The majority of Premier League fans probably remember Tim Howard predominantly for his days at Everton, but the United States goalkeeper started his career in England with Manchester United.
Man United signed Howard from MetroStars back in 2003, who are now known as New York Red Bulls in the MLS.
In total, Howard made 77 appearances for United under Sir Alex Ferguson, winning one FA Cup and League Cup medal.
Then, three years after arriving at Old Trafford, United sanctioned a move for Howard to join Everton on loan in 2006, a deal that was then made permanent a year later.
Sir Alex Ferguson wasted no time to give Tim Howard the hairdryer treatment
Interestingly, Howard has now shared a story from a run-in he immediately had with Ferguson during his United debut back in 2003.
Howard recently spoke to Optus Sport and explained how he was given the hairdryer treatment by Ferguson halfway through his first official game for the club in the Community Shield against Arsenal.
The US international started the season-opener after a strong pre-season, but he still wasn’t quite prepared for Ferguson’s half-time blow-up.
Initially speaking about the United manager as a whole, Howard said: “I think sometimes people are not as scary in real life – he was the opposite.
“You know I think when people talk about the hairdryer treatment and all sorts of stuff, you’re like ‘that’s not real’, and wow, it was real.”
Then, recalling his first proper game under Ferguson, Howard continued: “We played Arsenal and we ended up winning and I was somewhat one of the heroes and saved a couple of penalties and we won.
“But at half-time I think [Thierry] Henry had scored a free-kick in the first half if I remember correctly, and I thought I lined the wall up fantastic and Henry is just world-class and he went over the wall.
“Well, for some reason Sir Alex Ferguson did not agree with that concept and he gave me the hair-dryer treatment at half-time and I remember thinking, it’s real, it’s very real – I’m 45 minutes into my United career and I just got it.”
Why did Tim Howard leave Man United?
As mentioned, United eventually saw fit to loan Howard out to Everton, and it seemed as if his demise first began as a result of an error he made against Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto in the Champions League.
Howard parried a shot poorly for Porto to score in the last minute which in turn saw the Red Devils eliminated from the competition.
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Thereafter, Howard was often rotated with Roy Carroll given that mistakes continued to appear in his game.
It then wasn’t long before Ferguson brought Edwin van der Sar to United from Fulham, who was immediately the club’s undisputed number one.
