Sir Alex Ferguson: 'I was terrified' — returning to Old Trafford after brain haemorrhage as new book charts the games that made him
Sir Alex Ferguson has spoken of the terror he felt on his return to Old Trafford after suffering a brain haemorrhage, describing the moment as more nerve-racking than any trophy final.
Four months after emergency surgery in May 2018, the legendary former Manchester United manager was back in the directors' box to watch his old club take on Wolves in the Premier League. Ferguson, by then retired five years, admits he had no idea how supporters would react.
"I was terrified," he told BBC Breakfast. "I wish I could say I was comfortable. I wasn't."
He need not have worried. Ferguson and his wife Cathy were given a standing ovation as they took their seats before kick-off.
"My wife was with me, and she was nearly crying," he said. "When we sat down, she said 'that's fantastic'."
A new book, and a voice that came back
Ferguson, now three months short of 85, has a new book out, Games of My Life, charting 21 defining matches from his playing and managerial career. He says he is "feeling quite good despite small injuries" — and grateful simply to be able to talk about them.
"I had lost my voice; I couldn't speak," he recalled of the days immediately after brain surgery. "That was a frightening moment. I remember my grandsons coming to see me and I had lost my voice.
"Then they brought in a therapist and she started doing things like asking me to write down the names of birds, names of animals, names of rivers. That way my voice came back."
His recovery is all the more remarkable given the scale of what he achieved before it. Ferguson won 38 trophies during 26 years in charge of United between 1986 and 2013, including 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League crowns, five FA Cups and four League Cups, as well as the Club World Cup, European Super Cup, European Cup Winners' Cup and Intercontinental Cup. He took charge of 1,500 United matches.
From Govan to a life-changing hat-trick
The book opens at the very start of the journey — winning his first cup final for Govan High School in Glasgow in 1955, aged 13.
"That was my starting point," Ferguson said, holding the medal from that win 71 years ago. "I played for Glasgow Schools, Scotland Schools and the Scotland youth team. The starting point of my career was there and I can look back with great satisfaction."
He describes growing up in Govan as "the making of me", crediting his mother Elizabeth with his inner confidence and his father Alexander, who worked in the Govan shipyards on the River Clyde, with his drive to succeed.
"He was so proud of me and my brother," Ferguson said. "He was a hard taskmaster because whenever I scored a hat-trick or a goal, my mother would say 'that's great, son'." His father, by contrast, offered tough constructive criticism no matter how many goals he had scored.
After making his debut as a 16-year-old striker for Queen's Park, Ferguson ended up at St Johnstone, where a frustrating spell in the reserves left him close to walking away from the game altogether for a new life in Canada.
"I wasn't enjoying it. I wasn't playing first-team football; I was in the reserves all the time," he said. "I filled out all the forms and phoned my aunt in Canada, because you needed a sponsor then, and never told my mother and father."
The very next day, with St Johnstone decimated by a flu bug, a 21-year-old Ferguson was promoted to the starting XI for a trip to Ibrox to face Rangers — and scored a hat-trick. That performance in 1963 revived his playing career and set him on the path to becoming one of the greatest managers the game has known.
"I would say this to young people — don't miss the biggest opportunity in your life. It's recognising it," he said.
Among the items on the table during the interview was the Scotland cap he was finally presented with in 2021, 54 years after appearing for his country. He received it at Hampden Park on the night Scott McTominay — then a United player — scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner in a 3-2 World Cup qualifying victory over Israel.
"I remember signing McTominay at seven years of age," Ferguson said.
The interview was conducted before the Premier League announced on Tuesday that Manchester City had been found guilty of all charges relating to breaches of financial regulations between 2009-10 and 2017-18.