It was a character assassination! Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson ‘destroyed’ him on It’s All Kicking Off… and what it was like to be banned three times by the legendary Manchester United boss

• Manchester United banned four reporters from Erik ten Hag’s press conference
• Ian Ladyman explained an occasion where he was banned by Sir Alex Ferguson 
• A character assassination! What it’s like being annihilated and banned THREE times by Fergie – It’s All Kicking Off 

Four journalists were banned by Manchester United this week for stories about Erik ten Hag suffering a rift in his dressing room that the club took exception to.

While the move was highly controversial, it’s far from the first time United have acted to block coverage after reporting wasn’t to their liking, and as our Football Editor Ian Ladyman revealed on our podcast It’s All Kicking Off, they may even have gotten off lightly…

Ian Ladyman revealed he was subject of a character assassination by Sir Alex Ferguson

Ladyman told the It’s All Kicking Off podcast he was banned three times by the ex-Man United boss 

One ban followed an article written by Ladyman about Wayne Rooney at the 2010 World Cup

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I was banned three times by Sir Alex Ferguson. And I wasn’t alone. Fergie used to view his press conferences as a privilege, rather than an obligation. It’s absolutely an obligation. Clubs are obliged by the Premier League to do preview press conferences.

Sir Alex thought that if you overstepped the line, then he would withdraw that privilege.

I was banned one time for something that I’d written about Wayne Rooney. It was June 2010, I was at the World Cup in South Africa and wrote something about Wayne Rooney. It was kind of buried about 15 paragraphs into a piece I wrote about England and why Rooney wasn’t playing well. When I got back to Manchester and the season started, I found that I wasn’t welcome at Carrington. I was told that was why.

I thought what I wrote was fair, and I almost wore it as a badge of honour. Got on with my job.

We got to Christmas time and I’ve been banned for half a season – not for matches, just press conferences. I came out of the press exit at Old Trafford at the Boxing Day game, Fergie came out of the directors’ exit across the way and we locked eyes.

Before I could say anything, he just said to me ‘Merry Christmas Ian, Merry Christmas’. Shook my hand, walked off. And I thought: ‘Oh well, things are obviously thawing, it’s probably about time that I asked if I could come back on a Friday’. So I wrote him a letter, essentially saying, you know, let’s be big boys about this and let’s move on.

I went off on holiday to visit my sister in Australia. And while I was there, the office emailed me and said: ‘We’ve got a letter, we think you’d better see it’. So they emailed it to me.

Goodness me, I’ve still got it. I’ve never read anything like it in my life.

Ferguson said in his book, Leading, that he banned over 20 journalists for ‘making up stories’

Getting a dressing down – or a ban – from Ferguson was seen as a badge of honour by reporters

Four media outlets were banned from Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag’s press conference on Tuesday after stories suggesting some players had turned against him

In about six or seven short paragraphs, Sir Alex Ferguson absolutely assassinated me. Honestly, I’m getting the shivers just thinking about it now. I’ve not looked at that letter for a while. It was a character assassination, he destroyed me.

I won’t say what was in it because it’s a letter and it’s private but it wasn’t nice. It was measured and written in respectful terms but the message was clear. I thought: ‘I can’t let this lie so I wrote back and said come on please let’s get together and we did get together for half an hour at Carrington.

He ripped into me for a good 10 minutes. He told me that as well as the Rooney thing, he didn’t like the way I conducted myself in press conferences. He thought my questions were unfair. Didn’t like the way I phrased things.

He actually did a very, very clever thing. I was sitting on a chair in this room at Carrington and he perched on the table. So immediately he was looking down at me. And I was on the back foot for much of that meeting.

But it was a fascinating half an hour. I learned a lot about me that day. It ended amicably and he stood up, shook my hand and said: ‘Thanks for having the balls to come and see me. Welcome back to my Friday press conferences.’

And then he banned me again about four weeks later….

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.

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