FERGIE’S WARNING ON DRINK

TOFFEE LOLLY Whiteside landed huge pay rise... thanks to Sir Alex

MANCHESTER UNITED legend Norman Whiteside knew he was fighting for his Old Trafford future from the moment Alex Ferguson became his new boss in November 1986.

The pair had first met a few months earlier, when Northern Ireland and Scotland found themselves on the same flight home from Mexico City after that summer’s World Cup.

And it was then Ferguson witnessed first-hand that the 21-year-old midfielder from Belfast, who he was about to inherit at Old Trafford, had a thirst for good times.

Whiteside recalled: “Fergie had taken temporary charge of Scotland for the tournament and they were on the same flight home as the Northern Ireland squad.

“A few of us – myself, Charlie Nicholas and Ally McCoist – had a bit of a champagne party at the front of the plane.

“It was a decent drink, to be fair – but Fergie never forgets. So when he came to United a few months later, one of the first things he asked me was whether I’d enjoyed the flight home from Mexico.

“It was a little warning that he would be keeping an eye on me.”

When Whiteside was sold to Everton in the summer of 1989, many United fans were furious.

Paul McGrath followed him out of the exit door a few weeks later to join Aston Villa, as United boss Fergie clamped down on the drinking culture he felt was holding his team back.

A film about Ferguson’s life – Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In – premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival yesterday.

And Whiteside hopes it captures the essence of a man who led United to the most successful period in the club’s history. The Irishman holds no grudges at all – not least because Ferguson helped broker the deal that took him to Goodison Park with a lucrative pay rise.

He said: “Contrary to popular belief, I never fell out with Fergie – because we were always honest with each other.

“He even gave me a bit of advice about the money I should ask Everton for. I was handed a lot of money to leave United because that had been written into my contract. But then Fergie started telling me what kind of wages the top players were getting when they moved clubs.

“He told me what to ask Everton for – and I ended up being on four-times more money than I was at Old Trafford.

“I didn’t have an agent at the time, so Fergie basically did that job for me – and he didn’t even ask for 10 per cent!”