Sheri: United wasn't plain sailing

Teddy Sheringham has revealed life at Man United was tougher than many thought.

The former England international jumped at the chance to join The Red Devils in 1997 and spent four successful seasons with the Old Trafford club.

Sheringham was stunned to hear his name linked with United, but was delighted to join Sir Alex Ferguson's side once he had confirmation from the Scottish tactician.

"When I got home from holiday, there was a message from my dad saying a Premiership club wants to talk to me," explained Sheringham to the Sunday Telegraph.

"When I phoned him back he said, 'Who do you think it is?' I guessed Newcastle and then Liverpool, at which points he said, 'No, better than that'. I said, 'Not Manchester United?' and when he confirmed it, I could not jump on the plane quick enough.

"I did the deal with the chairman, but sometimes they buy players without making sure the manager want him. I wanted to know that Alex wanted me and when he told me he couldn't wait to work with me, that was it.

"He was very disciplined, in the Scottish mould of George Graham, but he could pick a good player and make him perform well.

"People think it is all plain sailing at United but you need balls to play there, sometimes you have to dig into your resources."

Sheringham began his career under Graham at Millwall, but found life very different when he made a £2 million move to Nottingham Forest in the early 90s.

"At Millwall, it was all very methodical but when I got to Forest, it was a ball on a towel in the centre of the dressing room and Clough telling us, 'There's one ball out there, so go out and get it, win it and play with it and enjoy it'," he continued

"And I was like₻what, no man-marking, no set-pieces, no pick him up, no doing that, no get on the ball and help your mate? It was all very different to what I'd known.

"What was even stranger was that we never saw Clough and we hardly ever trained. We used to come in on Monday morning after a Saturday game, train for five minutes and then he'd say, 'That will do, see you on Friday'.

"We'd say no, we want to do some training but he would wave us away. He'd say, 'Get out of my sight, go home and get your feet up, it's a long season'. Unbelievable."