Why Sir Alex Ferguson turned up at Manchester United star’s house to ask if he wanted to be captain

Manchester United hero Steve Bruce has revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson came to his house to personally ask him to become the next captain of the club.

The former defender was given the honour when Bryan Robson was being used less frequently before his departure to Middlesbrough in 1994.

The centre-back played 348 times for United, winning three league titles, three FA Cups and the UEFA Super Cup. Bruce said he was “absolutely delighted” when he was asked to become skipper.

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Speaking to club media, the 62-year-old said: " I remember, and I haven’t revealed this many times, I remember getting a phone call from him [Sir Alex] to say, 'can I come round and see you?'.

“That’s a bit strange. He says, 'I’m in the area' and I lived in Bramhall, and he was in Wilmslow, which is quite a way. He says, 'I’m in the area'. I didn’t think he was.

"He says, 'can I come and see you?', I say, 'yeah, of course'. He says, 'I’ll be at your house in 20 minutes'. Of course, blooming heck, what’s going on here? So I say to Jan [his wife], 'the gaffer’s coming'. We only had two little ones at the time.

“Right enough, 20 minutes up he pulls and, of course, we get the best cups and saucers out and the cup of tea. He comes down and sits down, has a little look around and sort of not examines the place but was checking over that we were okay.

"Then, out of the blue, after the cup of tea, he says, 'I want you to be the new captain of Man United. How do you feel?'. I say, 'how do I feel? Absolutely delighted'. 'Okay, great, thank you very much' and off he went.”

Bruce added: “And I thought, why didn’t he wait, why didn’t he wait until the next morning to pull me in his office to