Sir Alex Ferguson’s press conferences were notorious for their adversarial nature but there is one that the writers who were there remember as especially volcanic and it involved the perception that a great foreign talent was struggling to adapt to the demands of the Premier League.
Juan Sebastian Veron, who had been signed by Manchester United from Lazio for £28million in the summer of 2001 amid great excitement, had been widely criticised by the media as United’s attempt to win a fourth successive league title in the Argentine’s first season fell apart.