Once ran a pub. Ferguson has worked outside football, starting out as an apprentice toolmaker and shop steward in Glasgow and much later running a pub that he renamed Fergie’s with a downstairs bar named the Elbow Room in memory of his physical style as a player.
Intrigued by JFK. Gordon Brown sent him numerous CDs about the assassination of JFK. Ferguson bonded with Brown over a shared interest in US politics. “Gordon sent me 35 CDs on it, which was brilliant of him,” he told Manchester radio station Key 103 in 2007. Ferguson is fascinated with JFK. He said he kept JFK’s autopsy report by his bed. He also has a copy of the Warren Report signed by [the former US president] Gerald Ford.
Gave the young Kenny Dalglish lifts. When Ferguson was at Rangers he gave lifts to a young Kenny Dalglish who was hoping to be signed. “Fergie used to give us a lift into town. He had such a big car,” Dalglish told the Guardian. When Dalglish was picked up by city rivals Celtic he was forced to play centre back and mark Ferguson in a reserve team game.
Told Alastair Campbell to get a masseur for Tony Blair. Ferguson was a big labour donor and advised Tony Blair on leadership. The idea of getting a masseur for the election “battle bus” may have been a step too far, he later admitted. Better advice was when he said: “So long as you can keep all your key people in the same room at the same time, you’ll be fine.”
nNot the longest serving manager. Ferguson was manager of Manchester United for 26-and-a-half years. The longest serving league manager in Europe was Guy Roux, who occupied the hotseat at French team Auxerre for 44 years, finally stepping down in 2005. Ferguson isn’t even the longest serving Scottish manager. Willie Maley was Celtic manager from 1897-1940, clocking up 43 years.
Used to jump over walls as a boy. He grew up in a poor area of Glasgow where there wasn’t much to do apart from play football, fight and jump over walls, known as dykes. “The dangerous ones had names - the king, the queen, the suicide, the diamond, the spiky,” Ferguson once said. “You’d go to different areas of Govan to challenge each other into jumping dykes because it was very dangerous. But you do that when you’re a kid because you’ve got no fear.”
“Fergie time” is 79 seconds: “Fergie time” is the widely held belief by supporters of other team, that if Man Utd are losing after 90 minutes, the referee will extend injury time long enough for them to equalise or win. last year, the BBC analysed Fergie time. It found that Man Utd were not unique in being given extra injury time when they were losing, although it appeared they got more than other teams. Games went on 79 seconds longer when Manchester United were losing than winning. Man Utd’s towering achievement - securing the treble with victory in the 1999 European Champions league - was achieved in Fergie time, when they reversed a Bayern Munich lead, by scoring two goals after the 90th minute.
The “hairdryer treatment”:
Players speak in awestruck tones of what it is like to be on the receiving end of Sir Alex’s temper. The “hairdryer” — for its sound and heat — became the chosen phrase. Players talk of the moment when an enraged Ferguson presses his face close to the you and emits a terrifying torrent of abuse. Former Manchester United winger lee Sharpe has been credited with inventing the term. David Beckham said: “The fear of getting the hairdryer was the reason why we all played so well. He was a manager you wanted to do well for.”