1. Peter Schmeichel was not happy with Roy Keane being appointed captain
“Schmeichel admired Keane as a player and, best as I know, there wasn’t any particular animosity between them. It was just that Schmeichel’s pride was hurt, and he let me know in no uncertain terms by storming into my office and going completely berserk.”
2. Some advice from Eric Cantona helped United win the FA Cup in 1996
“Eric suggested that we drop Roy Keane in front of our back four to keep tabs on McManaman, who floated behind their forwards and was a real handful. It was an astute observation, which we followed; as a result, McManaman was silenced and we won what was a tedious, uneventful game when Eric scored the only goal.”
3. There was long-running tension between Ruud van Nisteloory and Cristiano Ronaldo that was reminiscent to the ill feeling between Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham
“Ruud was dissatisfied with the number of passes he was receiving from Cristiano and his very evident irritation exacted a toll on the younger player.”
4. Ben Thornley was ‘the Class of 92′ member that got away and was part of the reason why he controversially sold Paul Ince
“What the fans did not appreciate was that I was under considerable pressure to make sure that we could make room in the side for Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and David Beckham. Ben Thornley, another youngster at the time, also looked as if he would make it, until he was terribly injured in a reserve game.”
5. He admits to feeling ‘haunted by’ Ireland international Darron Gibson in the famous 4-4 match between United and Everton
“We sliced Everton to bits and were leading 4-2. The irony was that we were haunted by Darron Gibson, a strong midfielder we had only just sold to Everton. I kept telling the team to not let Gibson get in a position with the ball in the middle of the pitch. But, for some reason, we didn’t, and wound up with Darron Gibson actually running the show.”
‘Leading’ by Alex Ferguson is published by Hodder & Stoughton. More info here.
