Alex Ferguson - your opinion on him, and indeed his new book

The main victim of Sir Alex Ferguson’s new book is Roy Keane, who receives far more than the hairdryer treatment.


He gets savaged. Wayne Rooney, David Beckham and Rafa Benítez are also targeted by Ferguson in “My Autobiography” (Hodder & Stoughton, £25) but nothing like the ruthless criticism of Keane, his former captain at Manchester United.


Elsewhere, the Glazers get off lightly and there is little significant debate about Rock of Gibraltar.


The Keane material is extraordinary. Ferguson starts the chapter devoted to his sentence-by-sentence skewering of Keane with some praise, hailing the midfielder’s many gifts as a powerhouse between the boxes and his ability to motivate team-mates with his ferocious glare and orders.


Ferguson, though, detected a change in Keane’s behaviour as his footballing powers ebbed, following hip and knee surgery. “He thought he was Peter Pan,’’ Ferguson writes. “Nobody is.’’


The detail of the collapse of their understanding is fascinating. Keane, according to Ferguson, objected to the quality of accommodation at Vale do Lobo on a pre-season training camp.

This carried echoes of Keane’s complaints about the Irish facilities on Saipan before the 2002 World Cup finals. Ferguson backed Keane in public then but admitted that he felt the Irishman took his grievances too far.

In Portugal, Ferguson and Keane argued. Tension increased in 2005 when Keane did his infamous MUTV interview which was so critical of some of the younger players that it was never broadcast.

Ferguson relates elements of the interview in which Keane called Kieran Richardson “a lazy defender”, wondered why “people in Scotland rave about Darren Fletcher” and made the disparaging verdict on Rio Ferdinand that “just because you are paid £120,000 a week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar”.

Others in Keane’s crosshairs included Alan Smith, even Edwin van der Sar. “Roy was taking them all down,’’ Ferguson writes, sounding as if he is describing a mafia shoot-out.

Ferguson orders Keane and all the players to watch the interview. Van der Sar has a go at Keane, who questioned what the keeper would know of the club’s culture.

For a dressing-room built on unity, this was devastating. Ferguson compliments Ruud van Nistelrooy for backing Van der Sar. Keane simply launched into Van Nistelrooy as well.

Keane then raised the controversial issue of Ferguson’s dispute with United shareholder John Magnier over Rock of Gibraltar’s stud rights, criticising the manager for blurring the lines of personal and business. The gloves are well and truly off.

“The hardest part of Roy’s body is his tongue,’’ Ferguson writes. He noted that Keane’s eyes narrowed when he was angry.

“It was frightening to watch. And I’m from Glasgow.’’ The moment Keane left the room, Ferguson and his staff agreed that the Irishman had to leave the club.

Even after Keane’s departure, the pair have continued to spar. United even contemplated legal action against their former midfielder in 2008 following his acerbic remarks about Ferguson. “People say he stood by me in difficult times,’’ Keane told the Sunday Times. “But not when I was 34, not when I was coming towards the end. All of a sudden it was, ‘'Off you go, Roy'.

“People say Ferguson always does what is right for Man United. I don’t think he does. I think he does what is right for him. The Irish thing (Rock of Gibraltar) I was speaking to the manager about this. That didn’t help the club, the manager going to law against its leading shareholder. How could it be of benefit to Man United?’’

In 2011, after Keane criticised United’s Champions League exit to Basel, Ferguson wrote in his programme notes dismissively of “people we thought were on our side”. Two years on, he has written brutally about Keane, laying bare the breakdown in what had been a supremely successful working relationship. Keane’s imminent appearance on ITV will be worth watching even more than usual.

Ferguson also addresses issues he had with David Beckham in 2003. Ferguson felt that the player was deliberately chasing fame outside of football, and was frustrated when the star would not take off a hat because he was planning to unveil his new haircut the following day. Ferguson also heard “rumours of a flirtation between Real Madrid and David’s camp’’.

What particularly angered Ferguson was an FA Cup tie in February 2003 when he felt Beckham failed to track back when Arsenal attacked, and scored through Sylvain Wiltord. Ferguson’s ire grew when Beckham ignored his criticism afterwards. United’s manager, standing 12 feet away from the midfielder, kicked a boot that accidentally caught the midfielder above the eye. Beckham was furious and wrote in his own autobiography of wanting “to go for the Gaffer”.

Ferguson shouted at him that his failure to cover meant a dereliction of duties to his colleagues. “David thought he was bigger than Alex Ferguson,’’ the manager writes. That is anathema for Ferguson. That means the end for the player at United. Beckham was soon sold to Real Madrid.

