Can you imagine sir Alex Ferguson as a boxer? Well, it did happen, and it was during his time as Manchester United coach that the Scotsman practiced a bit of boxing, and thanks to those sessions, his heart problem was revealed, which he later solved with an operation. And he can thank a man he nicknamed „Hitler“ for helping him, although he didn’t write it like that in his autobiography.’Paul Scholes hated England duty,’ says Manchester United coach Mick Clegg pic.twitter.com/qU0mPt6Pkd— The Hitman Tipster (@hitman_tipster) March 31, 2022 Former Manchester United coach Mick Clegg first introduced boxing into his fitness sessions at the club’s Carrington training ground, after then captain Roy Keane (who else!) showed interest. Keane later explained that he trained boxing as a kid in Ireland and even had 4-5 amateur fights before deciding to go with football. After boxing was introduced, more and more players wanted to be a part of it, and off course to win the fight. In his new book, ‘The Power and the Glory’, Clegg revealed how he got Ferguson into it, but also how he goaded Keane and Alex.”Roy loves boxing. He did a bit as a kid, so it made sense to introduce it into his training. But pretty soon, most of the other players wanted to have a go as well. It got very competitive – as you’d expect from a team that was packed full of winners. With Roy Keane I would usually say something nice about Teddy Sheringham. Roy didn’t seem to like Teddy, so it got under his skin“ reveled Clegg.’Hairdryer’: The most famous treatment sir Alex gave to his playersAs for Ferguson, former coach found it tought to find the time when Manchester boss was free, but eventually he came to the office very early, and also found the way to motivate the Scotsman – by mentioning Keane.”Eventually I started going in at 7.30 in the morning because I knew Sir Alex would be the only person in the place at that time. He called me ‘Hitler’ because I wouldn’t let him off the hook. With Fergie, I used to say ‘you’ll never be as good as Roy Keane. You can’t punch as hard as he can’ – and it always did the trick“ said Clegg.No-nonsense Roney: “Rio is arrogant, CR7 is annoying, Tevez doesn’t speak but mumbles”It was in those sessions when former Manchester fitness coach revealed that Ferguson wasn’t right and revealed an issue with his heart rate.”We were having a boxing session and I mentioned that he didn’t look right. In typical Fergie fashion, he told me to shut up and that he felt fine. But I was worried. I told him to put his hands on a heart monitor on one of the machines and I could see his pulse was spiking. We tried another couple of monitors, same thing. He was adamant that the equipment wasn’t working properly. But he just didn’t look right. Mike Stone, the club doctor, put a heart monitor on him and got similar results. Not long afterwards, Sir Alex underwent an operation to have a pacemaker fitted. He said in his book that he spotted the signs himself – but that isn’t how I remember it. The main thing, though, was that the problem was diagnosed and treated“ remembers Clegg, and he was rigth. Ferguson had a pacemaker fitted in March 2004 aged 62, having been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat a few months earlier.
