Neil Warnock details amusing Sir Alex Ferguson encounter prior to Old Trafford Arsenal semi-final

08.02.2022 - 01:37 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Veteran football manager Neil Warnock has described the hilarious encounter he had with Sir Alex Ferguson prior to a semi-final against Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Due to the new Wembley being built during the 2000s, the semi-final of the FA Cup was held at Old Trafford and Villa Park before the showpiece match at Cardiff's Millenium Stadium.

Warnock described how football had evolved after Arsene Wenger's arrival in England and how the style of football plus the technology behind it changed.

Ahead of Sheffield United's 2003 clash with Arsenal, after the FA banned training on the Old Trafford turf but Sir Alex called in a favour for Warnock.

"I remember playing them [Arsene Wenger's Arsenal] before we played them in the semi-final of the FA Cup at Old Trafford," he said on Jimmy Bullard's Off The Hook podcast.

"Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] got me in [his] office [the] week before and said 'do you want to use the facility? You can go on the pitch.'

"Anyhow the FA banned us from going on the pitch, couldn't do it, though Arsenal did it a few weeks earlier, didn't let us do it as always.

"We trained at Carrington, Alex went 'how do you want the pitch, Neil?'

"I said, what do you mean Alex?

"He said 'we have it wet because we skim it around.'

"I went can we have it dry and long?

"He did it, yeah.

"He said we'll turn the sprinkler on as they come off the bus for two minutes, is that enough?

"I said that'll do fine."

Freddie Ljungberg scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal scraped a 1-0 win.

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