Page 113 - Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography

lightning quick and a great set-piece deliverer. He could play right-back, wide right or central
midfield. I played him wide right in the 2008 final against Chelsea, and when we started to struggle
against their midfield three, I put him in the middle of the park with Rooney wide right and it worked.
He had definite value. But it was all lost in the fog of his lack of games. Yet Hargreaves was fantastic

for England at the 2006 World Cup, plugging gaps, racing to the ball.
In September 2011, we took a blast from Hargreaves about how he had been supposedly let down
by our medical staff in his time with us. He claimed we had used him like ‘a guinea pig’ for
treatments for his tendonitis and various knee problems. We took legal advice and could have
proceeded against him, but the doctor was not sufficiently offended to seek legal redress. We did the
best for that lad. No matter what the staff did for him, he created his own agenda.
I would say to him, ‘How are you this morning?’

‘Great, boss,’ he would reply. ‘But I think I’ll do something on my own. I’m feeling it a bit.’
One of his allegations was that we picked him for the Wolves game in early November 2010 when
he had asked not to be selected. Rubbish. Three weeks before that fixture, he had advised us that he
would be ready for such and such a date, which happened to be a European tie. I was reluctant to
bring him back in a European game after he had been out for so long. There was a reserve game that
week, which he was meant to play in, but he withdrew.

In the week of the Wolves game, to my knowledge, he said nothing to our staff to indicate he had a
problem. My concern, which I expressed to Mick Phelan, was that he would pick up an injury in the
warm-up. My understanding was that he told one of the players he was feeling his hamstring a bit.
When he came in from the warm-up, I specifically asked him: ‘Are you all right?’ I said it to reassure
him. My message was: enjoy it. Well, he lasted five minutes. His hamstring went. But it was no
surprise.
When I signed him, there was something about him I didn’t like. The thing every good leader should

have is an instinct. Mine said to me: ‘I don’t fancy this.’ When he came over to Old Trafford for the
medical, I still had some indefinable doubt. He was very hail-fellow-well-met. Almost too nice.
Kléberson also left me with doubts, but only because he was so timid, and could barely look you in
the eye. He had good ability, Kléberson, but he paid too much attention to what his father-in-law and
wife wanted.
I read later that the FA were going to fast-track Hargreaves into coaching. That’s one of the things

that’s wrong with our game. That wouldn’t happen in France or Germany or Holland, where you
would spend three years earning your stripes.
Bébé is the only player I ever signed without first seeing him in action. We have a good scout in
Portugal who had flagged him up. This boy had been playing homeless football and became a triallist
for a second division team. He did really well. Our scout told us, ‘We need to watch him.’ Then Real
Madrid were on his tail. I know that’s true because José Mourinho told me Real were ready to sign
him and that United had jumped in front of them. We took a wee gamble on it, for about 7 million

euros.
Bébé came with limitations but there was a talent there. He had fantastic feet. He struck the ball
with venom, off either foot, with no drawback. He was not the complete player, but we were coaching
him to be better. We farmed him out to Turkey and he injured his cruciate knee ligament after two
weeks. We brought him home and put him on remedial work, then in the reserves. He did all right. He
trained well in the short games, eight v. eight, goal to goal. On the big pitch his concept of team play

needed work. With feet like his he was capable of scoring 20 goals a season. He was a quiet boy,
spoke reasonable English, and had obviously had a hard upbringing wandering the streets of Lisbon.