‘Sir Alex Ferguson lost it with me after New York night out for Man Utd squad’

A former Manchester United masseur has recalled being torn apart by Sir Alex Ferguson after arranging a squad night out in New York.

During a pre-season trip to the United States, the squad had just flown from Chicago to New York and, to their surprise, the likes of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick were given more than a day’s free time in the Big Apple. That led to a Sunday drinking session which attracted media attention after some members of the squad were seen cavorting with local women.

When news of the booze-up found its way into the public domain, it was a little-known member of staff who bore the brunt of Ferguson’s rage. The club’s masseur at the time, Rod Thornley, who had contacts in New York, helped organise the outing before incurring the wrath of Ferguson for socialising with the players.

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“We get off the plane in New York,” he recalled during an appearance as a guest on the Undr The Cosh podcast. “Sir Alex has got his own apartment so he says to [assistant manager] Mike Phelan, ‘tell the lads, see you on the bus Monday morning’.

“The lads are like ‘f****** hell, Saturday night and Sunday in New York, let’s go!’. On the Saturday night, we made a night of it in the hotel. Then Sunday [we] played golf and I was sort of given the job, because I had some contacts in New York, to organise a night out for us.

“Originally, it was me, Wayne [Rooney], Michael Carrick and the England physio, who was working with me at the time, a guy called Dave Hancock. He was working for [NBA side] New York Knicks. I asked him where we could go.

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“So we organised a rooftop bar for the afternoon, then a club after that. We got it sorted but once two or three lads heard about it, they were like ‘we’ll come’. Eventually, there were like 15 or 16 lads. Andy Cole, Bryan Robson, legends who had come on the tour with us, they were coming as well.

“I had to hire a mini-bus and we sorted this whole day and night out. It was brilliant. Virtually all the squad was in there, myself, my mate from New York Knicks.”

Thornley said a simple night out would have been acceptable to Ferguson, but images in the media of random women boarding the bus was what really upset the fiery Scot.

“We then went on to a nightclub before going home,” added Thornley. “A couple of the lads had taken a couple of birds from the bar to the club. So the next day, in the Monday edition of the New York Times, there were pictures of Manchester United out partying in Manhatten. It [the report] then said the club moved on to a nightclub with a couple of girls they took on the team bus.

“So Sir Alex has read this on the Monday. He would have been fine with us having a night out but he saw ‘a couple of girls on the team bus’ and lost it, lost it. [There was] The Spanish Inquisition and somehow my name got thrown into the equation. I got thrown under the bus basically.”

Thornley got his rollicking a day later after being given a head-ups. He recalled: “Tuesday morning training happened and I got a heads-up from someone, [they said] ‘the gaffer is gunning for you so just stay out of his way today, he’s fuming’. So I stayed out of his way,

“I go for lunch. I was about five minutes later, which didn’t really matter, but all the seats were taken, apart from one table which was completely empty. I look round and the only person not in the room is Sir Alex. Sure enough, a minute later, he walks in. The only place he can sit in the whole room is next to me.

“He sits next to me and says [does Ferguson impression] ‘you were out with the players, weren’t you, son?’ I was like, ‘no boss, I was out with my mate, they just happened to be in the same place’.

“He said ‘you were f****** out with the players’ and his voice started getting louder and louder until he’s absolutely snapped at me. The whole room was looking round, it felt so horrible. He lost it. He was like ‘you’re not a f****** player, you shouldn’t be out with them’.

“I took it on the chin, sulked off and just got on with my job for the rest of the day. It was a hairdryer, not as loud as you’d expect, but just horrible, with an audience as well.”

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