Sir Alex Ferguson had a strange relationship with the media. He was quick to take offence, quick to ban journalists from briefings, but, yet, could be generous. It is |unlikely that Sir Alex Ferguson will remember the late, great Rodney Hartman, but he had cause to be angry with him back in 2006 when Manchester United toured South Africa.
Sir Alex spoke at a dinner at the Turffontein Race Course. It is safe to say a few drinks had been taken by many of those in the room, and when Ferguson got up to speak, he didn’t hold back. He told them Chelsea were “hell-bent on ruining football”. I heard it. Rodney heard it, and I saw him write a note. A little later he said David Beckham was a “manufactured footballer”. Harters took another note. There had been no request for the session to be off the record, and both Rodney and I had been invited with the full knowledge that we would write about the evening and give publicity to the dinner.
We were the only journalists there. Rodney used the quotes in his daily column in The Star. The touring British journalists, who had been ambling along in a sea of nothing stories about the tour, were overjoyed. They ran the story, and they ran it big. “Fergie in storm for attack on Chelsea” shouted the Daily Mail. “Ferguson denies Chelsea attack,” reported the Telegraph. I wish I could remember how the tabloids ran it. Ferguson went on a damage limitation exercise ahead of the final match of the Vodacom Challenge against Chiefs in Pretoria at Loftus.
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