During his 26 years with Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two Champions League titles. His impact on the game was - and still is - unquestionable, with the Scotsman being knighted in the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours list for his services to the game.
Having achieved so much success with the Reds, it is clear that the legendary United boss made very few mistakes during his time at Old Trafford. However, he did make one or two - and even Ferguson admitted that selling Jaap Stam was his biggest.
The Dutch defender arrived from PSV with a good pedigree. He was tipped for big things and was expected to improve a Reds defence that was crying out for another leader. He spent three seasons at Old Trafford, during which time United won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and the Champions League.
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Given his early success in England, which saw him assert himself as one of the best centre-backs in world football, his controversial departure from the club after just three seasons was surprising, frustrating and completely avoidable. Stam was not the first player to fall out with Ferguson, but his relationship with his manager had gone past the point of repair. Unlike Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney and other players who clashed with the Scot, his United career had become unsalvageable.
In the summer of 2001 - having won the Premier League title just a matter of months earlier - the Dutchman, in Ferguson's eyes, broke the trust between him and his manager. He should have remained a United player for many more years, but as it happened, Stam's unceremonious exit from Old Trafford was confirmed at a petrol station.
Back in August of that year, Stam's autobiography, Head to Head, was released. It was, and still is, somewhat uncommon for players to release books while still playing - and it quickly became clear why.
The centre-back made several controversial statements in his book, including that Ferguson had actively encouraged his United players to dive during matches. However, the tipping point was the Dutchman's claim that he had been 'tapped up' by Ferguson when signing from PSV in 1998.
"It's got to the stage where he has even told us, 'Don't try and stay on your feet if you're in the box and get a slight kick,'" Stam wrote. "He wants us to copy other sides we face in European competitions and go down to win a penalty."
The revelations, unsurprisingly, did not go down well with Ferguson. The Scot was so enraged with the defender that he left him out of the Reds side for a trip to Aston Villa, and when the chance came to offload him to Lazio, the United manager did not hesitate to sell Stam. His career at Old Trafford was short, but still full of success. Yet it was, without a doubt, over years before it needed to be.
In the days leading up to his departure, Stam stormed out of training after making his feelings known to his manager. The stern Ferguson was able to track the centre-half down at a petrol station before informing him that his United career was over.
"One morning I told him what I thought and left the training ground on the spot," Stam later revealed. "On the way home I received a phone call in my car from Fergie’s secretary.
"She said that he wanted to speak to me. He came on the phone straight away. Ferguson said, 'Where are you?' I said, 'Close to my house, at a petrol station.' Ferguson said, 'Wait there!' He jumped in his car and came straight to me.
"At the petrol station he parked his car and got in with me. He told me that I had to be transferred. Then he said, 'Will you please move to Lazio quickly?' I agreed to do it. Right there and then.
"One quick conversation in my car at a petrol station in Manchester was enough for me to leave that big club. When I think about it now, and I have never talked about it before, I find it unbelievable I let that, as a player, happen to me."
Within 24 hours, Stam was in Rome signing for Lazio. The emerging Wes Brown and experienced veteran Laurent Blanc were brought in to replace the recently-departed Dutchman. The former enjoyed a wonderful career with United and won 16 trophies in total, while the latter - despite winning a league title - struggled to reach the heights set by Stam.
The Reds continued to enjoy success under Ferguson, but, at least for a few years, not as consistently as when Stam had been in the side. The big Dutchman had won the Premier League title in each of his three seasons at United, while 1999 saw the club claim an historic treble.
Ferguson, speaking to The Independent in 2007, admitted his regret at his handling of the Stam affair, confessing he made a mistake in forcing the defender out of the club.
"At the time he had just come back from an Achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre-back who was 29," said the Scot. "It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake. He is still playing for Ajax at a really good level."
The legendary United boss reiterated his comments in 2013, telling MUTV: "When I think of disappointments, obviously Jaap Stam was always a disappointment to me. I made a bad decision there."
Ferguson's decision to get rid of Stam shocked his players. Gary Neville, who played alongside the Dutchman on 99 occasions, admitted that the squad were mystified, but on a personal note, he believed that his teammates' controversial comments in his autobiography were somewhat irrelevant.
In his book, Red, Neville gave an account of how he felt when the news of Stam's departure was announced to the squad.
"Jaap Stam was sold which was a bombshell as big as Sparky leaving, even for the players – especially for the players. We were as mystified as anyone," Neville recalled.
"All kinds of conspiracies swirled around because Jaap’s exit came on the back of his ‘controversial’ autobiography, but I’ve always believed that the book was a minor factor, perhaps irrelevant."
Understandably, though, Neville wasn't too pleased about being called a 'busy little c***' in the Dutch defender's book. However, the former England defender explained that it looked worse written down on paper than it really was.
"Jaap had called me that to my face many times, and I know it was meant affectionately, but it didn’t look good spread across the front of the Daily Mirror," he added. "He didn’t mean any harm with the book, he’d just not thought through the consequences of serialisation."
After signing for Lazio following his departure from Old Trafford, Stam was found guilty of having a banned steroid in his system following a Serie A match. He received a five-month ban, which was eventually reduced by a month after appeals. Having later won the Coppa Italia, a move to AC Milan followed, with a return to Ajax coming afterwards.
He went on to win the Johan Cruyff Shield, the KNVB Cup and another Johan Cruyff Shield, before hanging up his boots in 2007. The defender enjoyed a successful career after leaving United, but there was always a feeling that he had left the club far too early. Both he and Ferguson were at fault, but the decision to release an autobiography, which criticised the manager in charge of your game time, was one that Stam *probably* regrets.
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