Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the most successful managers to ever grace the Premier League. His time in charge of Manchester United was one that brought so much success to Old Trafford, but his managerial style was an interesting one.
Even off the pitch, Ferguson had an impact on his players, having a say in their personal lives. He’s not the first manager to do so and won’t be the last. Youth players had to come to the gaffer to ask for permission to buy a house, but it wasn’t straightforward, as Daniel Nardiello found out.
He knocked on Ferguson’s door to ask him for permission to get on the property ladder, but Ferguson wasn’t about to just let him do that without following the rules that he set out to him, which seems harsh but there’s a reason behind it.
Daniel Nardiello wasn’t allowed to buy a house due to Sir Alex Ferguson rule
Ferguson wasn’t outright preventing the youngster from getting on the property ladder, but instead gave him a task to complete before being allowed to come back and ask him again. He made Nardiello have cooking lessons with the chef at Carrington.
After three months of lessons, Ferguson believed that players would then be able to cook for themselves and thus were capable of having their own property rather than living in ‘digs’.
The logic behind this is clear, diet is a huge part of football, so the youth players will need to be able to provide meals for themselves with the correct nutritional values to help maintain their growth and transition from the youth team to the first team.
What did Daniel Nardiello say?
Nardiello claimed: “I had my first three years at United, I’d done quite well in the youth teams and reserve level and Sir Alex offered me a three-year contract, which I was obviously going to take. But with the new contract, and my time at the digs coming to an end, I wanted to buy my own property, my own house to live in.
“But youth players need to have permission, so I had to knock on the door to ask if I can buy my own property. He was like ‘No, I’m not letting you buy your own property unless you’ve had three months of cooking lessons with the chef at Carrington.
“So for three months, a couple of times a week, I was out cooking all the food for the first team players. I was in a bit earlier than I would normally be to help the chef. Once the three months were up, I knocked on the gaffer’s door again and he allowed me to pursue buying a home and moving in to my own house. But it goes to show the level of detail he went into.
“He wanted to make sure the club was run properly from top to bottom, wanted to look after his players, making sure they had the best start. I’m not a good cook now though, my wife doesn’t want my cooking, it’s once in a blue moon I cook, but it did give me a good grounding.”
