Owen Hargreaves time at Manchester United might be best remembered for his injuries but he was part of one of Sir Alex Ferguson's best sides and the former midfielder has explained how he motivated the side in pre season.
For a time Owen Hargreaves was the number one enemy of England's football team despite the fact that he was part of the team. The time he came on for Shaun Wright-Phillips when they were losing to Northern Ireland was probably the nadir of his time for the Three Lions.
However despite all that he was a hugely successful midfielder at club level until injuries ended his time at the top far earlier than it should have.
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He moved to Manchester United from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2007 and by the end of the season had become an integral member of the Premier League and Champions League double winning side, scoring a very important free kick against Arsenal in the league run in.
Now a pundit on BT Sport Hargreaves revealed how Fergie motivated them all in pre-season, saying:
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"I remember when I first signed for United, we were in Asia somewhere, pre-season. He [Sir Alex] said we have all these players from all different countries, we should win the league and the Champions League. And he had an envelope and had some names in it.
"He said, 'there are some names in here of people I think are going to let us down. Make sure your name is not in here. And everybody ran out of the room and basically tackled through the door not wanting to let the gaffer down.
"That's what he did well, he made you want to not fail him because you didn't want to disappoint him."
The tactic clearly worked with many actually rating that side, that included Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, as Fergie's best.
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Infamously Brendan Rodgers used the exact same motivational device in the television fly on the wall documentary 'Being Liverpool' in 2012 when the Northern Irishman was in charge at Anfield.
And if he did it in the second season too then it very nearly worked, and he might have been spot on if Steven Gerrard's name was in one of the envelopes.
I might start doing it in my life, only I'll probably just have my name on all three envelopes.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Owen Hargreaves, Premier League, Champions League
