When a managerial career spans the better part of almost 40 years, one is bound to have regrets with the sheer amount of decisions that have to be made on a daily basis.
Therefore, for Sir Alex Ferguson to point one of his regrets that he still lives with to this day is quite a statement from a man who’s seen and won it all.
To make matters worse, that regret came as a result of him taking a shock call with one of his most trusted lieutenants, leaving him heartbroken.
This is the story of how he shocked his trusted player by taking a call that nobody expected, a regret that lives with him to this day.
Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images
Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man Utd regret
The season is 2007/08 and Manchester United are on the cusp of making history. Their treble mission has been ended by Portsmouth in anti-climactic circumstances but the two big ones are on the table.
They’re locked head-on with Chelsea in a Premier League title race and when that is won by a whisker, they face the same team in the Champions League final.
Gary Neville called it the “best Man Utd team ever” so most of the team for the final selected itself. However, nobody told Sir Alex Ferguson that.
In a call that surprised many and shocked the player himself, he left out Ji-Sung Park in favour of Owen Hargreaves. The reasoning he gave was that the latter had experience of playing UCL finals.
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United won on penalties but with the benefit of hindsight, he acknowledged regret at the decision.
He said: “My problem in the 2008 final, maybe I even regret it to this day, was I left Ji-sung Park out completely in the final. He’d played such a great role and that’s the problem when you get to these finals.”
Ji-Sung Park was left ‘shocked’
Park is probably the epitome of professionalism in the football player so for him to reveal that he couldn’t even watch the first half of that game shows how hurt he was by his omission.
On a podcast with Man Utd back in 2021, he revealed his true feelings and narrated how it all panned out.
He said: “When I heard that [I wasn’t in the squad], I was in shock. I don’t remember what he said afterwards. I was so shocked that I didn’t know if I was in the squad or not.
“I was so disappointed. My whole family was there, the whole country was watching me and hoping I would play. In the first-half, I didn’t know what was going on – I couldn’t focus on the match. I was so disappointed.
“It is the manager’s decision and you have to go with it but I had to ask myself why I wasn’t involved. What is my problem? I was thinking this way.”
Sir Alex would ultimately rectify that decision by starting Park in the Champions League final the very next year but they came up against arguably the greatest club side of all time in Barcelona, a game they lost.
Just like that, one of Ferguson’s greatest lieutenants was let down by him when it mattered the most. To his credit, Sir Alex recognises it which would be of some consolation to Park.