When legendary coach Sir Alex Ferguson is angry, he doesn’t hold himself back. It doesn’t matter if a player is a fully recognized star and a captain (Roy Keane), or one of club’s best players (David Beckham) or just a 15 year old kid (Darren Fletcher), when the Scotsman will give you a piece of his mind with all the ’f’ words, and the current technical director was on the other end of the phone when his coach went ballistic. Until his mum took the phone…’Sir Alex left as soon as he realized the club was in decline’Darren Fletcher ended up playing in 342 games for the Red Devils over the course of his career and now holds a position of technical director at Old Trafford, but in 2002, he nearly left he club, and he recently remembered the moment when his coach was unhappy when he heard rumors about the Scotsman’s possible transfer away from Manchester. Being in the club since he was 12, Fletcher was close to breaking through to the first-team, but he was faced with a terrific competition on his position. That season, United had Nicky Butt, Huan Sebastian Veron, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Roy Keane, Luke Chadwick and Paul Scholes playing in midfield. Not a good situation for the young Fletcher.’I motivated Fergie by telling him he will never be like Keane’So, Newcastle United saw an opportunity to get the player as they had a strong squad with players capable of challenging for the Premier League title. They finished the season in the third place and the coach was respectable Sir Bobby Robson. But, Ferguson heard about it and went ballistic. He phoned Fletcher at home in Scotland and started yelling at the kid, before his mother took over the phone. „I had been going to United from the age of 12 and Newcastle at this point were the second-biggest team in England. Everyone is telling you, “look at all of these great Man United midfielders you’ll never get in the team, difficult to break through, Newcastle is closer to home.” So the word gets back to Sir Alex and he phoned the house one night and my sister picked up the phone. “Here, Darren. It’s for you.” It’s just the boss going absolutely mental. I’m 15, just chalk-white and he’s f’ing and giving it to me down the phone. My mum sees me and grabs the phone and listens for a few seconds and goes, “don’t speak to my son like that ever again,” and slams the phone down. So the next minute the phone rings up again, it’s Sir Alex: “Really sorry, Mrs Fletcher but we really like your son, I’m coming up on the next flight to Edinburgh. My mum’s looking around the house thinking, “I’ve not done the housework, I’ve got loads of washing.” She goes, “no you’re not, they’ll come down and see you”‘ revealed Fletcher. ##NAJAVA_MECA_6483879##The rest off course is history. The Scott remained with the club, eventually took his place in United’s midfield and played for 13 seasons, winning five Premier League titles and played in two Champions League finals, winning one in 2008. He finished his career with West Brom and Stoke before turning to Old Trafford first as a coach and now a director. Ferguson was obviously persuasive enough.
