25 years ago Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards introduced Sir Alex Ferguson as United manager and boy o boy was it the best signing United ever made though it wasn’t all plain sailing. Here’s a look at some of Fergie’s now famous rants and mind games:
1. ‘I can’t understand the Leeds players. I’m absolutely in support of their manager (Howard Wilkinson). He doesn’t deserve his players. If they had played like that all season they’d be near the top. They raised their game because they were playing Manchester United. It was pathetic. I think we can except any club coming here and trying their hardest, so long as they do it every week.’ (Title run in 1996 when Kevin Keegan had his meltdown live on TV)
2. ‘My greatest challenge is not what is happening right at this moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their perch. And you can print that.’ (2002)
3. ‘I think he was an angry man. He must have been disturbed for some reason. I think you have got to cut through the venom of it and hopefully he’ll reflect and understand what he said was absolutely ridiculous.’ (On Rafa Benitez famous fact based rant in 2009.)
4. Would Kenny have signed for Blackburn when he was a player? I know what he would have done if United and Blackburn had both come in for him.’( On Kenny Dalglish’s signing of Alan Shearer in 1992)
5. Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it’s a better cow than the one you’ve got in your own field. It’s a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way.’ (On Rooney’s transfer request in 2010)
6. ‘If I’d tried it 100 times or a million times, it wouldn’t happen again. If it did, I would carry on playing.’ (On hitting Beckham with a flying boot in 2003)
7. ‘It’s getting tickly now- squeaky bum time, I call it’. (On the title run-in with Arsenal in 2003)
8. He was also walking up the pitch for the second goal needing a rest. He was not fit enough for a game of that standard. The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. It is an indictment of our game. (On ref Alan Wiley following a draw with Sunderland in 2009)
9. I’m not saying what they do down there, but next year we’ll be sending somebody to see how it happens, I can assure you. I just don’t understand how you can get the fixtures like that.’ (On Premier Leagues fixture computer)
10. ‘He was blessed with great stamina, the best of all the players I’ve had here. After training, he’d always be practising. But his life changed when he met his Wife. She’s in pop and David got another image. He’s developed this ‘fashion thing’. I saw his transition to a different person.’ (On Beckham in 2003 following his move to Real Madrid)
