Robin Van Persie reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson called two stars who went out partying ‘a***holes’ after a loss to City
SIR ALEX FERGUSON hammered "a***hole" stars in front of their team-mates for partying after a derby defeat, Robin van Persie once revealed.
A 2-1 loss to Manchester City still left the Red Devils 12 points clear as they raced to the Premier League title - but Fergie was fuming.
Two first-team players were humiliated in front of the dressing room for partying the night of the defeat with photographs of their exploits plastered over the walls.
Van Persie told : "During my first season with United we were 15 points clear at the top. We hosted Manchester City hoping to wrap up the title.
"We lost, but were still 12 points clear. Most managers wouldn't have made a drama out of the situation.
"But the boss got really fired up. Things got extremely heated, as two of the squad had gone out after the defeat.
"The day after the game Sir Alex had photos put up on the dressing room wall of the two players taken during their night out.
"He told the entire squad: 'Boys, if we don't win the league it's because of these two a***holes who opted to go out'.
"I know the names, but can't reveal them. The manager slaughtered them. It was amazing. He'd put up photos documenting where they were, at 2am, 3am, 4am etc, to underline just how stupid they had been.
"He didn't stop there, but warned us that if he heard of any of us going out before we'd won the league we'd be out of the team.
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"He was merciless, saying: 'I don't care who you are or how many trophies you've won - if you go out before the end of the season I'll sell you'.
"After that speech, I had the two hardest training sessions I've ever had in my life. We went on to win the title. A manager has to know when to be tough, and when to take the pressure off."
United nonetheless crawled over the line to seal the title in Ferguson's final weeks in charge of the team, winning three of his last nine games as boss.