“I wasn’t enjoying it”: Sir Alex Ferguson reveals huge turning point that almost robbed Man United of their greatest ever manager

Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has opened up about his brain haemorrhage in 2018 during a candid interview with the BBC.

United supporters were also concerned for the health of their former manager in May this year when he was taken to hospital before the club’s match at Old Trafford, but fortunately he made a full recovery.

Brain Haemorrhage

Ferguson told the British news station that he was “terrified” returning to Old Trafford after his major health scare in 2018.

He claimed, “I wish I could say I was comfortable. I wasn’t. My wife was with me, and she was nearly crying. When we sat down, she said: ‘That’s fantastic’” in regard to the standing ovation he received from the Old Trafford crowd.

The former manager also revealed that he initially lost his voice after the incident.

He explained, “that was a frightening moment. I remember my grandsons coming to see me and I had lost my voice. Then they brought in a therapist and she started doing things like asking me to write down the names of birds, names of animals, names of rivers. That way my voice came back.”

Canada

Ferguson would become one of the most famous contributors to football’s storied history, but he almost gave it up at just 16.

After he began playing for St Johnstone at just 16 years old, he revealed he almost gave up on his dream before it had even started.

He explained, “I wasn’t enjoying it. I wasn’t playing first-team football; I was in the reserves all the time. I filled out all the forms and phoned my aunt in Canada, because you needed a sponsor then, and never told my mother and father.”

As fate would have it, in 1963, St Johnstone had a flu bug in their dressing room and Ferguson was drafted into the starting line-up to face Rangers at Ibrox. He scored a hat-trick and never looked back.

Paul Ince sale

Ferguson had many qualities that made him an incredible manager, but one of his best was his ability to make tough decisions.

He demonstrated this in 1995 when he sold talismanic midfielder Paul Ince to Inter Milan.

Speaking to the BBC about the sale, he said, “Paul was a tremendous footballer, there’s no doubt about that. He had incredible ability, but I just had that feeling that he just got carried away a bit at the time. He then got this offer from Inter Milan. I’m trying to weigh up one thing against the other. I’m looking at Paul Scholes and I said ‘should we?’”

When Inter bid £7.5m, Ferguson claimed he gave the move the green light and justified his decision by saying, “that’s what your job is as a manager. You have to make hard decisions, and some decisions don’t suit everyone.”

He also added an interesting tidbit that David Beckham believed Ferguson was trying to get rid of him before his United career had even properly started.

The Scot explained, “I put Beckham out on loan at Preston [in March 1995] and he thought I was trying to get rid of him, which was not true. David was the last to really develop because of his physique. Although he grew to 6ft, he was small and thin as a young kid.”

Featured image by Justin Setterfield via Getty Images