What Sir Alex Ferguson told David Beckham after dressing room boot kicking incident

In a blink of an eye, it has been 20 years since David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson were involved in arguably the most famous dressing room incident of all time.

Back in 2003, Manchester United were up against arch-rivals Arsenal in the FA Cup.

United winger Ryan Giggs squandered a huge chance to put his side ahead, Arsenal duly punished Giggs and the Red Devils by coming out 2-0 winners.

As expected, Ferguson was absolutely furious with his players and was not happy with Beckham’s work rate during what was his final year at Old Trafford.

Beckham was spotted with a mysterious cut above his eye the day after the Arsenal match and it was reported that Ferguson kicked a boot at Beckham’s face during a dressing room altercation between the two.

According to Beckham himself, the incident was blown out of proportion. He said: “I’d made a couple of mistakes during the game and he came into the dressing room and a few harsh words were exchanged.

“He started to walk over to me and he kicked out at a pile of clothes on the floor. Out came this boot and then I quickly realised how accurate his kick had been as it struck me on the head, but there weren’t any hard feelings.

“It was a complete freak accident. As far as we were concerned. it was forgotten straight away within the club, but the incident made the papers which meant that people started to speculate about our relationship.”

In his autobiography via The Mirror, Ferguson explained the situation and revealed what he said after.

Ferguson wrote: “He was around 12 feet from me. Between us on the floor lay a row of boots. David swore. I moved towards him, and as I approached I kicked a boot.

“It hit him right above the eye. Of course, he rose to have a go at me and the players stopped him. 'Sit down,' I said. 'You've let your team down. You can argue as much as you like.’”

Alamy

He added: “The next day the story was in the press. In public an Alice band highlighted the damage inflicted by the boot. It was in those days that I told the board David had to go.

“My message would have been familiar to board members who knew me. The minute a Manchester United player thought he was bigger than the manager, he had to go.

“I used to say, 'The moment the manager loses his authority, you don't have a club. The players will be running it, and then you're in trouble.’”