In an interview with the Big Issue, a publication to which he has a great deal of emotional attachment, Alex Ferguson has talked about what he told the European Ryder Cup team before it kicked off at Gleneagles last September.
When Paul McGinley first approached me about going up to Gleneagles, we agreed that what was said in the dressing room stayed in the dressing room.
That’s the way I’ve always operated. But it’s okay for me to tell you I talked mainly about how to cope with being a favourite, just like we usually were at United. I also spoke with the caddies and players’ wives about different things.
Ferguson naturally got the lowdown on who the players supported. Cue 'hilarious' banter.
The banter was great. Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell are season ticket holders at Old Trafford but Ian Poulter supports Arsenal, Thomas Bjorn supports Liverpool, Lee Westwood supports Nottingham Forest and Sergio Garcia is a huge Real Madrid fan. He kept thanking me for transferring Cristiano Ronaldo!
He was also extremely impressed by McGinley's leadership and fanatical attention to detail.
I was really impressed by the amount of detail McGinley put into the organisation. He took an additional assistant to mentor those players who hadn’t been selected that day so they still felt involved. That was good leadership.
But really my main contribution was to encourage everyone to be calm over the seven days.
All told, he enjoyed the weekend.
Outside of football, the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles was the greatest sporting challenge in which I’ve been involved.
