Sir Alex Ferguson was best renowned for his managerial prowess – but the stubborn Scot was also a man you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of and one of his former players learned that the hard way in 1994 during his half-time team talk mid-way through Manchester United’s Champions League clash with Barcelona.
Many people would’ve heard about the tenacity of the textbook ‘Hairdryer Treatment’ – Ferguson would single out one of his players and berate them to no end. It was such an attitude that helped him become one of the most decorated managers of all time.
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A few Man Utd players were on the receiving end of their manager's ire.
Once upon a time, Manchester United – who are the 13-time champions of the Premier League – fought on all fronts, and that included the Champions League, which is known as the crème de la crème in the European football echo chamber – and it was in that competition when Ferguson was at the zenith of his fury.
Remembering Barcelona 4-0 Manchester United
One man was targeted as Ferguson’s fall guy
Throughout his illustrious stint as Manchester United’s helmsman, there were no shortage of high-profile clashes with Ferguson’s name attached to them – from Wayne Rooney to David Beckham. Let’s just say this: the manager-turned-horse owner certainly had a knack of rubbing people up the wrong way.
And his fractious relationship with former central midfielder Paul Ince was well-documented – but the ferocity of their animosity towards one another reached boiling point in 1994 during Manchester United’s hodgepodge Champions League campaign.
The Premier League heavyweights lost 4-0 to Barcelona in tremendous fashion and that led to them failing to advance out of the group stage. La Blaugrana and Swedish outfit IFK Goteberg progressed into the knockout stages instead.
Hristo Stoichkov opened the scoring within two minutes before Romario doubled their advantage moments after emerging from the half-time interval. Stoichkov bagged his second in the 52nd minute, while Albert Ferrer added a fourth for good measure.
With the captain’s armband around his bicep at the fulcrum of his side’s three-man midfield – next to Roy Keane and Nicky Butt – Ince was viewed as central to Ferguson’s problems and his part to play was only enhanced due to his duties as the club’s skipper.
Ferguson’s Half-Time Taunt Towards Ince
'You cannae handle the stage, can you?'
Ferguson, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time, reportedly taunted the central midfielder in the Nou Camp dressing room at half-time. He even went to the extent of calling him a ‘bottler’ on the big stage as, in his thick Glaswegian accent, he said:
“You’re a f***in’ bottler Incey! You cannae handle the stage, can you? You are a f***in’ bottler!”
It wasn’t long before Ince – widely regarded as one of the hardest players in Manchester United’s long and storied history – was sold to Inter Milan for a then-record departure for the Red Devils. He departed for the Serie A giants in the summer of 1995.
Throughout his 281-game spell in the northwest, Ince – affectionally monikered ‘The Guv'nor’ – won two Premier League titles, but he didn't see eye to eye with the most important man at the club, who was later recorded labelling the midfielder as "a f***ing big-time Charlie" in a dressing-room documentary. Watch it below: