When he was manager of Aberdeen FC in the early 1980s, Alex Ferguson once barged into the treatment room and shook the whole foundation with one of his legendary, face-blasting tirades. He spat curse words and threats. He got way too personal. He moved in close to the player — this time it was John Hewitt — and blew his hair back with pure fury. By the end of the diatribe, players nearby were shaken and Hewitt’s wages were to be docked that week.

The crime? The player had been driving a new car to training and had passed the boss on the highway.

At half-time Ferguson once swept cups off a table, knocking over a tea urn. As the manager raged, one player sat stony-faced and terrified as hot tea dripped down the wall onto him.

Before he was Sir Alex, king of Manchester, he was Furious Fergie in Aberdeen.

He went on to be one of the greatest coaches in sports history, but it wasn’t because of his old-school tactics at half-time.

Before he retired, the Harvard Business Review studied Ferguson’s approach to leadership and found he ran his team like a Fortune 500 company.

By the end of his career, Ferguson had reconsidered his tantrums, realizing that his job wasn’t just to strike fear into the hearts of his players.

“Fear has to come into it,” he said, but “as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to see that showing your anger all the time doesn’t work. You have to pick your moments. As a manager, you play different roles at different times. Sometimes you have to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a father.”

Make no mistake, Ferguson still ran his team like tyrant and he talked in detail to the Harvard Business Review about the manager’s need to be dominant in the dressing room. Any time a player crossed the coach he was punted out the door. David Beckham, Jaap Stam and Roy Keane, among others, can all attest to that.

Though Furious Fergie never quite left entirely, his focus shifted to encouragement and loyalty.

“Once they know you are battling for them, they will accept your way. You’re really fostering a sense of family,” he said.