Ex-Man Utd star reveals Alex Ferguson’s most explosive hairdryer moment | OneFootball

Former Manchester United winger Lee Sharpe has revealed the biggest Alex Ferguson hairdryer treatment he was ever on the end of with the legendary boss famous for an outburst.

Fergie’s remedy to blast his players after a disappointing performance became a thing of legend and anyone who ever wore the United kit under the Scot was almost guaranteed to be on the end of it at one point.

For Sharpe, his earliest memory came before he had even reached the first team as he was just 17 when Ferguson let loose on a reserve team.

“There’s too many to mention, he lost it a lot,” Sharpe exclusively told Planet Football, courtesy of Adventure Games, when asked about Ferguson’s outbursts. “I think my first baptism into it was a pre-season game when I was 17, when I just got there.

“We played Hartlepool away, a reserve team game. We had Norman Whiteside and Paul McGrath playing in the team, they were coming back from injury. Chris Turner was in goal and then we were a team of young lads, really.

“We got beat 6-1 by Hartlepool. We came off, and the manager tore into everyone. He wasn’t supposed to be in the dressing room because it was a reserve team game, but he came in and sort of overpowered the reserve team manager.

“Came in and went around the dressing room, hairdrying everybody. At the end of it, Chris Turner decided to try and stand up and said ‘I don’t think you should have a go at these players because they’re trying their best, and they’re only young,’ and Alex Ferguson just took his jacket off, rolled his sleeves, and we all just looked down at our boots, and we’re all scared to death.

“Chris Turner took one for the team, and I’m not sure Chris Turner played again. So we learned the harsh lesson that night.”

Sharpe made his move to United as a teenager and said it was “petrifying” going from playing for Torquay United to suddenly being in front of 45,000 fans.

“Petrifying after coming from Torquay, where we used to get 1,500, 2,000 fans to then walk into Old Trafford with nearly 45,000 and the dressing room was unbelievably strong at the time, with some real characters,” he said.

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“I used to call them proper men that knew how to win football matches and how to play the game.

“And then on top of that, you had Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm, who, you know, didn’t pull his punches, and let you know how things were pretty straight up. It was a terrifying time, but something I absolutely loved.

“I’m not sure I got too many words of advice [from Ferguson]. Got more warnings to stay out of trouble than advice, if I’m honest. But when we went on the pitch, it wasn’t so much about Alex Ferguson, it was more about listening to Bryan Robson who was our sort of leader on the pitch and off the pitch and everything else.

“The manager didn’t really give out advice, I think he was used to dealing with experienced players that knew what they were doing, knew what they were talking about. So I just had to watch and learn really and learn from those.”