Sir Alex rues missed transfer

"Our pitch was terrible. I thought if I got Mick Harford, we could have just played it up to him. We should have signed him."

- Sir Alex Ferguson

With the 2011 transfer deadline now behind us, Sir Alex has recalled one target who escaped his clutches in the early Nineties.

The boss still regrets not landing bruising target-man Mick Harford when he pondered temporarily abandoning United’s passing game because of the state of the Old Trafford pitch. Harford was a no-nonsense centre-forward, reckoned to be one of the toughest players of his day, and there was speculation at the time that the Reds tried to bring him to Manchester from Derby County.

“We lost the league in 1991 because our pitch was terrible,” he recalled. “That’s why I tried to sign Mick Harford.

“To try and play football on that pitch was impossible and I thought if I got Mick, we could have just played it up there and let Mick whack the centre-halves out of the road. That was a mistake. We should have signed him.”

Fortunately, the surface at the Theatre of Dreams is now perfect which enables United to play the free-flowing football that has been a hallmark of Sir Alex’s glorious reign. “The pitch is fantastic now,” the boss added. “Tony Sinclair [head groundsman] has done a great job and it’s been of benefit to us.

“The pitches have been one of the factors in the improvement of the game. With the speed of the game nowadays, you need good pitches.”