Sir Alex talks about his Govan roots

HE’s dealt with some of the toughest players in football, brought down pop stars with a whip of his acid tongue and has a reputation for being fearsome, but Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed the one thing that feared him the most - his Govan granny.
Just a day after winning the Champions League for the second time with Manchester United, Sir Alex spoke in a rare interview with David Frost about his early days in Govan, and how it helped shape his career and character. Sir Alex fondly recalled his days as a very young shop steward in the Remington Rand trade union where he led his workers on strike – and led to him falling foul of his gran.
He said: “We marched out the factory. I was excited. Because you’re young it was an adventure, and you felt a bit of a rebel. We went on strike for six weeks.”
However, his involvement with the union got him the hairdryer treatment that he is so famous for from his own grandmother.
Sir Alex reminised with a smile: “I remember I came home and my mother said to me ‘your granny wants to speak to you. She wants to see you.’
“My gran just lived round the corner so she was a sort of matriarch.
Better life
“She was on top of you for anything you did wrong. So I went round and she said ‘you’re mother thinks you’re a communist,’ pointing the finger at me. I said ‘don’t be so stupid, granny, I swear I’m not.
“She said ‘Well you’d better bloody not be I’m telling you. I’d never forgive you’
“She went right through me. So I went home to Ma and I said ‘Ma, I’m not a communist. I would never even think about that for goodness sake. Because I’m in a trade union doesn’t mean to say I’m a communist’.
“Anyway, these are the kind of things that can affect you so that’s why I was glad to get out of it all at the end of the day. Glad to get into football and therefore get on with a better life.”
Sir Alex recalled how hard it was growing up in Govan during his youth.
He said: “It was tough in the sense that you had to stand up for yourself. I think it was like all these tough neighbourhoods. If you want to get trouble, you’ll find it. If you don’t want trouble, you’ll stay out the road of it all.
Success
“And there was some areas of Govan which were very like that, but standing up for yourself is something that, coming from these areas, you’d have to do.
“If you didn’t you could end up with a bloody nose or whatever, and that just gave me the determination to look after myself I suppose.
“I was lucky that way because you could easily have gone a different way.
“My parents insisted I had to join the Boys Brigade – that was a great step, so things like that were all the lucky breaks you get in life.
“But the core, definitely, the foundation of what your parents do for you, is very important.”
Despite his knighthood and his wealth, the Old Trafford boss has still remained true to his Govan roots.
When asked by Frost if he still considers himself working class, Sir Alex said: “I do – simply because I haven’t changed. Maybe my status has changed. Obviously, having a knighthood and the success I’ve had in life and, of course, I’m comfortable financially – but I think what I’m proud of is I haven’t changed.
“I have always had my feet on the ground. I have not been carried away with the success.
“I can handle that very easily – but I know what success can also do.
“It can change you as I see with the young players, and it can change older players too. There’s no question of that. I think I have handled that well.
“So I can go back to Govan, without any shadow of a doubt, and be as comfortable as any of the people there to this day.”
Even though he is slowly approaching his 70th year, Sir Alex is a keen learner, although he admits now that his dream of playing the piano has recently bit the dust.
“I have a cousin in Canada who’s a great man,|” said Sir Alex. “Chris has more determination than me, by the way – he is a really determined lad. He said ‘you know what I did last year? I bought a piano and I learned to play it by myself.’
“So I told my wife Cathy - ‘see, he’s got a piano now, we’ll get a piano.’
“I was always on about a piano. I wanted to play the piano. One of those great ambitions I had was to have a piano.
“Cathy said ‘don’t’ be stupid! Piano! A boy from Govan with a piano, for goodness sake!’”