Former Manchester United assistant manager Mike Phelan speaks exclusively to Sky Sports; the 60-year-old worked under Sir Alex Ferguson, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Ragnick; Phelan gives his lowdown on Harry Maguire, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gary Neville and Erik ten Hag
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, former Manchester United assistant manager Mike Phelan has lifted the lid on the standards set by Sir Alex Ferguson, and looks at the work still to be done by Erik ten Hag.
Phelan was a long-standing figure on the Manchester United bench as assistant manager to Sir Alex, before re-joining Old Trafford to work under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick.
In a lengthy interview with Sky Sports, Phelan also speaks about working with Harry Maguire, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gary Neville.
The 60-year-old gave insight into the dressing room environment during Sir Alex's trophy-laden reign at the club - and how players such as Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand settled into the group after joining from other clubs.
"The beauty at United was there was a high standard there," he says. "And that standard was high.
"It wasn't just the standards that the manager put in place, or the coaching staff, but the ones that the players put in place. It was a case of: if you want to be here you accept this and you keep the standard high. And you take that on and you challenge it a lot more.
"As coaches, we were there to improve the players. Yes, they are top, top players. But you're not looking for massive improvement, you're looking at a bit of improvement. And if you get it from them all, then that's a huge improvement.
"So when you challenge with Ronaldo and Rooney, they are pretty decent individuals in their own right. Yes, they have egos - but ultimately they want to succeed and they want the legacy.
Image:Phelan was a trusted assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson
"You have to be there for them, and that was easy for me. It's about relaying those messages to them: keep your head down, do your work, you're a good player - that's why you're there - and it will all come together."
Another key factor in the standards across Phelan's two spells at Manchester United was the impact of Ronaldo, with the former assistant revealing that, during the Portuguese forward's return to Old Trafford, he lost some players due to the standards he asked for in training.
"The second time round, he came in a lot older and a lot more opinionated, strong-willed," Phelan added. "He still had massively high standards and was terrific to work with. But I'd probably say a tougher mindset. He had been at Man Utd, he had been Portugal's ever-present, he had been at Madrid.
"I liked it because he didn't want his standards to drop, he wanted other people's standards to come up. And sometimes you lose a few people along the way when that happens. I remember certain times when he pushed and pushed hard, and he didn't get much reaction or much response. And there was frustration.
"You have to be there for them, and that was easy for me. It's about relaying those messages to them: keep your head down, do your work, you're a good player - that's why you're there - and it will all come together."
Another key factor in the standards across Phelan's two spells at Manchester United was the impact of Ronaldo, with the former assistant revealing that, during the Portuguese forward's return to Old Trafford, he lost some players due to the standards he asked for in training.
"The second time round, he came in a lot older and a lot more opinionated, strong-willed," Phelan added. "He still had massively high standards and was terrific to work with. But I'd probably say a tougher mindset. He had been at Man Utd, he had been Portugal's ever-present, he had been at Madrid.
"I liked it because he didn't want his standards to drop, he wanted other people's standards to come up. And sometimes you lose a few people along the way when that happens. I remember certain times when he pushed and pushed hard, and he didn't get much reaction or much response. And there was frustration.
Image:Cristiano Ronaldo had a turbulent second spell at Old Trafford
"When you deal with top, top people, it's about them and where they can finish and where they can get to. They want to look back and go 'wow, that was successful'. And he probably realised, and I don't know as I never had that conversation with him, that he couldn't do it at Manchester United. So his challenges were elsewhere.
"He's still playing international football, yes he's in Saudi Arabia, but he's still playing and scoring goals. He is doing all the things we knew he could do at Manchester United.
"But a really good personality, hard-working and challenging. He challenged me as a coach, Carlos Queiroz as a coach and Sir Alex as a manager. But that's good because it takes you to another level."
"The first time, the challenging part was that Cristiano came to Manchester United knowing in his own mind that he was going to be the best in the world. He had one ball under his hand and the team had another.
"And this was a young kid, one who came from Portugal and was made there, and made that sacrifice to come away from that, where he was comfortable, to a club like Manchester United and learn everything from an English and British perspective.
"He had all the skillset, the mentality - but what we tried to do with [former assistant manager] Carlos Queiroz was we tried to integrate him into the team and he responded brilliantly. His work ethic and practice was fantastic and it rubbed off on the players. They knew there was someone special there.
"In that environment, with the standards so high, the players knew this guy could take them where they needed to go and to go again. He did that brilliantly."
"When you deal with top, top people, it's about them and where they can finish and where they can get to. They want to look back and go 'wow, that was successful'. And he probably realised, and I don't know as I never had that conversation with him, that he couldn't do it at Manchester United. So his challenges were elsewhere.
"He's still playing international football, yes he's in Saudi Arabia, but he's still playing and scoring goals. He is doing all the things we knew he could do at Manchester United.
"But a really good personality, hard-working and challenging. He challenged me as a coach, Carlos Queiroz as a coach and Sir Alex as a manager. But that's good because it takes you to another level."
"The first time, the challenging part was that Cristiano came to Manchester United knowing in his own mind that he was going to be the best in the world. He had one ball under his hand and the team had another.
"And this was a young kid, one who came from Portugal and was made there, and made that sacrifice to come away from that, where he was comfortable, to a club like Manchester United and learn everything from an English and British perspective.
"He had all the skillset, the mentality - but what we tried to do with [former assistant manager] Carlos Queiroz was we tried to integrate him into the team and he responded brilliantly. His work ethic and practice was fantastic and it rubbed off on the players. They knew there was someone special there.
"In that environment, with the standards so high, the players knew this guy could take them where they needed to go and to go again. He did that brilliantly."
Phelan on... returning to Man Utd with Solskjaer
"I knew things weren't going too well at United and that Jose Mourinho was under a bit of scrutiny but I had no idea it would lead to what it led to.
"I got to my car, turned on my phone and I must have had 150 messages, lots of them repeated ones such as: 'Where are you? Get in touch!' These were from Ole, Sir Alex, from the news people. I'm thinking: 'I will take this a bit later'.
"I heard Jose had lost his job and I got a call and Ole spoke to me saying, 'I might be offered the job, would you be interested in going in again?' As I had been there, seen it and done it and it would have been a help for him. There were no second thoughts.
"The club was different from the first time round. From the inside, working with Ole, it was refreshing. He had a different way of doing things, a different mentality but the same standards as when he was a player. He worked very hard to try to achieve what he could achieve. There was turmoil there, but there was turmoil in all different areas of the club. But he was the manager and we had a job to do.
"We hit the ground running, we changed the atmosphere, the standards. We changed a lot of small things that made it feel like a Manchester United that I and Ole knew. The players responded really well and we got off to a flyer. I think we had 10 wins out of 12 and we were starting to think: 'this is crazy'.
"We tried to push it on and to Ole's credit, he was a good thinker. He allowed people to work - he was similar in his ideas to Sir Alex. It was quite refreshing.
"There were issues going on in that time that weren't going on the first time round. There was a lot more attention to things in the background, within the club and the atmosphere. You were dealing with these things a lot more than the bits you wanted to focus on which was the football. But when you're the manager of a massive club, the results get you."
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