‘Sir Alex Ferguson ruled by fear – lads would hide in toilets if they heard him’

Manchester United players were so afraid of Sir Alex Ferguson that they used to hide in the toilets when they heard him approaching.

Ex-United star Lee Sharpe claims the legendary Scot established a culture of fear at the club to keep the squad motivated, disciplined and effectively under his total control.

He added that he and his team-mates were so terrified of him that they'd let whatever problems they might have had fester to avoid risking Ferguson's ire by having it out with him in his office.

"I definitely had the fear. I was petrified of him," Sharpe told the Undr The Cosh podcast. "There's no way I'd feel comfortable going into his office and saying right I'm going to have something out with him because he'd just destroy me. I'd be too nervous.

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"One of the things that was always in the back of your head was you can't let the manager down … there was definitely an air of fear around the club.

"Whenever you heard his voice down the corridor or whenever you heard him coming some people would go and sit in the toilet cubicle so they wouldn't have to see him. Other people would just walk out and go into different dressing rooms. He ruled by fear."

The 52-year-old former winger, who played over 200 times for United between 1988 and 1996, said the more senior players would occasionally stand up to Ferguson, but that doing so would almost always end in a screaming match, with both manager and player(s) having to be pulled apart.

Would Fergie's 'culture of fear' work in modern management? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Sharpe won seven major honours playing under Ferguson, including three Premier League titles.

He was considered the future of the club after breaking into the first team as a teenager and being named PFA Young Player of the Year in 1991, but injuries and the emergence of Ryan Giggs curtailed his career.

He left United for Leeds in 1996, but failed to have much of an impact at Elland Road before being shipped out on loan, first to Serie A side Sampdoria and then to Bradford, before making a permanent move to the latter in 1999.

He later joined Portsmouth and Exeter and brought the curtain down on his career at ninth-tier side Garforth Town in 2004 following a brief stint with Icelandic outfit Grindavik the year before.

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