Sir Alex Ferguson brutally axed me for Man Utd FA Cup final – I haven’t spoken to him since and never will do again
EX-MANCHESTER UNITED hero Jim Leighton vowed to never speak to Sir Alex Ferguson again following his axing from the 1990 FA Cup final line up.
Fergie decided to drop No1 goalkeeper Leighton following the memorable 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace in the first game.
Palace took the lead twice and United once before a late equaliser from Mark Hughes kept his side in it.
With the match going to a replay, Ferguson dropped Leighton in favour of Les Sealey, who had only played two times for United.
The Red Devils went on to win the replay 1-0 which secured Fergie’s first piece of silverware.
Leighton, who won 91 caps for Scotland, revealed their relationship was already damaged before then, but it became non-existent shortly after the high-profile snub.
Speaking to the BBC in 2018, he said: “It got pretty frosty over the period, sort of about the last six months I was in the team.
“And then it went to zero about a couple of weeks after the final.
“And we’ve never spoke since and never will do again.”
Asked why, he said: “I didn’t like a lot of the things that he said and he done.”
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Ferguson later explained: “Sealey was cocky and sometimes downright arrogant, so I did not foresee a failure of his nerve at Wembley.”
Leighton only featured once more in a Manchester United shirt, despite remaining on the books until 1992.
United’s victory was the start of the most successful reign of any manager in British football history, with Fergie going on to lift 37 more trophies.
Leighton did add: “He was miles ahead of anybody in terms of knowledge of the game and tactics, but in terms of dealing with people, it wasn’t quite the same.”
Ferguson’s brutal management style has been highly publicised, particularly his hairdryer related fall-out with David Beckham and banishment of captain Roy Keane.