With rumours of discontent in the dressing room rife after the Sunderland game the fantastically named Ian Ladyman has clarified what actually happened. From the Daily Mail:
Sir Alex Ferguson's desperate desire to catch Chelsea this season boiled over in to a traditional 'hair dryer' rollicking of his players after their Premiership hopes disappeared last weekend.
For the first time in weeks Ferguson' s players let him down and the 64-year-old unleashed an angry tirade after seeing United draw 0-0 at Old Trafford.
According to well-placed United sources, Ferguson had harsh words for Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo in particular.
Ferguson told the media after the game that the two youngsters had suffered their worst games of the season and in private he told them they had "messed up your chance to make history".
And in a bizarre replica of the most famous dressing room story of all time Ferguson kicked a football boot across the floor in anger.
In 2003 Ferguson accidentally caught former United midfielder David Beckham above the eye with a football boot he sent flying across the Old Trafford dressing room after his team had lost an FA Cup tie to rivals Arsenal. On this latest occasion, the boot was nowhere near any of Ferguson' s players as it thudded in to the dressing room door.
Elsewhere in the United dressing room, tempers boiled over between players as they began to deal with the realisation that their Premiership season was all but over. Comments made in jest in the direction of Ruud van Nistelrooy upset the Dutch international centre forward and he briefly became involved in an exchange of words with some of his team-mates. Other players stepped in to calm that situation down before order was restored
RedIssue has been told, indirectly via a player, that at the end of the kick-off, Sir Alex supposedly delivered a heated lecture. He allegedly told them all that this time, nothing must leak out; that if he saw a whiff of it in the press, he would hold a full enquiry and that he would interview all fifteen people in the room personally to find the culprit. Needless to say, within 90 minutes of this reported warning, two players started blabbing and most of the presspack knew by Sunday that something had gone off...