Former England and Manchester United defender turned pundit Gary Neville has been talking about one of his favourite mind tricks taught to him by Sir Alex Ferguson.
The legendary manager was always looking for a way to get one up on his opponents and Neville said the players were particularly fond of what Sir Alex did prematch.
“He always used to stand in the tunnel before every single game, outside the dressing room, and shake every single one of our players’ hands,” Neville told the Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? podcast.
“But I didn’t realise until I was captain that what he was doing, he was looking down the tunnel so the opposition players saw him and the referee saw him.
“It’s a bit of intimidation – he was an overpowering figure. This idea of winning in the tunnel before you’ve even gone out on the pitch, there was an element of that with him in terms of the psychology.”
Neville also revealed another of Sir Alex’s favourite moves was to get his players to burn a stare into the eyes of their opponents.
He said: “When handshakes were introduced, he used to say, ‘Make sure you look into the eyes of every single player you shake hands with when you walk down that line. Hold it strong and look right into their eyes.’
“He said, ‘And you know something, one or two of them will fold,’ because there’s a sternness in it – it’s a message or challenge. He did these things – techniques – that didn’t maybe work all the time but he was always looking for that advantage.”
Not a bad trick.