I knew one thing Sir Alex Ferguson hated – he would cut you to ribbons

Geoff Shreeves has revealed Sir Alex Ferguson would “cut him to ribbons” if he ever tried to get a headline out of the Manchester United manager.

Shreeves spent 33 years working for Sky Sports before leaving in 2023. His career as a reporter saw him take on adrenaline-fuelled managers with hard-hitting questions immediately after matches.

Perhaps the one he came up against the most regularly was legendary Red Devils boss Ferguson, who was highly respected and feared across English football - not least because of his tendency to dish out the hairdryer treatment whenever he felt it necessary. But Shreeves was well aware that the Scotsman would not snap unless you “tried to make your name” off agenda-fuelled questions when interviewing him.

READ MORE: England find themselves in a similar position to Manchester United with pundits and the press

READ MORE: Roy Keane made 'mistake' in his contract which almost cost him Man Utd transfer

The 59-year-old said on Brian McClair’s ‘Life With Brian’ podcast: “He wasn’t an ogre that you couldn’t have a conversation with. I had loads of fascinating conversations with him.

“You always had to be on your guard with him as an interviewer. The kind of rules of engagement were, you don’t try to make your name off the back of him, because he’s so bright he could see you coming a million miles away.

“If he thought you were trying to create headlines off him and his name, he would cut you to ribbons. Absolutely. You’d get a reducer, very quickly. But if you respected him and equally weren’t sycophantic, then he was great."

Shreeves added: “When we used to finish these interviews, he’d say ‘well done Geoff’ and off we'd go. I got a bit up my own a***.

"I said to our producer, ‘why does he say that?’ and he said to me, ‘You prat. What he’s saying to you there is, you’ve asked me decent questions but you haven’t overstepped the mark’. It was his way of saying ‘Cheers’."

Shreeves maintains that his relationship with Ferguson was a healthy one for the majority, with run-ins few and far between. But the falling-outs in question were “spectacular” - with one incident involving Cristiano Ronaldo famously sparking Ferguson’s wrath.

Shreeves once quizzed a young Ronaldo if he had gone down easily to win a penalty against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. Sir Alex came storming out of the dressing room in a red mist.

The manager snarled: “You and you questions, you’re out of order. The boy hardly speaks English, you’re bang out of order," along with some more colourful language.

Shreeves replied: “Don’t talk to me like that. I’m not one of your daft, young players,” allegedly prompting Ferguson to launch himself at him physically, requiring a United employee to jump in-between the pair.

Shreeves later wrote an email to Ferguson apologising for his heavy-handed approach to questioning. And the manager responded at the following game by saying: “Listen, you don’t need to say anything else, you apologised. It will never be spoken of again.”