What Sir Alex Ferguson Told Man Utd Players After Man City’s Win vs QPR

· GiveMeSport

Rio Ferdinand revealed what Sir Alex Ferguson told his Manchester United players after they lost the Premier League title to Manchester City in 2012.

Manchester City being found guilty of breaching Premier League regulations has prompted discourse to re-emerge about Sergio Aguero's historic late winner, which snatched the title from Manchester United in 2012. Quotes regarding Sir Alex Ferguson's post-match team talk have now resurfaced.

A verdict was reached on City's impropriety last week, with the north-west club found to have made off-the-books payments, inflated sponsorship deals and failed to co-operate with investigations in the period between 2009 and 2023.

The eight-time Premier League winners are set to appeal the verdict , while a punishment is being drawn up by the division's governing body.

United are said to be among the list of clubs looking to take legal action against their neighbours, as they feel they missed out on silverware due to City's wrongdoings, most notably in the 2011/12 season.

City's first Premier League title came in the 2011/12 season, when Aguero's last-minute winner secured a 3-2 victory for Roberto Mancini's side against Queens Park Rangers. United, who won 1-0 at Sunderland on the same day, missed out on the title on goal difference.

This agonising day was understandably difficult for United players and fans to deal with, hence the frustration from the Red Devils' side of Manchester since David Ornstein's breaking news last week.

The former Manchester United striker had previously commented QPR's performance against Manchester City in the final moments of the 2011/12 season.

Several United stars have relived Ferguson's words immediately after they had their hearts broken by the noisy neighbours. First, Tom Cleverley recalled the manager's brutal assessment , telling the club website:

> "The manager said to us all: 'I told you. That's why I wanted you to be more ruthless and really kill teams, because you can lose leagues on goal difference.

> "That's how much of a winner he was, how ruthless he wanted us to be. If we'd done that, scored more goals, really killed teams, we'd have won the league in 11/12."

> "We’re away at Sunderland, we win the game 1-0," Phil Jones said on the Rio Presents YouTube channel back in 2024.

> "Our game’s finished, and I walked off the pitch, and Berber's [Dimitar Berbatov] gone to me, ‘it’s done, it’s done,’ so I think we’ve done it. So I’m thinking, we’ve done it, we’ve won the league.

> “And anyway, as it transpires the game’s not finished. Then, obviously, I can’t even name him, goes and scores and that was it."

United's players quickly made their way back into their dressing room at the Stadium of Light to console each other. Ferdinand revealed what Ferguson said to his squad in that intense moment on Wearside.

> "The feeling… I’ve never been in a dressing room like that before," he said.

> "Never. He [Ferguson] said, ‘You experienced players, you’ve run this course, you’ve been here. But you young ones, and he named you, Chris Smalling, Welbs [Danny Welbeck], Clevs [Tom Cleverley] etc.

> "He went, ‘you listen now, and you remember the faces out there,’ because the Sunderland fans were laughing at us, and they were cheering when the goal went in. So he said, ‘you remember their faces, you remember what it’s like and you remember this feeling here, now, the day you come back into pre-season next season. You don’t let that happen again.’

> "And we won the league the next season.”

Indeed, United responded to this adversity by winning the league the following season, finishing eleven points clear of City in Ferguson's final campaign in the Old Trafford dugout.

In light of City's guilty verdict, many are going back to that dramatic final day in 2012.

QPR, who were fighting for survival as City were gunning for the title, gave the ball straight back to the Citizens multiple times in the closing stages, rather than looking to keep hold of possession.

This has prompted many to question the integrity of City's late winner , while some have even accused QPR players of being paid by the Emirati ownership to try to lose the game.

These claims haven't been proven and remain conspiracy theories, with many others pointing out that QPR already knew they'd survived through signals from the sidelines, and that they were simply trying to clear the ball rather than desperately attempting to hold on to it with 10 men.

Several teams could win belated league titles with Man City found guilty over their 115 charges, but Mikel Arteta’s men still wouldn’t get a trophy.

QPR striker Djibril Cisse, who has been accused of celebrating with City players on the pitch at the end of the game, hit back at these accusations of sporting misconduct on Monday morning.

> "I’m not gonna let you people talk s like that," he wrote on X. "Let’s have a proper meeting and talk about it, because there is no way I going to accept your b anymore. So let’s do it."

The outcome of the accused club's appeal should eventually provide some closure for City and United fans respectively, with both sets of supporters ardently arguing their case about the events that took place that day.

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