Manchester United fans look back fondly on Sir Alex Ferguson’s days in charge and rightly so, with the Scotsman the most successful manager the club has ever seen.
So an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane and immerse yourself in Fergie stories is something United supporters love to do. But here is one you might not have heard before.
Jonathan Spector is a former United youth player who eventually featured three times for the Reds in the Premier League.
The defender has since gone on to play for Charlton, West Ham United, Birmingham City, Orlando City and has now joined Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League, but still remembers the tough words Ferguson said to him after a poor performance for the club’s reserves.
Famous for putting his players through the hairdryer treatment, Ferguson went for something a little different back in 2003 when he offered some honest truths to Spectator.
“I was incredibly fortunate to learn from arguably the best manager in the world — in any sport,” Spector told the Daily Record after signing for Hibernian . “Sir Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane were blunt, they were honest and those were things I respected.
“I played in a reserve game at Middlesbrough and I was up against Adam Johnson, who was flying at the time, and it’s fair to say I had a poor game.
“I was back in with the first team that weekend but I didn’t even make the bench and the manager pulled me aside after his team-talk.
“He said ‘Spector — you were absolutely useless the other night’. That was it. There was no hairdryer. I was like, ‘Yeah, I know. It won’t happen again boss’.
“He knew how to get the best out of each individual. He didn’t treat everyone exactly the same. Even at his age, he was able to relate to me and understand me as a person.
“I’ve never played for anyone that has understood that or enacted that better than Sir Alex Ferguson.”
