‘I don’t care what he thinks’, says Gary Lineker as he lifts lid on frosty relationship with Sir Alex Ferguson
GARY LINEKER has admitted that he “does not care” what Sir Alex Ferguson thinks of him.
The two appear to have a frosty relationship as the former England star claimed that Ferguson was a “bit anti-BBC”.
Lineker, 63, has previously admitted that he rejected advances from Ferguson to join Manchester United twice during his career.
And after being asked to rank Pep Guardiola, Bobby Robson and Ferguson, Lineker admitted he did not care about upsetting the Scot.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast, Lineker said: “Somebody came up to me last night.
“You know, sometimes at auctions, people can buy Match of the Day items, and they get a tour.
“We had four guys last night and one of them said ‘I love the podcast, I have one for you, Sir Alex Ferguson, Pep Guardiola or Bobby Robson?’
“I thought to myself, I could not possibly get rid of Bobby Robson; I just wouldn’t.
“So I thought I would go Pep Guardiola, Bobby Robson and Sir Alex Ferguson.
“Cause I never got on with him [Ferguson] anyway so I don’t care what he thinks.”
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Co-podcaster and former Manchester City star Micah Richards then asked Lineker: “You never got on with the great Sir Alex Ferguson?”
Lineker responded: “No, he has had a few jibes at me in the past.
“He is a bit anti-BBC, I think. Anyway, it is water under the bridge.”
In 2021, Lineker admitted he regretted having a feud with the iconic manager.
He said: “I’m a forgiving soul and I sense that Sir Alex, er, isn’t… We’ve got history. We’ve fallen out a few times over the years, silly little things really.
“It started with a magazine interview. 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****** 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.
“And then he did a long interview with Sir David Frost and I was watching it at home and Frost brought it up, the magazine interview. And 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.”
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