Sir Alex Ferguson has reflected on his time at Manchester United and, in particular, the best half-time team talk he ever gave.

With United 3-0 down after 45 minutes at White Hart Lane in 2001, Fergie had to pull out all the stops to help us go on to win 5-3.

‘The most interesting team talk I ever gave was at Tottenham when we were 3-0 down at half-time. I just looked at them and said, “What we’re going to do is score the next goal and see where it takes us.” Teddy Sheringham, the Tottenham captain, came out of the door, looked at me and said to his team, “Don’t let them score early.” We scored in the first minute. We were three-nothing down but playing all right. It’s just that the defending was rubbish. Three-nothing down at half-time at Tottenham. There are two team talks. One, if you’re losing, and two, if you’re doing OK. I used more detail when we were winning, to avoid complacency, stop them taking their foot off the gas. When you’re losing you have to get to the core of it right away. Why are we losing? Who’s letting themselves down? Once you do that, you move on to the building-them-up part, to motivate them.’