Alex Ferguson’s First Man Utd Clash Came With a City-Supporting Bus Driver

A new manager, an old routine

Alex Ferguson’s first test of authority at Manchester United came before he’d even managed a match: he found the club’s City-supporting bus driver in the dugout, then serving tea in the dressing room. The episode captured the culture Ferguson wanted to reset as he took charge of a United side languishing in 20th place.

Ferguson arrived from Aberdeen on November 6, 1986, replacing the sacked Ron Atkinson. He had been appointed to lead what he called “the biggest club in football,” and wasted little time making clear that he expected the players to adapt to his standards.

“Look, I’ll tell you right now, I won’t change,” he told the squad at The Cliff training ground. “I won’t change my beliefs in what a football club should be about… I’m not going to change. You’ll have to change.”

The bus driver on the United bench

Two days later, Ferguson took charge of his first game, away to Oxford United on November 8. Derek Sutton drove the team to the Manor Ground. After Ferguson got off the coach and headed into a crush of reporters, Sutton parked the bus and took his customary seat on the United bench.

That arrangement had been normal under Atkinson, even though Sutton supported Manchester City and also drove for them. Just two weeks earlier, during Atkinson’s penultimate game in charge, Sutton had taken United to Maine Road and watched from City’s dugout.

Atkinson later recalled the routine to the BBC: “The thing that always makes me laugh when I remember these games is that our coach driver Derek – or Del Boy as we used to call him – would drive us to Maine Road and then go and sit on the City bench.” He described Sutton as “a funny man and a great laugh,” adding that he made the half-time tea and “was a City fan, and was their driver too.”

Ferguson said he didn’t know Sutton supported City. What he did notice was the driver’s presence in the dugout as United fell 1-0 behind. Ferguson later told ITV that he left his seat in the main stand shortly before half-time and saw Sutton there.

“I didn’t say anything, I just thought ‘this is interesting’,” he recalled. Then, in the dressing room, he found Sutton pouring tea for the players. “I said ‘excuse me, Derek. I don’t need you. Don’t come in the dressing room, don’t come in the dug-out again’.”

Two accounts of the break

United physio Jim McGregor and goalkeeper Chris Turner supported Ferguson’s account. In the photograph above, Sutton sits beside Ferguson for what was the first and last time. The other figures on the bench are substitute Jesper Olsen, reserve-team manager Brian Whitehouse and kit-man Norman Davies.

Sutton later gave a different version. Speaking in 2004, he said Ferguson never addressed him directly and instead complained to the coach company. “I hate the man – he is a very hateful person,” Sutton said.

He recalled being welcome under Atkinson, with passes that let him walk around Old Trafford and a place on the bench for the 1985 FA Cup final, when United beat Everton. “When Ferguson came in, he wanted to stamp out all the old regime,” Sutton said.

The dispute was small in footballing terms, but it put Ferguson’s message into practice from his first week: access and familiar habits would no longer be taken for granted. United’s new manager had drawn a line before his first match was over.

By Ian Watson

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The post ‘I hate the man’: Recalling Alex Ferguson’s first fight at Man Utd with their City-supporting bus driver appeared first on Planet Football.