He is extremely controlling. Wants everything his way. What Beckham should wear, how he should cut his hair, how many days he should spend on his honeymoon, who should he marry and who should he not be with … Is this OK for you? And he would get away after physically assaulting him? For SAF, everything was always about himself.
Arsene Wenger on the other hand is so different. He only controlled what people ate (and that too, through education and not “enforcement”). I never hear any such stories about him. He too was a winner, wasn’t he? But completely different style of management.
Seems Ferguson controlled through fear while Arsene Wenger coached through love.
Liverpool in the 90s gave a good example of what happens when you don’t lay down the law with young players in the PL era. These were guys barely out of their teens who suddenly had more money and fame than their First Division predecessors ever had and left unchecked it went straight to their heads. Beckham at United would have been at more risk than any of them, too, since he basically became the poster boy for the league and the England team. Ferguson may not have been nice but he was damn effective and the fact that so many players chose to spend the best years of their career playing their hearts out for him suggests that even if they didn’t always like him there was always a mutual respect there. All great managers have a mean streak, some more obvious than others but inevitably there; it’s impossible to manage and motivate a squad full of superstars otherwise.