Former Manchester United assistant coach René Meulensteen has revealed in an interview why Sir Alex Ferguson felt he had to apologise to his United coaching staff when he decided to retire in 2013.
A key member of Sir Alex Ferguson’s backroom team at Manchester United from 2007 to 2013, Meulensteen enjoyed huge success at Old Trafford during one of the club’s most trophy-laden eras, winning four Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2008.
Before being promoted to first-team coach in 2007, the Dutchman had worked in Manchester United’s youth academy. He left the club following Ferguson’s retirement decision in 2013.
Aside from his role as assistant at Man Utd, Meulensteen has managed several clubs including Brøndby, Fulham and Anzhi Makhachkala. He is currently assistant coach of the Iraq national team.
Having worked closely with Ferguson for a long time, Meulensteen has plenty of fascinating stories to tell. During a recent appearance on the SACKED podcast, he spoke about how Ferguson apologised to his coaching staff after his retirement decision was leaked.
Meulensteen said: “I obviously had no idea he was going to retire. The news leaked late on a Tuesday night. I think the players and some staff had a golf day that day.”
“I never play golf, so I wasn’t there. But I remember another member of staff texting me saying, ‘Listen, the players are getting lots of messages on their phones saying Ferguson might retire at the end of the season. Do you know anything about it?’”
“I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ I didn’t think much of it at first, then another message popped up asking, ‘Is it true?’ I thought, ‘I’d better check.’ So I turned on my laptop, and you could tell straight away – there’s no smoke without fire.”
“But we basically found out and had it confirmed when we arrived at Carrington the next morning, which was obviously swamped by media and everyone.”
“So we knew something was up. That’s when Sir Alex called me, Mike Phelan and Eric Steele in, and basically apologised for the news leaking, because he’d intended to tell us in advance, but unfortunately it didn’t happen that way.”