Former Manchester United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak has opened up on the time he and Sir Alex Ferguson had an explosive row in the dressing room after a game.
The legendary former Red Devils boss is well known for occasionally handing out the ‘hairdryer treatment’ to his players if they weren’t performing, and Kuszczak has spoken about one notable experience he had with the Scot.
Kuszczak was never a regular starter for Man Utd, but became a reliable squad player for the club between 2006 and 2012, picking up a few Premier League titles and other major trophies in the process.
In one game, however, he had a difficult time as United were thrashed 4-0 by West Ham in the League Cup, leading to Ferguson losing it at the Polish shot-stopper afterwards.
Kuszczak clearly felt it was harsh, and hit back at the manager, though he also gives a rather heart-warming account of how they made up at the training ground the next day.
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Kuszczak, speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes at its launch of the 5-A-Side Bet on Man United v Liverpool, said: “I’ve seen many different actions from Sir Alex in the dressing room after games.
“At times he’d be really mad, shouting and swearing at players, kicking things around, and the players respond to it – because we’re human beings. It doesn’t matter how old you are, and with that adrenaline and negative energy sometimes we’d respond and lose or tempers.
“My first real incident with him came after a League Cup game against West Ham. We lost the game 4-0, and after the game, he walked into the dressing room and just started shouting at me. Every swear word you could think of, he was throwing at me. I was sitting there, calmly, thinking ‘I did nothing wrong in this game’. There weren’t any goals I was particularly at fault for, so I couldn’t blame myself. If I made a mistake I’d always hold my hands up, so on this occasion I couldn’t understand why he was going for me.
“He kept shouting at me and I started to get angry, so I decided to respond. I thought I’d give it back to him the same way he gave it to me. I stood up and started to shout at him, and then I see Ryan Giggs standing right behind the boss, and I look into his eyes, he’s shaking his head at me. I could see he was thinking ‘don’t do it – sit down!’. All of a sudden I sat down, everyone in the dressing room was nervous, I was nervous, there were tears in my eyes.
“The next day I made sure I was in training before everyone else. That was easy because I didn’t sleep at all. I waited for Fergie to get to the training ground and I apologised to him for my behaviour. He put a hand on my shoulder and said “no problem”. He admitted he went over the line as well, and told me he’d watched the game afterwards and realised he shouldn’t have gone for me like he did. He said “are we still friends?” I said “of course we are, boss.””
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