🗣️ Sir Alex Ferguson on playing West Ham in 2011:
“It actually happens on a fairly regular basis. I would often twiddle things during a game or at half-time. One example that comes to mind is a game against West Ham in the closing weeks of the season in April 2011.
A few months earlier, West Ham had whipped us 4-0 in a Carling Cup tie where I had fielded a team of young players. Towards the end of that game, Wally Downes, West Ham's first-team coach, asked Wes Brown, as he waited on the sidelines to replace Jonny Evans, 'Are you going on to make a difference?'
That got right under my skin, as did the taunts from West Ham's supporters after the game, who were very aggressive towards me in the car park.
I told them, 'We're going to be back here in April and we're going to relegate you.' However, when we were 2-0 down at half-time in a match towards the end of the season, I was a long way from fulfilling my promise.
So I tossed our game plan out of the window, pulled Patrice Evra, who had played for France in the middle of the week, out of the game, and moved Ryan Giggs to left-back.
Eventually, we won 4-2 with Rooney scoring a hat-trick. A few weeks later, at the end of the season, West Ham got relegated to the Championship.”
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