Ferguson paid tribute to some of Beckham’s achievements since but clearly believes the player made a mistake. If he had focused and stayed, Ferguson concludes, Beckham would have been revered as a United legend. Ferguson clearly admires Beckham’s ability to keep going, to keep developing new interests and the Scot even muses whether Beckham would have gone to Hollywood after LA Galaxy.

Ferguson also details the problems he had with Rooney. He writes first of his delight in acquiring such a prodigious footballing force, then a teenager at Everton. He relates how Bill Kenwright was crying at the fee of £25m plus add-ons offered by United; Everton’s chairman claimed he was worth £50m and rang his mother in front of Ferguson to lament United’s apparent miserliness.

Ferguson praises Rooney’s achievements but does criticise the striker for not using his left foot enough, and questioning whether he was a quick learner.

The collapse in their relationship is analysed at some length. Rooney advised United on Aug 14, 2010 that he would not be signing a new contract, claiming the club lacked ambition and was not going for the big players in the transfer market. Rooney told Ferguson that he should have signed Mesut Özil from Werder Bremen and instead the German international had signed for Real Madrid.

Even when Rooney finally signed a vastly improved contract, Ferguson felt that the United fans still had a degree of mistrust for the player for his actions towards the club.

Ferguson increasingly questioned Rooney’s conditioning, and criticised England’s decision to allow Rooney to go to Las Vegas for a break before euro 2012 (Rooney was suspended for the first two games).

Last season, United’s then manager worried particularly in the game against Aston Villa at Old Trafford. While praising Rooney’s sublime pass for Robin van Persie’s second goal, Ferguson perceived a lack of fitness was showing, and that Villa players were running past him.

Rooney was maddened by Ferguson’s decision to play him out of position at times, in midfield, or out wide, or worse starting him on the bench as against Real Madrid last season at Old Trafford. Ferguson confirms that Rooney came into his office the day after United won the League and “asked away”.

Rooney disputes that he asked for a transfer, although it became clear in the summer that Chelsea was a huge possibility. Publishing deadlines meant that Ferguson could not comment on events earlier this season but he does register his hope that Rooney will continue to do superlative deeds for the club in the future.

Ferguson was rightly annoyed that England rushed Rooney back after his broken metatarsal at the 2006 World Cup. Overall, Ferguson is pretty dismissive about England, receiving reports from his scouts about how England seniors and age groups sides would just play long balls.

In 2002, Ferguson spent £30m on the England international Rio Ferdinand and recalls at length the issues surrounding the centre half’s missed drugs test of 2003 that led to an eight-month suspension.

United’s manager argues that the dope-testers from UK Sport failed in their duties when discovering that Ferdinand had already left Carrington on Sep 23, 2003.

Ferguson believes they should have waited by the side of the training pitch. Ferguson writes powerfully about his belief that Ferdinand does not take drugs, that he was guilty only of poor timekeeping.

The length of Ferdinand’s ban still rankles with Ferguson as does his belief that the FA was leaking details to the media.

Ferguson’s respect for Ferdinand as a footballer shines through, although he clearly became exasperated at some of the Londoner’s off-field interests like meeting P Diddy.

“Is he going to make you a better centre half?’’ Ferguson asked Ferdinand. The centre half, advancing into his 30s, also responded to Ferguson’s advice on how to ease his back condition that was slowing him, and which the manager had noticed when Liverpool’s Fernando Torres escaped from the centre half in one game.

Ferguson was encountering problems with Liverpool in that period when Benítez was manager at Anfield. The pair originally got on, enjoying a drink when Benítez first arrived, but things soon deteriorated.

“The mistake he made was to turn our rivalry personal,’’ Ferguson writes.

The relationship became particularly fractious when Liverpool began threatening United. Ferguson became annoyed at what he perceived to be Benitez’s ignoring of post-match managerial etiquette, the famous glass of wine or two in the host’s office. Ferguson believes Benítez to be a control freak, an allegation that the Napoli manager will surely respond to at some point.

After Ferguson questioned Liverpool’s experience in the Premier League title race in January 2009, Benítez launched his spectacular “facts” speech, insinuating that the Scot had some form of influence over referees. Ferguson called Benítez “bitter”.

Other fuel for the fire between them goes unexplored here. The tension increased in 2009 when Ferguson claimed that he “would have to read more of Freud before I could understand all that went on in Benitez’s head”.

Liverpool then thumped United, prompting Benítez to put down Ferguson with a withering “I read about Freud when I was at school and university”.

Earlier this year Ferguson accused Benítez, then Chelsea’s interim head coach, of being “very concerned with his CV”. During a debate with the media about Ferguson’s many achievements, Benítez added the rider “in England”.

