He is extremely controlling. Wants everything his way. What Beckham should wear, how he should cut his hair, how many days he should spend on his honeymoon, who should he marry and who should he not be with … Is this OK for you? And he would get away after physically assaulting him? For SAF, everything was always about himself.
Arsene Wenger on the other hand is so different. He only controlled what people ate (and that too, through education and not “enforcement”). I never hear any such stories about him. He too was a winner, wasn’t he? But completely different style of management.
Seems Ferguson controlled through fear while Arsene Wenger coached through love.
The description of Fergie in the OP post is extremely one sided. I presume the OP is younger and didn’t follow football during Fergie’s reign.
Fergie was arguably the greatest manager and greatest man manager ever. He treated his players as his children and they looked up to him as a father figure. He nurtured them, protected them and guided them.
He was so successful because he fostered a winning mentality where every player bought into the team ethos. No player was bigger than the club. It didn’t matter how good you were, if you weren’t prepared to dig in and fight for your team mates there wasn’t a place for you at the club.
He nurtured Beckham from a teenage boy and had a special relationship with him. Beckham wouldn’t have had half the career he had without him. What you see as controlling is actually Fergie keeping him on the straight and narrow.
Beckham is presented in a certain way in the documentary but he was no angel. At various points throughout his career he saw himself as above the club and above his team mates which goes against everything which made Man United so successful. He said himself in the documentary that he craved fame and publicity. With the haircut, he was a massive celebrity figure - partially because of the hair - and shaving the curtains off was always going to generate publicity. There’s nothing remotely comparable these days. But he orchestrated it to keep it secret until he stepped on the pitch at Old Trafford knowing the eyes of the world would be on him for non-footballing reasons and effectively used the club to generate publicity for himself.
He didn’t control who he could see, either, but rightly felt his relationship/marriage was distracting him from football and was within his rights to move a player on who wasn’t fully committed.
Without Fergie you get pisstakers like Pogba and 2021/22 Ronaldo running the club and poisoning the dressing room. Bearing in mind he already got shot of one and nurtured the other into one of the best players of all time.
Not only “within his rights”, but ultimately right. He sold Beckham and brought in Ronaldo, and after 3 rough (by Sir Alex’s standards) seasons, the club went on to win a further 5 league titles and never finished outside of the top 2.