Man Utd icon recalls Ferguson incident at Liverpool that almost ended his career

19 January 2024 , 10:00

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Man Utd icon recalls Ferguson incident at Liverpool that almost ended his career

Peter Schmeichel was a pillar of Manchester United's early dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson - but nearly faced the axe after confronting the ex-Manchester United boss.

The Dane proved to be an inspired signing and is still regarded as one of the Premier League's greatest ever goalkeepers. He was crucial to their success in the 1990s, but a fiery confrontation after a draw at Anfield nearly proved to be the end of Schmeichel's time at United.

The Red Devils had let a three-goal lead slip and the players faced a fuming Ferguson in the changing room. It was Schmeichel who copped the manager's wrath, but he went back at him, which didn't sit well with the Scot.

He told William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan: "Feelings get mixed in without having time to cool off before you get into the dressing room, and then it was me who got picked on. I got picked on a lot by the manager. I understood that, I’d been there long enough by that point to understand that.

"But on that day, my brain was completely fried, and I just couldn’t take it, why me? I was thinking, ‘Look around, you could do that to literally anyone else in here, but not me, I kept us in it'."

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A few days later and Schmeichel was informed, after his outburst in the changing room, that his time in Manchester was now up and the club were looking to move on, but he would remain playing until they did.

Sir Alex Ferguson was ready to offload Peter Schmeichel after a dressing room exchange

Schmeichel added: “He called me into the office on the Monday morning the week after the game and said, ‘You were out of order and you know I have to let you go. But you’re still playing, but I don’t know when.’

The United goalkeeper then opted to apologise to his team-mates and, without knowing, Ferguson was by the door listening and chose to change his mind about offloading Schmeichel.

He said: “I then stood up and said, ‘Guys, I just want to say I really am sorry about what I did and said, I embarrassed you and I embarrassed the manager, I apologised to the manager, and I want to apologise to you guys, I was really out of order’. I never heard a thing about [my] sacking, but he told my agent that he was listening by the door thinking ‘I didn’t expect that, okay forget about it'."

Samuel Meade