Former Manchester United hero Gordon Strachan has insisted that he didn’t go out to prove Sir Alex Ferguson wrong after winning the First Division ahead of the legendary Scot.
Strachan played under Ferguson at Aberdeen and later at Old Trafford when Fergie made the move south of the border in 1986. Despite also featuring under Ferguson for Scotland, Strachan found himself left out of the team at United before joining Leeds United in 1989.
Despite the Whites being in the second-tier at the time, Strachan was convinced to drop down a division by Howard Wilkinson before spearheading Leeds to promotion in 1990 and playing a crucial part in their First Division-winning side of 1992 as captain.
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Leeds beat United to the title by four points after the Red Devils lost three of their last four games of the season, seeing the title slip away to Strachan and their Yorkshire rivals.
However, Strachan never felt like he had to prove Ferguson wrong for selling him; instead, his vindication was with himself that he could still compete at the very top, even in his 30s.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sport, via Grosvenor Sport, Strachan said: “There are the players, a lot of them are leading pundits saying, ‘well he needs to prove him wrong, he needs to prove that one wrong, doesn’t he?’
“I have never, ever thought like that. Say Sir Alex doesn’t want me because he thinks I’m finished as a good player at Man United, and I have to move on, that’s fine. I was okay with that.
“I was disappointed I’m leaving Man United because they’re a great club. But it’s been like that in my career where I didn’t get in the school side or the Scottish schoolboy side. Then you get into that club or that club and somebody wants to move you on.
“I’ve always been in the thought that, Alex, is he right? Am I finished? Am I not very good? Right, we’ll go and find out.
“And then you go into this thing where I’ve played well again, I’m winning things, I’m doing things. And then you don’t think about, ‘oh I proved him wrong’, all you did was prove to yourself that you could still do it.
“So I’ve never had that mentality, even as a manager, when people are saying this and that, I’ve never had this thing of, ‘I’ll prove him wrong’, because it’s a waste of time. You prove yourself right.
“I never at any time thought, ‘well I’ve proved him wrong or that one wrong or that one. Never, never. I’ve never had that.”