'He will end up in jail' — Ex-Man United star tells Mikel Obi Sir Alex Ferguson will struggle to coach modern players

John Obi Mikel discussed with a former Manchester United star about the difference in coaching across different eras of football.

Manchester United legend Patrice Evra, in a conversation with Mikel Obi, provided some insight into the difference in the man-management aspect of coaching in the era they played compared to modern football. 

In his assessment, he believes the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, who was his gaffer from 2006, when he was signed from Monaco, till 2013, when the Scotsman retired, will probably be sanctioned for some of his coaching methods if practised in modern football. 

Sir Alex Ferguson: Evra’s tough coach 

The 43-year-old retired left-back was recently on the increasingly famous ObiOne podcast hosted by Super Eagles legend John Obi-Mikel. 

The two ex-pros reminisced on managerial practices back in the day and Evra, who won five English League titles with Sir Alex, agreed with Mikel that the former Aberdeen boss would land a jail sentence if he treated today's footballers the way he did those from the previous era. 

The ‘hairdryer treatment’ was referenced in the conversation between the duo, a term that rose to prominence during Ferguson's peak years, which refers to a loud, angry, verbal dressing down a coach employs to reprimand their players.

Sir Alex employs these 'strongman’ tactics to keep his players in check; he has sometimes, at least on one occasion, inflicted physical abuse upon the verbal, as seen in the infamous boot incident with David Beckham, in which he angrily kicked Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s boot at the winger, leaving him with a cut just above his eye. 

What Evra said 

While Ferguson was used as a reference point, the conversation was about a more general juxtaposition of coaching differences between eras. 

Mikel, leading the conversation, alluded to how Mourinho gave him a dressing down after a rough start to life at Chelsea. 

“You know, I remember getting, you know, sent off twice in my first two or three months and Mourinho had to make me learn, like, quickly, like in a very, very tough way,” the ex-Middlesbrough midfielder started. 

“But, you know, that was the way we learned back then. Now, when you get like, of course, we know Fergie (Sir Alex Ferguson) with the hair dryer. When you do that nowadays, you know the managers will end up in jail.”

Evra picked it up and explained the reason for the difference. He stressed how football then was more despotic and aggressive compared to nowadays when players have better rights even from the academy. 

“But that's what I like, John because even if we were a family between us, we were like k*lling each other,” Evra said. 

“You were like no friend. Do you know many just because you want to win, right the winning mindset.

“You know how many times I argue with Ryan Giggs? Just because I was doing a throwing, you know, the one when he bounced and he was like, ‘What the f**k is this’?

“And I was like, ‘Come on, you're better than that’. You can control it with. Then, after the game, we shake hands.

Speaking specifically about the authoritarian regime of Sir Alex, he said, “You know, many times Ferguson have to stop the training session because we were like broken legs? Like the training session was even more important than the game.”

“But this is the winning mindset, and that's why people say, If Ferguson was managing right now, I say he'd probably end up in jail, because the way the old school, it was quite tough.

“It was like throwing boots at us like bottle of water, screaming in your face like crazy stuff and like the new generation, now is getting more softer.

“Look before the academy players; they used to clean our boots, but it was like a reward. Oh my God, I'm cleaning the boots of Rooney or whatever, whatever.

“Now, if you do that to that new generation, they're gonna call the agent and it will be like breaking you. They say they will feel like slave mentally, that it affects them mentally.

However, Evra understands that times have changed, and he welcomes the evolution, explaining that on-pitch success is no longer the be-all and end-all for footballers. 

“But I don't blame them because this is the new society because the younger have everything fast, everything fast.”

“So they lose that anger and you see, with the social media, now a football player, he become like a brown, he become a model, he become a politician.

“We used to be only football players. That's why you eat and, you know, sleep football.”