Gary Lineker has opened up on his strained relationship with legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Former England striker and Match of the Day presenter Lineker admits he and Sir Alex have a "history" of falling out over "silly little things".
And the Three Lions' all-time third highest goalscorer traces it back to a magazine interview he gave in which his remarks about paranoid managers appeared alongside quotes about Fergie - which didn't go down well with the former United boss.
"It started with a magazine interview," said 59-year-old Lineker in an interview with the Mail .
"I was at the BBC and I was talking about managers getting the hump after games, talking in general terms about the pressures and the fact they get paranoid and think we're all against them.
"And then they asked me about Sir Alex and I talked about him.
"But in the piece all those quotes were stuck together, so it made it look as if it was all about Sir Alex. So I saw it and thought, 'Oh no, f *** ing hell' — so I wrote to him. Old school. Tried to explain it and that I was sorry it had come out wrong. He wrote back with two lines that basically said 'I don't believe you'.
Lineker didn't exactly get Ferguson's famous hairdryer treatment, but he found out just how much he'd got the Scot's back up when he watched him being interviewed by Sir David Frost, who brought up the subject of the magazine piece.
Former Tottenham , Everton and Leicester striker Lineker was surprised by Ferguson's response.
He recalled: "Sir Alex was saying, 'Oh yeah, he's not whiter than white like they all think, he's got super-injunctions all over the place'.
"And I'm sitting there thinking, 'What? My God, you can't say that. It's not true, it's not even close'. And I got a sort of begrudging, Sir Alex-type apology. And I could have gone down the legal route because it was bad."
Lineker insists he doesn't bear grudges and says Ferguson has been "all right" with him when they have met since - but says it's "a shame" the two don't get on better.
