Mike Phelan has opened up on the moment his Manchester United playing career came to an end - after Sir Alex Ferguson replaced him with rising star Gary Neville.
Phelan, a versatile right-back during his playing days, arrived at Old Trafford from Norwich in 1989 and was part of the Red Devils squad who memorably won the inaugural Premier League title in 1992/93.
But, after legendary manager Ferguson persuaded him to join United ahead of Everton , the defender was brutally axed from the first-team squad due to the emergence of Neville.
And Phelan, who later became the Scot's assistant at Old Trafford, has revealed the heated discussion the pair had.
"He came up to me the Friday before the game on Saturday, last game of the season, and pulled me to one side at the training ground," Phelan told The Athletic .
"He said: 'Enough's enough, son. I'm letting you go.' 'Letting me go where?' 'You've done terrific for me, but I'm going to bring in some of the young kids."
"This is when the Class of '92 were around. I was older then, a little bit gobby.
"'Who?' 'I'm going to play Gary Neville.' 'Gary Neville? What's he got? Come on, Gaffer. You're gonna play a kid?' 'Yeah'."
The coach, who is now back with the Red Devils as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's No.2, also revealed that Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo were his favourite players to be around on the training pitch.
He added: “Scholesy was my favourite player to be around. He could do anything, a mischief maker. But Ronaldo was a machine. He loved the game. As a coach that’s a great thing, because it keeps you going.
“When he came, he’d need a ball on his own. There was the team, and him. He wouldn’t share that ball with anybody. So you’d have to come up with ways of integrating him into the group. Now the group did a bit of that, because they’d smash him around.
"Then, as a coach, you would make up things. In training games you’d condition Ronaldo to two touches. And he hated it, because he couldn’t do his thing. He’d have to control it and pass it. But it integrated him into the team.
“He used to go mad with me and a few of the other coaches. But he got better. Certainly, the things he learnt at United he took to Real Madrid .”
