Fergie: 12 Things You Never Knew

AS part of the period of national mourning following the announcement that Sir Alec Douglas Ferguson is to retire, the BBC news site has run a feature called 10 little known facts about Sir Alex.

Well I knew quite a few of them, so I have put together 12 more that I doubt anyone else knows apart from me and Prince Andrew, to whom he was briefly married after he left the Three Degrees.

1. In spite of his strong accent few people realise that Sir Alex is Scottish.

2. He invented his own range of television sets called Fergusons, which were very popular in the 1960s. The sets were able to pick up Scottish broadcasts from The White Heather Club and Hogmanay which was at that time heavily linked to Andy Stewart and Jimmy Blue. 

3. He has never used a teabag, preferring loose-leaf tea.

A good western4. People think that he constantly chews gum whilst watching the game. In fact he is chewing strips of rubber from Formula One car tyres, supplied by lifelong chum and champion racing driver, Jackie Stewart. 

5. Sir Alex never watches football on the TV and prefers a good war film or a western.

6. Last year he had a major row with the directors when he cleared the trophy cabinet so that he could display his collection of Moshi Monsters, of which he has all the series, including a number of the rare special editions.

7. Sir Alex refuses to have a real Christmas tree in the house and has been using the same 3ft artificial silver tree he bought in Woolworth’s for £1.19s 6d in 1969. Christmas only begins in his house at 6.30pm every Christmas Eve, when he gets the tree down from the loft.

8. After 40 years of wearing briefs, Sir Alex was encouraged by David Beckham to invest in a pair of cotton/Lycra boxer shorts. He says he has never looked back and they give him the comfort and support he needs.

However, several months later, Beckham was photographed, in advertising campaign, wearing and promoting briefs. Sir Alex felt Beckham had betrayed him, and that he was laughing at him. This is believed to have caused the rift between the two men and prompted Sir Alex to allegedly try to kill him with a shoe.

9. Sir Alex is an accomplished musician and whenever he attends a party, he takes his clarinet with him. With a bit of encouragement he may be persuaded to play Acker Bilk’s “Stranger On The Shore”. However, due to being shy about his musical skills, he will only play whilst standing inside a large duvet cover with everyone facing the other way.

It was not until the 1980s, when duvets began to replace quilts and eiderdowns, that Sir Alex gained the confidence to play in public at all.

10. Sir Alex used to eat five bowls of Sugar Puffs each day and, if he had not become a football manager, he was hoping to take over the role as “Mummy” to the Honey Monster when Henry Magee’s contract ran out.

It was a bitter blow to Sir Alex when Manchester punk poet John Cooper Clarke was instead teamed up with the Honey Monster and is said to be one of the reasons Cooper Clarke was never given a trial, despite his natural ball skills.

Since then, all breakfast cereal is banned from the house, although he will permit porridge to be served as long as it is with the traditional salt rather than Sassenachs' milk and sugar.

11. When asked to go on Desert Island Discs, in 2008, Sir Alex chose five CDs about the assassination of JFK given to him by Gordon Brown (with whom he is obsessed), and a copy of Stranger On The Shore by Acker Bilk.  For his luxury item, he chose a duvet cover.

Legend has it that the programme was never broadcast because he is said to have punched Sue Lawley when she said he couldn’t take his clarinet, claiming she let Mary O’Hara take her f*cking harp.

12. Being from the Clyde, one would expect Sir Alex to have been a fan of television detective series Taggart which starred ex-grunt-and-grapple hero Mick McManus as tough Glaswegian cop Juliet Bravo.

However, Sir Alex caused near riots in Govan when, in an article in the Scottish edition of Hello! magazine (Halloo!),  he said he preferred Lovejoy and gritty US Detective series Father Dowling Investigates.