Andrei Kanchelskis had two wonderful feet.
The Russian is best known for his four-year spell at Manchester United between 1991 and 1995, during which he became one of the Premier League’s greatest wingers.
An old-fashioned winger, too. None of this inverted, cutting inside business we see in the modern game. Nah, Kanchelskis got the ball and he darted forward with electrifying abandon.
Blessed with blistering pace and a sharp footballing brain, it turns out the two-time Premier League winner had a set of balls on him too.
Kanchelskis’ autobiography, Russian Winters: The Story of Andrei Kanchelskis, was released in August 2017. It passed us by until we saw an excerpt on Twitter detailing one of Kanchelskis’ first encounters with Alex Ferguson.
I’m very much enjoying Andrei Kanchelskis’ autobiography, but this part is the best bit so far. pic.twitter.com/1CJyJkDfh9
— David Childs (@DavidChilds) June 2, 2018
Brilliant. Ferguson’s reaction suggests it wasn’t the first time the United players had fooled a foreign teammate into addressing the boss with such a sharp tongue.
Kanchelskis elaborated on his exchange with Fergie while promoting the book last year.
“Every country, even Russia as well. I came to England and I had never spoken English very well,” he told the Daily Record.
“Some guys said to me ‘if the gaffer comes to the dressing room, say to him ‘Scottish bastard’, you know like ‘hello Scottish bastard’.
“I said it and everybody was laughing. Fergie as well. He smiled because he understood I didn’t speak English very well.”
Regardless of Kanchelskis’ loose grasp on the English language, it’s surprising that then, in his hairdryer-spewing pomp, the nuances in his team’s camaraderie still cracked him up.
Kanchelskis probably never called Fergie a bastard again, but he did go onto light up Old Trafford, helping the Red Devils to two league titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup and a European Super Cup during his four years in Manchester.
Sold in 1995, Kanchelskis became a cult favourite at Everton before a successful four-year spell with Rangers, where he won two league titles and three Scottish Cups.
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