It didn’t always take much to annoy Sir Alex Ferguson, as the sight of the former Manchester United manager berating opponents, referees and pretty much anyone else who crossed him is seared into the brain of anyone who watched football during the first 20 years of the Premier League.
Like all good managers, the Scot could be fiercely protective of his players and if he felt they had been wronged and if you dared to put in a big challenge on anyone in a Manchester United shirt, back in the day, he would let you know about.
Just ask Liam Ridgewell, who was taking on the Red Devils as a Birmingham City player in January 2008 and put in a heavy tackle on Carlos Tevez, who had earlier opened the scoring.
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Ridgwell recalls his Tevez challenge
The Argentine was forced off with an ankle injury, which did not impress Ferguson, who said: “He’s not the type to roll around and that gives you an idea of the type of tackle. It was a sore one.”
So what was Ridgewell’s thinking that afternoon? “My dad always encouraged me to make my mark early in a game,” he tells FourFourTwo.
“That could be with a run or a cross or whatever, but for me mostly it was with a challenge. I remember that game at Old Trafford. I was facing Carlos Tevez and decided to lay a marker on him. The thing is, it didn’t seem to bother him too much…”
After reminding that Tevez had to be taken off with 20 minutes to go, FourFourTwo goes on to ask the former Aston Villa, West Brom and Portland Timbers centre-back which tackle he remembers most from his career.
“One that sticks in my mind was on Theo Walcott while I was playing down at the Emirates Stadium,” Ridgewell recalls.
“I hadn’t long been back from the leg break I’d suffered the previous season. During the build-up in training, Alex McLeish kept asking me if I was OK; he thought I’d been timid since coming back from injury.
“I don’t know if he was trying to plant a seed, but it stuck in my head. In the match, Walcott went inside and I laid down a marker on him, stopping him in his tracks – I had to, or he’d have run me ragged.
“Afterwards, I looked over at the gaffer as if to say, “I’m not timid.” Theo picked up an injury – I didn’t want that to happen, but we joked about it later.”
