Brilliant trap Sir Alex Ferguson laid for Newcastle United star that saw potential move collapse
Given everything that went on this summer surrounding Newcastle United with Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa, the conversation around player character is probably more relevant than ever.
While both Yoane Wissa and Alexander Isak's questionable antics ultimately worked and they got their desired moves, neither has really enjoyed the start to their careers at their new club that they envisioned.
Wissa picked up an injury on international duty just days after signing for Newcastle, and Alexander Isak has struggled for fitness since becoming Britain's most expensive player.
Karma really does exist, which is fantastic because in the absence of integrity, something needs to take accountability.
Kieron Dyer blew his audition with Sir Alex Ferguson
Integrity seems to be long gone from the game, but there was a time when it existed, and Sir Alex Ferguson was clearly a huge proponent of it as Kieron Dyer explained on the Open Goal podcast when talking about how he blew his chance to move to Manchester United after walking into Alex Ferguson's trap.
“There was a time with Man United when I was at Newcastle and my agent rings me and goes 'I'm now putting you on speaker phone'. I'm at the airport at New York me and Titus [Bramble] are coming back to England.
“[My agent] says 'you're now going to hear a few voices', the first voice was Pini Zahavi who was the 'super agent', he was Rio [Ferdinand's] agent then the next voice was 'hi Kieron, it’s Sir Alex' so I'm like [gestures mouthing Sir Alex Ferguson while pointing at the phone].
“He said 'I just want you to answer me two questions, 'first is do you want to come and play for Manchester United?' I was like 'yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah'.
“The second was 'if [Newcastle] don't accept the bid will you go and kick up some noise'? Then I was like 'yeah, yeah' and that was it, he just hung up the phone.”
This story has given me such huge respect for Sir Alex Ferguson
I grew up hating Alex Ferguson. As a Newcastle fan who had to watch his Manchester United team win everything, I couldn't stand him, with his Fergie time and constant whinging.
However, as I've got older and looked back on what he achieved, he really was a genius, and I can acknowledge now that he truly is one of, if not the best managers of all time Now this story has given me a whole new respect for the man.
We need more managers like Sir Alex Ferguson in the game today.
