“A soldier had a gun against Paul Ince’s head!” – Fergie bloody loved terrifying his players

Alex Ferguson knew how to keep his players right on their toes.

Lethargy was never tolerated by the legendary Manchester United boss and he often resorted to scaring his players stiff in a bid to maintain alertness. The Scot tells one particular story, which is almost unbelievable, about the time that he took a group of his younger players to a SAS base. "They took us into the hostage room and they put four players with their heads down on the table and all the rest of the players were behind a rope," Ferguson explains in a new documentary. Ryan Giggs then interjects to tell his side of the story: "They pulled me out, me, Paul Ince and we're the hostages. The cardboard cut outs are the people holding us hostage. So we were just sat there at the table and the next minute the lights went off. We heard 'get down, get down' which we instantly did." Ferguson: "Then all of a sudden the sound of a bomb goes off and everything goes dark and within seconds bang bang bang bang." Giggs: "Then the lights come on and right next to us were four or five soldiers in SAS gear and night goggles." Ferguson, bursting his arse laughing, continues: "One of the soldiers had his gun against Paul Ince's head. He nearly died! It was brilliant!" And you wonder why the players were terrified of disobeying the red-nosed one.