Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed the biggest regret of his 26-year reign at Manchester United.
Ferguson transformed United from top-flight also-rans into the most successful club in English football history between 1986 and 2013.
The Scot experienced plenty of lows in addition to the highs, though, and has now admitted that he still feels guilty over dis-assembling one of his best squads at the beginning of the Premier League era.
“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 said during in a Q&A session while promoting his upcoming documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In.
“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.”
The ex-United boss 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.”
Ferguson managed a grand total of 1,500 games across all competitions during his time with the Red Devils, boasting a win rate of 60 per cent. The 79-year-old delivered 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League crowns and five FA Cups.
Ferguson also picked out his most cherished memory at Old Trafford, ranking the Red Devils’ first Premier League triumph above the rest of the impressive achievements he was able to share with supporters.
He added on bringing the club’s 26-year-wait for domestic success to an end in 1992-1993: “Oh, the day we won the league for the first time. God almighty! I couldn’t get out the car park!
“There were thousands of them. I went there in the afternoon because they wanted a photograph taken with the trophy and I went there at about three o’clock. There were thousands there and I couldn’t get out of my car, they were engulfing me. It was unbelievable.
“So what you were doing that day was satisfying the anxiety and relief of 26 years. That’s what I was doing that day. These supporters had been suffering for 26 years and finally that day they showed their love for me. They could have made me President for that day!”
