Sir Alex Ferguson Reveals His Biggest Regret During 26 Years At Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson probably has fewer regrets than most managers, but that doesn't mean that his time at Manchester United was completely spotless.

The Scot has recently been speaking about his 26 years at Old Trafford, ahead of a documentary focusing on his life - Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In - which is set to be available on Amazon Prime Video from the end of May.

Talking at a Q&A session promoting the film, Ferguson was asked about his biggest regrets with the Red Devils, and his answer may not have been what some expected.

Going along with the Glazers' efforts to weigh down the club with masses of debt, falling out with David Beckham, spending inordinate amounts of flops such as Sebastian Veron and Anderson, or just missing out on signing the likes of Petr Cech, Raphael Varane, and Ronaldo, none of these situations were Ferguson's biggest regret when it came down to it.

In the end, the all-time great was most troubled when he had to tell players it was time for them to leave Manchester United, especially when the players themselves likely wanted to stay at Old Trafford.

"In terms of the regrets, the 1994 team I had, the back four all seemed to grow old together, and that's a terrible thing to happen to the manager because these guys were fantastic for me," Ferguson revealed.

"Paul Parker, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister, Denis Irwin: Fantastic players. They gave me nine or 10 years and the evidence is always on the football field. They don't see it. I see it.

"The problem for me is 'what do I do about it?'. I managed to organise a move for them, and they did well out of it, but telling them is very, very difficult."

He added: "The same when having to let young players go. The process was the youth coach and the welfare chap would come in with the player you're going to let go.

"Maybe he's only 17, 18 years of age. The way we'd explain it is we'd try and get him a team. We'd try and get him a club and 'we're sorry we're having to do this'. That's terrible.

"That is the worst thing, having to let a young player go. All his ambitions and hopes and desires are about playing for Manchester United in front of 75,000 people and going to Wembley in a final.

"That's the ambition of every young kid that comes to Manchester United, and when you take that away from him, it's a sore, sore thing. So I hated that. I hated that."

Topics: Football News, Manchester United News, Football, Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Man utd, Man United

Max Miller