Peter Schmeichel has revealed the moment Sir Alex Ferguson almost sacked him on the spot after ‘losing his head’ in a wild confrontation with the legendary Manchester United manager.
United dominated English football in the 90s with Schmeichel a key figure in that dressing room.
But even he wasn’t safe from Ferguson’s ‘hairdryer treatment’ – the Scot’s notorious short-range blasts of vitriol directed at players who dared to step out of line.
Schmeichel recalled one such incident in January 1994 when United let a huge lead slip at Anfield. United had led 3-0 through goals from Denis Irwin, Steve Bruce and Ryan Giggs but threw away the win with Liverpool clawing their way back to draw 3-3.
Things could have gotten even worse for United afternoon with Schmeichel feeling he had ‘kept his side in it’ with a number of saves in that second-half fight back.
Ferguson felt otherwise, however. After a tense post-match exchange, Schmeichel said something he now regards as ‘my biggest regret in football’ – with Ferguson ready to send him packing in the aftermath.
Appearing on Stick to Football, Schmeichel said: ‘Sir Alex Ferguson picked on me after a game and the second half was so bad, but I made a lot of saves and I felt like I kept the team in it.
‘But he blamed me for my goal kicks. I felt really heart done by for him picking on me. My head went of course, and that was probably my biggest regret in football and I’m not repeating that. It doesn’t matter.
‘On a Monday morning, he called me into his office and said that he was going to sack me and that we can’t have a player doing this. I accepted that and I apologised to him
‘He had a meeting in the changing room after and he goes berserk at me, and it was the worst I’ve ever seen him. He was so angry. He never done that in training before.
Schmeichel was not a man to be messed with. But nor was Ferguson (Allsport UK /Allsport)
‘He left and then I apologised to the team. My behaviour was so out of order. There are certain things you can do and certain things you can’t do.’
Schmeichel continued: ‘In the 90 minutes, I feel like you can say whatever because it’s all about winning.
‘Before the game and after the game, you can’t say anything. that’s it. It’s up to the manager or the coach to talk about what happened. You can’t go in and say you played bad, but I did that. I shouldn’t have done that. But he never brought it up again.’
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