​Former Manchester United youth team player Mads Timm has alleged that Sir Alex Ferguson gave preferential treatment and chances to youngsters who were signed to his agent son, Jason.





In a new autobiography entitled 'Red Devil', parts of which are being serialised by BT in Denmark, Timm spoke of one occasion he felt he had a first-team opportunity taken away in favour of a player less deserving simply because that individual had just taken Jason Ferguson as an agent.

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Timm had joined United's academy in 2000 and made his debut in the Champions League against Maccabi Haifa two years later. But he recalled how on one Friday he was told he would not be playing with the Under-19 team or reserves that weekend because he was in the first-team squad for a European game against Basel the following Tuesday.

"It was a big message to get after a winter where I had still not played for the first-team other than the autumn game against Maccabi Haifa," the player, 18 years of age at the time, said.

However, when he reported for duty after the weekend, Timm was simply told to go home and return for Under-19 training once more the next day, as youth team coach Brian McClair explained how 'unjust things happen in football that you cannot explain'.

"It was something of an anticlimax," Timm, now 31, remembered.

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"What was going on? Brian McClair couldn't really answer. But a few days after I found out that my competitor in the attack in the reserve teams, Danny Webber (pictured), had signed a contract with Alex Ferguson's son, Jason, who had set up as a football agent.

"At the same time Webber [had his contract] extended by United. It was an open secret at training that both Alex Ferguson and his son had made a good deal, and that Webber had to be rewarded with a place on the bench in a Champions League match.

"Webber had otherwise not played particularly well for a long time, and I was way ahead of him in the internal competition for places."







Timm felt he knew what was going on and even suggested his own career, which tailed off dramatically after being released in 2006 without a Premier League appearance to his name, might have been different had he himself answered the calls to sign with Jason.

"Evidently [form] did not matter. It was important that the father promoted his son's interests. Ferguson had repeatedly reminded me that his son was a football agent and wanted new clients in, but I refused. Only that day it dawned on me how much impact it had on my career."

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