Alan Sugar told former Tottenham boss to call Sir Alex Ferguson about one manager, Man Utd legend’s reaction says it all

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Former Tottenham boss David Pleat revealed that Lord Alan Sugar told him to speak with Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson about one manager.

Sir Alex Ferguson is widely considered one of the best managers of all time after his legendary impact with Manchester United in England and with Aberdeen in Scotland.

The 82-year-old former United manager led the Red Devils to all 13 of their Premier League title wins and an iconic treble feat in the 1998-99 season.

Ferguson bowed out of Old Trafford in 2013 after the end of the 2012-13 campaign, which culminated with United’s last Premier League trophy.

Lord Alan Sugar witnessed first-hand Ferguson’s dominance in the Premier League during his time in charge of Tottenham as a chairman and part-owner.

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Pleat reveals Ferguson’s reaction from phone call

Lord Alan Sugar was on the hunt for a new manager at Tottenham in the 1997-98 season after Gerry Francis stepped down from his role.

The former Spurs chairman turned to David Pleat for advice about Christian Gross as a potential successor for Gerry Francis at Tottenham.

Christian Gross had won back-to-back Swiss Super League titles as the manager of the Grasshopper, but the Swiss head coach was an unknown quantity to Sugar.

Sugar believed that Sir Alex Ferguson would have knowledge of Christian Gross and told Francis to contact the Manchester United legend because “he knows everyone.”

But Pleat was in for a rude awakening after legendary former United manager Ferguson did not know much about Gross, with Sugar appointing him either way.

Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine, he said: “Sugar asked me if I knew him.

“I didn’t, and he said, ‘Ring Alex Ferguson – he knows everyone.’ He didn’t know much about him, either; I told Sugar, but he went ahead.”

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What happened to Gross at Tottenham?

Sugar’s decision to appoint Christian Gross backfired, even after Pleat and Ferguson admitted that they had very little knowledge about the former Grasshopper boss.

Gross became Tottenham manager in 1997 and the Swede later claimed that he was sacked by Sugar in 1998 after a poor start to the 1998-99 season.

“Christian’s agent was Jurgen Klinsmann’s agent, and Klinsmann came back that season,” Pleat continued.

“Christian was a nice man but the players didn’t want his tough regime. I told the chairman to give him time but he said, ‘You know the mood of the players’ and Christian got the sack.”

He added: “Alan Sugar was a very clever man: he was the first to want a director of football, because he felt directors didn’t know enough about football and needed someone to help them – a buffer between the manager and the board.”