Sir Alex Ferguson once Gave Players’ Wives a Shopping ban ahead of Cup Final – Former Player, Gordon Strachan Reveals

Strachan also said Ferguson would select babysitters for his first-team stars who could report back about what they were doing away from the training ground.

He said: “He used to control your life and your family life. He even had a team talk with the wives before a cup final once.

“He said ‘Do not take him shopping, he’s resting and don’t give him what he wants eating wise’. There would be all hell breaking loose now with that one, there would be all sorts of screaming and shouting.

“He just said to them ‘You have to look after the players, make sure they don’t do too much and if they are getting stressed out you have to deal with their stress’.”

Strachan, 64, said Bryan Gunn and Eric Black, who were then youth team players at Aberdeen, were chosen by Fergie, 79, to babysit his kids on a Saturday night.

He added: “He even used to control the babysitters that we used to have at Aberdeen.

“My babysitters were Eric Black and Bryan Gunn, they used to look after my kids Gavin and Craig.

“On a Monday he would get all the babysitters together and say ‘What time did Strachan come in on Saturday night? Did he have a curry?’

“He covered all things like that.

“We didn’t like it at the time but when you look back now I really did like it because it controlled my life and disciplined my life.

“If you are winning things you love it.”