Gary Neville has lifted the lid on Sir Alex Ferguson 's three-pronged weekly team talk - and said maintaining 20 years of success was down to the personal pre-match talk about grandparents and history rather than the tactics and football part.
The former Manchester United star also revealed that despite Sir Alex's reputation for 'hairdryer' blasts over players' mistakes, the pre-match speech actually showed he expected players to have bad games and he urged the others to care for them. Neville said when it came to personal non-football problems, Fergie would give the most compassion, love, and understanding - and would lose his temper only .001% of the time.
Neville, who enjoyed 20 trophy-laden years under former manager Ferguson at the club, said it was the pre-game chat about subjects like the second world war, grandfathers wearing ties and working hard, and a human anecdote that saw the team constantly winning for years.
