. You are you. You know that. The players know that.
“It's your message, you have to be yourself, you can't give the hairdryer the way he can, but the most important thing was the team. That was a team of winners. They knew how to win that game and they didn't need much from me.”
The McClaren Talk team in the dressing room of Maine Road apparently seemed the trick when his management career came to a dream start.
After Haaland Paul Scholes had knocked down in the opening fairs, David Beckham stepped up to take the resulting free kick.
Beckham then helped to restore some normality, to let go of a trademark strike that got away from the desperate dive of Nicky Weaver and was nestled in the net.
United was 1-0 higher after just 95 seconds and Ferguson probably wondered if he would still have a job when he returned to Manchester.
The away match continued to dominate the procedure in the first half, but Dwight Yorke missed a series of opportunities to put United out of sight.
Despite the fact that United won 1-0 during the break and Ferguson was thousands of kilometers away, Yorke still felt his wrath.
“When we arrived at the dressing room, our kitman, Albert Morgan, already had an SMS from the Gaffer,” McClaren added. “And yes, he looked at the game in South Africa, and the message to Albert was clear: make sure I told Yorkie to take his finger a little more.
“Well, words to that effect, and not so polite. Even from far away, the hairdryer was there, even when I sent him to level one, instead of level five. The Gaffer looked carefully, without a doubt.
“We all felt his presence. He was perhaps in a different hemisphere, also many kilometers away, but he was always there.
“That is the appearance he has; the appearance he had created for many years.
“He may not have been in the dressing room that day, but everyone knew he would be there to watch the game and there would be consequences if he came back if they didn't produce.”
City finally grew in the game and a 19-year-old Shaun Wright-Phillips, who started his first Premiership on Maine Road, caused problems for the United Defense.
United was not at their best in the second half, but the side of Joe Royle was missing a lead and was guilty of some striking mistakes.
Tempers cooked in the last minutes when Danny Tiatto's reckless tackle on Phil Neville led to a fight just before the Dugouts.
While Ferguson probably shouted obscenities in a TV screen in Cape Town, McClaren acted as a peacemaker and Kane kept his emotions under control.
The same could not be said for the Manchester Derby in Old Trafford A few months later …
United did not even need a fergie time, because Beckham's early strike turned out to be sufficient to win and McClaren's efforts gave him a long distance from his boss.
'For them [players]It was just done work, continue, “McCararen admitted.” For me the work was done, pure, mass relief, a glass of red wine and in the end I could sleep again! “
The Red Devils then won their third consecutive Premier League title in 2001 and McClaren left the club with a profit percentage of 100% as a United Manager.
By Nathan Egerton