Sir Alex Ferguson once fined one of his players for overtaking him on the road

Sir Alex Ferguson, a man that took no took no prisoners throughout his career, once fined a player £20 for having the audacity to overtake him on a public road.

The former St Mirren, Aberdeen and Manchester United manager was renowned for his no-nonsense policy when it came to fining players.

For example, when he caught a group of Aberdeen players dropping footballs from their hotel window on the tenth floor, he would not only fine the guilty party; but his entire squad.

And rather than go through the hassle of explaining to his players why their wages had been docked, he simply wrote them all a poem.

"By now, you will realise that I am very much aware of anyone as stupid as to repeat this affair," it read.

Image credit: Twitter/@NeilDrysdale

Ferguson guided the Scottish club to three top-flight titles, four Scottish Cups, and numerous triumphs in Europe before taking over at Manchester United in 1986.

He would leave behind a legacy of winning major trophies at Pittodrie; not to mention countless stories of his no-nonsense management style.

Take an incident involving former striker John Hewitt, who decided to overtake Ferguson with a perfectly legal manoeuvre as he made his way to training.

Fergie, however, was far from pleased with Hewitt's antics on the public road. In fact, the Scot is said to have fined his player £20 before delivering a famous hairdryer treatment.

John Hewitt [far left] must have regretted overtaking Ferguson that day.

Earlier this year, another of Ferguson's former players, Paul McGrath, said he was once offered £100,000 by the Scot to hang up his boots.

McGrath struggled with alcohol addiction throughout his career and, in an effort to stamp out the drinking culture at Old Trafford in the late 1980s, Ferguson made his feelings clear.

But the Republic of Ireland international turned down the offer as he felt he had more to give as a player.

Speaking to The Telegraph, he said: "Sir Alex got me into the room and just said 'we’d like you to stop playing football'. Simple as that. And he said they were willing to give me £100,000 to quit playing football altogether and just go back to Ireland.

"I was thinking about it because £100,000 back then was quite a lot of money but I spoke to [teammates] Kevin Moran and Bryan Robson, and I just said I wanted to play on because I thought I could still do something in football.

"So Gordon Taylor, who was at the PFA, went into Sir Alex and said ‘Paul’s playing on, you can fine him, you can do what you want but he’s going to play football - here or somewhere else’."

Topics: Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen, Scotland, Premier League

Jack Kenmare

Senior Journalist at SPORTbible with a passion for long-form journalism. Almost 10 years’ experience across online and print.

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