Sir Alex Ferguson admits he did not always look to sign the 'best natural players' during his illustrious managerial career.
The Manchester United legend enjoyed an incredible time at Old Trafford in which he oversaw the rebuild of a number of squads during a spell of 38 trophies in just 26-years.
Ferguson, 79, is set to give an honest account of his personal life in an upcoming documentary called Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In and ahead of its release he has taken part in a Q&A session.
The Scottish veteran was asked what he looked for in any new signings and he revealed that natural ability wasn't always as important as an individual's own mental toughness.
“Well, I think that it could be divided into maybe a few parts," he told official club media. "Some players I had were absolute natural footballers, with natural talent.
"But there were other players who shared my determination, who maybe weren’t the best players but they made themselves the best players, because they had something inside them too. I go back to one of my first defeats as a manager, at 32 years of age. I didn’t expect it.
"I went into the game eyes wide open, that this was going to be easy. We lost 5-2 to Albion Rovers. I was the manager of East Stirling, the players were on £5 a week, or something like that. I came home and I said ‘if I don’t get Alec Ferguson in my team, I’m not going to succeed’. So I made sure that my players had a mental toughness about them, from that moment on.”
