{"id":297447,"date":"2023-12-07T22:24:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T22:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=297447"},"modified":"2023-12-07T22:24:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T22:24:32","slug":"ian-ladyman-reveals-how-sir-alex-ferguson-destroyed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/ian-ladyman-reveals-how-sir-alex-ferguson-destroyed-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson &apos;destroyed&apos; him"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> It was a character assassination! Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson &#8216;destroyed&#8217; him on\u00a0It&#8217;s All Kicking Off&#8230; and what it was like to be banned three times by the legendary Manchester United boss<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Manchester United banned four reporters from\u00a0Erik ten Hag&#8217;s press conference<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ian Ladyman explained an occasion where he was banned by Sir Alex Ferguson\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A character assassination! What it\u2019s like being annihilated and banned THREE times by Fergie \u2013 It\u2019s All Kicking Off\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While the move was highly controversial, it\u2019s far from the first time United have acted to block coverage after reporting wasn\u2019t to their liking, and as our Football Editor Ian Ladyman revealed on our podcast It\u2019s All Kicking Off, they may even have gotten off lightly\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78693877-12837593-image-a-44_1701959290652.jpg\" height=\"383\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ian Ladyman revealed he was subject of a character assassination by Sir Alex Ferguson<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78693933-12837593-image-a-43_1701959285129.jpg\" height=\"355\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ladyman told the It&#8217;s All Kicking Off podcast he was banned three times by the ex-Man United boss\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78693867-12837593-image-a-42_1701959159267.jpg\" height=\"419\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>One ban followed an article written by Ladyman about Wayne Rooney at the 2010 World Cup<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>I was banned three times by Sir Alex Ferguson. And I wasn\u2019t alone. Fergie used to view his press conferences as a privilege, rather than an obligation. It\u2019s absolutely an obligation. Clubs are obliged by the Premier League to do preview press conferences.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Alex thought that if you overstepped the line, then he would withdraw that privilege.<\/p>\n<p>I was banned one time for something that I\u2019d 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\u2019t playing well. When I got back to Manchester and the season started, I found that I wasn\u2019t welcome at Carrington. I was told that was why.<\/p>\n<p>I thought what I wrote was fair, and I almost wore it as a badge of honour. Got on with my job.<\/p>\n<p>We got to Christmas time and I\u2019ve been banned for half a season \u2013 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\u2019 exit across the way and we locked eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Before I could say anything, he just said to me \u2018Merry Christmas Ian, Merry Christmas\u2019. Shook my hand, walked off. And I thought: \u2018Oh well, things are obviously thawing, it\u2019s probably about time that I asked if I could come back on a Friday\u2019. So I wrote him a letter, essentially saying, you know, let\u2019s be big boys about this and let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n<p>I went off on holiday to visit my sister in Australia. And while I was there, the office emailed me and said: \u2018We\u2019ve got a letter, we think you\u2019d better see it\u2019. So they emailed it to me.<\/p>\n<p>Goodness me, I\u2019ve still got it. I\u2019ve never read anything like it in my life.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78640911-12837593-Ferguson_said_in_his_book_Leading_that_he_banned_over_20_journal-a-57_1701960020526.jpg\" height=\"450\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ferguson said in his book, Leading, that he banned over 20 journalists for &#8216;making up stories&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78653403-12837593-image-a-59_1701960094833.jpg\" height=\"444\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Getting a dressing down &#8211; or a ban &#8211; from Ferguson was seen as a badge of honour by reporters<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/07\/14\/78693963-12837593-image-a-45_1701959338859.jpg\" height=\"468\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Four media outlets were banned from Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag&#8217;s press conference on Tuesday after stories suggesting some players had turned against him<\/p>\n<p>In about six or seven short paragraphs, Sir Alex Ferguson absolutely assassinated me. Honestly, I\u2019m getting the shivers just thinking about it now. I\u2019ve not looked at that letter for a while. It was a character assassination, he destroyed me.<\/p>\n<p>I won\u2019t say what was in it because it\u2019s a letter and it\u2019s private but it wasn\u2019t nice. It was measured and written in respectful terms but the message was clear. I thought: \u2018I can\u2019t let this lie so I wrote back and said come on please let\u2019s get together and we did get together for half an hour at Carrington.<\/p>\n<p>He ripped into me for a good 10 minutes. He told me that as well as the Rooney thing, he didn\u2019t like the way I conducted myself in press conferences. He thought my questions were unfair. Didn\u2019t like the way I phrased things.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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: \u2018Thanks for having the balls to come and see me. Welcome back to my Friday press conferences.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>And then he banned me again about four weeks later\u2026.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12837593\/Ian-Ladyman-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-banned-Manchester-United.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>It was a character assassination! Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson &#8216;destroyed&#8217; him on\u00a0It&#8217;s All Kicking Off&#8230; and what it was like to be <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/ian-ladyman-reveals-how-sir-alex-ferguson-destroyed-him\/\" title=\"Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson &amp;apos;destroyed&amp;apos; him\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson &amp;apos;destroyed&amp;apos; him - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/ian-ladyman-reveals-how-sir-alex-ferguson-destroyed-him\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ian Ladyman reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson &amp;apos;destroyed&amp;apos; him - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was a character assassination! 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