Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane claimed Sir Alex Ferguson hated ‘losing control’ over the lives of his players.
Keane, who had a number of furious run ins with Ferguson during and after his time at United, is adamant his former boss was getting ‘fed up’ as his players became older and he was unable to keep a close eye on them.
Ferguson spent 26 seasons at Old Trafford and won 13 Premier League titles as he wrestled the power in English football away from bitter rivals Liverpool. Ferguson was a staunch man manager, and players who found themselves on the wrong side of him rarely saw a future at the club.
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Keane spoke on the Stick to Football podcast, by Sky Bet, where he claimed Ferguson feared ‘losing control’ of his players as they grew older, Keane said: “Power and control – that’s how he [Sir Alex Ferguson] managed. You [David Beckham] were getting older.
“We were all getting older, and people were getting married and having kids – the manager certainly didn’t like not having that control over the players. Whether it be the agency, your haircut, or where you were living – I have no doubt that he was getting fed up with it, losing that control over the players.”
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David Beckham agreed with Keane’s comments, although he insisted he felt he was always acting right by the club amid Ferguson becoming frustrated with the attention that his relationship with Victoria had on the club and his performances.
Beckham added: “I always felt that I was making the right decisions. I don’t think that I ever made a decision that was harming the club, my performance, or my teammates. Yes, I was married to a Spice Girl and at that point It was huge – the two of us coming together created an attention that the manager didn’t want around the club.”
The relationship between Beckham and Ferguson had soured by the time the winger came to leave Old Trafford in 2003 to join Real Madrid. During the recent documentary released on his life, Beckham admitted he holds no grudges against his former boss despite feeling he had been forced out of the club.
He said: “Over the years the manager had always made the right decision in his eyes for the team, and the club.
“That happened to me in the end, I didn’t want to leave Manchester United at the time – we’d just won the league again, but all of a sudden I get a phone call to be told that Manchester United had agreed a deal, and that was the end of it.
“Even trying to speak to the manager after that, he didn’t want to talk to me. It wasn’t out of spite, he was on holiday, he didn’t want to be contacted, he’d made his decision and that was the end of it.”
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