Being an England manager is stressful enough for any coach, but some of them who held the position in the 90’s, had another worry – sir Alex Ferguson. The famous Manchester United manager, and one of the greatest coaches of all time was always thinking of his team and his players, no matter what, even if that meant international duty. Manchester United always had to come first, as Fergie proved many times. This time, it was former Tottenham legend Glenn Hoddle, who managed the Three Lions between 1996 and 1999, and had to deal with United players in his squad, which meant he had to deal with Ferguson as well. Sir Alex hated seeing sky blue in the Man United dressing room – it almost cost van Nistelrooy his Old Trafford careerUnited stars Gary Neville, David Beckham and Teddy Sheringham used to be England’s internationals when Hoddle was manager, and they played an important part in United’s team as well. Hoddle was one of England’s most successful manager in recent times, with his 60 per cent win ratio only bettered by World Cup winner Sir Alf Ramsey, Fabio Capello and Sam Allardyce, who won one from one as Three Lions boss in 2016. But at the time, for Ferguson, he was just one of those guys who would distract his players and once had a big fight over international games while Hoddle was in charge. „Dealing with United wasn’t easy. There were problems getting players to report for duty at times and I had a row with Ferguson over two of his players before one friendly. His conduct was unprofessional when we spoke on the phone. I wasn’t going to use the players but I wanted them to join up because we were preparing for the World Cup. But he wasn’t having it. He was ranting and raving, even when I said I would send them back once the meetings were out of the way. I can’t repeat what he called me. I just put the phone down” Hoddle wrote in the book ‘Playmaker: My Life and the Love of Football’, which was serialised in the Guardian.Nani: ‘Sir Alex Ferguson allowed players to arrive at training drunk’After the rant and abuse, the Scott calmed down and had enough decency to apologize, but it doesn’t mean that he changed his mind. “He called back to apologise but he wasn’t happy. It all became a bit of a battle, and he used his Sunday Times column to criticise me when David and Gary Neville were put up at a press conference shortly after our win over Tunisia. Apparently it was insensitive after they’d been left out of the game” Hoddle added.Good old derby days: Remember when sir Alex was struck by pizza?And if you think only England managers suffered from Fergie’s pressure, you are wrong. Apparently, he pressured even his own players, even thou they haven’t done anything wrong, apart from being called to represent their country, as Rio Ferdinand witnessed first hand. “You’d be going away, you’d finish a game on Saturday, you’d win a game on Saturday, and he’d go, ‘Right, I’ll see you after the international break boys. And he’ll go like: ‘You, you and you, if you play more than 45 minutes I’m going to kill you when you get back’. So it would be in the back of your mind, you’d be thinking, ‘Oh my god, I’m under pressure when I come back'”. Ferdinand said on Instagram Live.
