Paul Ince on Sir Alex Ferguson and playing with Roy Keane and Bryan Robson

Paul Ince believes too many of Manchester United's players are lacking the 'character or mentality' to handle playing for the club.

Ince moved to United in 1989 as a 21-year-old with the club still unable to win a league title, though the Premier League did finally arrive at Old Trafford in Ince's fourth season with the club.

While Ince grew into a key fixture in the United team in his own right, he struck up a successful partnership alongside Roy Keane, and Ince knew quickly the impact Keane would have.

"I was over the moon that I was able to play with Bryan Robson because he was my idol," said Ince. "He was the one I wanted to emulate, he was up and down, up and down and it’s great we won a title with him, but we knew Keane was coming in.

"He was young, fresh, we’d watched him play at Forest, similar type of player to me and I was really excited about it because I looked at the other teams with Gareth Batty, Gary Speed and Gary MacAllister at Leeds and the other teams around us were strong and we were still both relatively young but I thought ‘this kid’s the real deal’.

"I just felt, every game we went out, we wouldn’t get outplayed, we wouldn't get outbattled, we wouldn’t get outfought. As a partnership, we were the best. He was unbelievable.

"Even though Eric Cantona was there, he took us to another level."

The mid-1990s finally saw United move from nearly men to title winners as Sir Alex Ferguson created a two-decade-long dynasty. Many of Ferguson's ex-players have their own experiences of the famous 'hairdryer treatment' and Ince was no exception, having an explosive bust-up with the manager after a crucial win at Norwich in the 1992/93 season, but Ince says the arguments helped create a togetherness within the group.

"People talk about the hairdryer treatment and throwing teacups, there were never any teacups thrown," said Ince. "But what you did have – and this is why it worked – was players prepared to stand up to Sir Alex and he liked that.

"If Sir Alex had a go at {Gary] Pallister or [Steve] Brucey, they’d come back at him, and then he’d go back at them and it showed togetherness.

"It wasn’t all about Sir Alex’s opinion. If I thought he was wrong like he was at Norwich, I’m a big character – I’ll stand up to him. Peter Schmeichel thought Roy Keane was wrong and they had a big row there, but what Sir Alex did was mould us into a team that believed in one thing and that was going out on a Saturday and doing a job.

"Monday to Friday, we could disagree with each other, but when it came to Saturday, he made sure we were all on one page.

"When you’re dealing with big egos, there’s going to be issues, but when it came to Saturday, we all came together and that’s what made us such a great team."

Liam Williams

• Manchester United F.C.
• Paul Ince
• Premier League
• • 
  •