When plain old Alex Ferguson arrived at Manchester United in November 1986 there were no thoughts of building a dynasty - a single league title would be an absolute godsend. United was seriously struggling, Ron Atkinson had gambled everything on the title - more or less abandoning a once flourishing youth policy to bring in experienced professionals. The season before had seen United top of the table for the first few months only to fizzle out after Christmas; with the poor form continuing into the next season when the worst league start for 40 years forced the board to act.
Ferguson was brought in to smash the pre-eminence of Liverpool and Everton in the same way that he broke up the Celtic/Rangers dominance in Scotland. But if you look at the distribution of titles up to Ferguson's appointment it is clear that his involvement at the club is more significant than seems possible. It took Ferguson six full seasons to take the team to the title but since then the titles have been accumulated remorselessly.
To anyone who is under 30-years-old there can be no real recollection of United not being a title challenging team - so here is the distribution of titles before Ferguson arrived in England.
Distribution of titles up to 1986
16 Liverpool
8 Arsenal, Everton
7 Aston Villa, Manchester United
6 Sunderland
4 Newcastle United, The Wednesday/Sheffield Wednesday
3 Huddersfield Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers
2 Preston North End, Portsmouth, Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Derby County, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers
1 Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion, Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest, Chelsea
Before Ferguson, Liverpool was simply out of sight, enjoying as many league titles as the two next best teams put together. Interestingly Everton and Arsenal were numbers two and three back then with United another title back, level with Villa with seven successes one more than Sunderland. Chelsea was on a par with Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion, Ipswich Town and Nottingham Forest.
In his time at United, to date, Ferguson has dominated the honours board. After a slow start where Everton, Liverpool, Leeds and Arsenal won titles in his early years United has dominated the nineties (winning five titles) and the noughties (winning six). In total seven different teams have been champions whilst Ferguson has been in charge at Old Trafford - which demonstrates how recent this cosy cartel at the top of the English game actually is.
Title distributions in Ferguson's 22½ seasons
11 Manchester United
5 Arsenal
2 Liverpool, Chelsea
1 Blackburn Rovers, Leeds United, Everton
So the title distribution now look skewed in favour of the new 'big three'; Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have now won 45% of all league titles in England and only Chelsea looks likely to seriously discomfort them in the coming years. Ferguson has seriously tilted the history of the competition.
Current distribution of titles
18 Liverpool, Manchester United
13 Arsenal
9 Everton
7 Aston Villa
6 Sunderland
4 Newcastle United, The Wednesday/Sheffield Wednesday
3 Huddersfield Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea
2 Preston North End, Portsmouth, Burnley, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Derby County
1 Sheffield United, West Bromwich Albion, Ipswich Town, Nottingham Forest