Boss laughs off 'hairdryer' tag
Sir Alex Ferguson insists he has mellowed with age and, in an interview with local radio station Key 103, laughed off his reputation for dishing out the so-called ‘hairdryer treatment' and one claim that he used to practise shouting.
The United boss, now taking a well-earned break after guiding United to the title, says he has learned to take a more restrained reaction to the accusations and labelled his caricature-like status an urban myth.
"The problem with being successful in my career is that you have to deal with a lot of myths,” he said in an exclusive interview being aired this week. “I think it was Mark Hughes that started that one, maybe on one occasion when I'd given him a real volley.
"I think the Saturday at the end of the game, if you've not won or not played well, you have to get the message across because winning is important to our club. The preparation we give the player every week - we don't ever just criticise in training, everything is positive - and so on a Saturday we expect a result.
“All the work we've put in as coaches, the preparation, the time we've spent going through video analysis and all the physical preparation, the medical care they receive, we expect a result. So I believe in telling them after the game.
"I'm not interested in this 'wait until Monday'. I remember when I was younger another manager said to me, 'Wait until Monday, Alex'. I said ‘I’ve no time for Monday’, I'm on to another day, I'm thinking about the next match."
"It gets a bit worn out this hairdryer stuff,” he added. “But in dealing with the myth you've got to deal with a lot of things. One of the broadsheets said that I used to go by the stand and practise screaming!
"I said to the club solicitor, 'What can you do about this?' and he laughed and said, 'I don't know how you can get compensated if someone says you're screaming'. So you just have to forget it. So at the club we tend to treat them all with a bit of restraint because you can be in court every day."
In an insightful interview on the station's breakfast show, the Reds boss says he tends to take a more philosophical approach to management these days.
"Sometimes the apprentices are a bit afraid of me just because of who I am. They think of me sitting in my ivory tower, which is really not the case, because you get older and mellow and also you grasp life better," he said. "Your days of winning are tempered by the days you lose, so you have to accept both and you have to get on with your life properly."