LEGENDARY Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson admitted some of his signings ‘weren’t the best players’.
But Fergie also revealed he was ok with that as long as the stars had ‘a mental toughness about them’ like his own.
During his 27 years at Old Trafford the Scot signed football geniuses like Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Cantona.
But he also picked up Roy Keane, Nemanja Vidic and Park Ji-Sung who perhaps fell into the ‘signed for their mindset’ category.
And speaking ahead of the release of his new documentary – Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In – the 79-year-old revealed the driving force behind his transfer strategy.
He told United’s website: “Some players I had were absolute natural footballers, with natural talent.
“But there were other players who shared my determination, who maybe weren’t the best players but they made themselves the best players, because they had something inside them too.
“I go back to one of my first defeats as a manager, at 32 years of age.
“I didn’t expect it. I went into the game eyes wide open, that this was going to be easy. We lost 5-2 to Albion Rovers. I was the manager of East Stirling, the players were on £5-a-week, or something like that.
“I came home and I said ‘If I don’t get Alec Ferguson in my team, I’m not going to succeed.’ So I made sure that my players had a mental toughness about them, from that moment on.”
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As well as several superstar signings, Fergie was also responsible for a few spectacular flops.
Bebe, Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Juan Sebastian Veron spring to mind.
And Ferguson admitted it was not always an exact science and he often relied on instinct alone.
He added: “I believe in instinct. I had a good instinct about players and I had a good instinct about watching players who I maybe wanted to buy.
“I knew that, looking at certain players, I could see traits that told me they were Manchester United players, or Aberdeen players, or St Mirren players.
“I could see that in certain players I watched. Instinct was really important.”
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