Alex Ferguson has pushed back on the idea that he once wanted to move David Beckham on from Manchester United, 31 years after the loan spell that first worried the young midfielder.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast as he launched a new book, the former United manager said Beckham had misread the move at the time.

“I put Beckham out on loan at Preston and he thought I was trying to get rid of him, which was not true,” Ferguson said.

Beckham joined Third Division Preston North End in March 1995. In his autobiography My World, he recalled his first instinct when told of the move.

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“I thought it was a sign that a club was trying to get rid of a player,” Beckham wrote.

He scored twice in five appearances at Deepdale, including one direct from a corner, before returning to Old Trafford and making his league debut later that spring.

A physique issue, not a career verdict

Ferguson has long framed loan spells as part of a youth-development model rather than a judgement on a player’s future. In Beckham’s case he put the hesitation down to late physical maturity.

“David was the last to really develop because of his physique. Although he grew to 6ft, he was small and thin as a young kid,” he said.

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‘Games of My Life’ and the Wolves return

The BBC appearance was tied to the launch of ‘Games of My Life’, in which Ferguson picks out 21 matches that defined his playing and managerial career, from Aberdeen through to the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich.

Now three months short of 85, Ferguson said he was feeling well despite minor injuries, eight years on from the brain haemorrhage he suffered in May 2018 at the age of 76.

He also spoke in detail about his recovery.

“I had lost my voice; I couldn’t speak. That was a frightening moment,” he said.

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A speech therapist, Ferguson explained, worked him back towards normal conversation by asking him to write down the names of birds, animals and rivers. His first game back at Old Trafford, four months after surgery, came against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

“I was terrified,” he said of that return.

‘Games of My Life’ is on sale now.

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