In a regular theme of the book, praising someone as well as criticising them (apart from the condemning of Keane), Ferguson lauds Benitez’s fabulous signings of Pepe Reina and Torres. Ferguson loves discussing strikers and his appraisal of Torres’ cunning running is illuminating.

Ferguson writes with a mix of reverence and fondness for the so-called “Fergie’s Fledglings”, the class of 92 that included Ryan Giggs, Beckham, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who performed so many marvels for United. Ferguson laughs now at his initial reaction to seeing a 13-year-old Scholes was that he was too small.

What a player of stature Scholes became for United. He writes amusingly of Giggs’ sparkly suit phase, but it his tribute to the dedicated, driven Giggs that will particularly absorb United fans and those seeking a career in the professional game. Ferguson indicates that Giggs could manage United one day.

Ferguson also praises Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he bought for £12m in 2003 after the winger had starred for Sporting Lisbon against United in a friendly.

In 2008, Ronaldo won the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or, becoming United’s first winner since George Best in 1968. He scored one of the finest goals seen in Europe, a 40-yarder against Porto. Real Madrid were always interested in him and he eventually joined in 2009 for £80m.

"He's been my father in sport, one of the most important factors and most influential in my career,’’ said Ronaldo of Ferguson, who reciprocates with compliments in his book.

Ferguson’s support of the club’s reviled owners, the Glazers, has always been a bone of contention with many of United’s fans. Ferguson records that when the takeover was completed in 2005, Andy Walsh of IMUSA contacted him and told him he would have to resign.

Ferguson was determined to stay on, partly because he feared for the jobs of many of his support staff if he resigned, and also because he had built up the club so successfully he did not want to walk away from his greatest achievement. Having met the Glazers, Ferguson felt reassured that his own position was safe.

Infuriated by the takeover, and particularly its leveraged nature, some fans like Walsh broke away in 2005 and formed FC United of Manchester.

Many others were so enraged at the debt-driven nature of the Glazer’s ownership model that they protested by wearing green-and-gold scarves, celebrating the colours of Newton Heath, the forerunner to United.

Those fans seeking some contrition from Ferguson over his support for the Glazers will be disappointed by some of the content in Chapter 16. Ferguson added that when they withdrew from pursuing a transfer target it was only because of the size of fee or wage demands, not that the club were limited by the debts loaded on them by the Glazers.

Arsène Wenger, who can smile that when Ozil did come to England he joined Arsenal, joked last week that “we all fear the worst” in Ferguson’s book but the Scot’s reflections on the Frenchman are largely affectionate.

The pair had their disputes, particularly when Arsenal were doing will, and beating Ferguson’s side to the title as they did on three occasions. Wenger famously reacted to a slow-moving apology from Ferguson that it must be coming by horse.

After one fractious game at Old Trafford that ended with recriminations and flying pizza, Ferguson went into the tunnel to upbraid Wenger for allegedly having a go at Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Ferguson claimed that Wenger was so wound up that the Frenchman clenched his fists as if the verbal skirmish was about to descend into a physical scrap.

Ferguson is particularly good on describing how the urbane Wenger changes when the game starts, becoming a far more tense, competitive creature.

Slightly harshly, Ferguson claims that Wenger cannot take a joke against himself when the Frenchman is famous for doing it.

Ferguson hardly clears up that Battle of the Buffet at Old Trafford, although he says he was told it was Cesc Fabregas who threw the pizza that ruined his shirt. Ferguson does add on the food front that Highbury and the Emirates always provided away teams with the best post-match food.

He does not take Magnier on in print over their Rock of Gibraltar dispute, although acknowledging that there was the possibility of a conflict of interests between his racing and the shareholders, and admitting how momentarily difficult he found it when someone at the AGM said he should resign.

Ferguson did voice again his belief that he thought he had a half-share in the horse, and was therefore entitled to the lucrative stud fees. He emphasised that he enjoys cordial relations with Ferguson now.

He describes as “ridiculous” Liverpool’s decision to wear T-shirts in support of Luis Suarez after the Uruguayan was accused (and then found guilty) of making a racist remark to Patrice Evra.

He also criticises the club’s executive for being too in awe of the manager Kenny Dalglish, pointing out that a past club secretary at Anfield like the highly-respected Peter Robinson would have called on the manager to see sense.

There is plenty more in a fascinating book worth buying for the toxic Keane chapter alone.
Alex Ferguson: My autobiography (Hodder & Stoughton, RRP £25) is available from Telegraph Books (0844 871 1514) for £23 (plus £1.35p&p)