A former Liverpool midfielder has revealed that he vowed to prove Manchester United wrong after being let go as a sixteen-year-old.
After spending half a decade at Liverpool’s arch-rivals United, ex-Scotland international Gary McAllister was eventually released after he was told he wasn’t quite good enough.
Following this disappointment, McAllister signed for hometown club Motherwell and would spend four years there before returning to England with Leicester City in the summer of 1985. By 1990, the Scottish midfielder had joined Leeds United for £1 million and went on to lift the English First Division title in the 1991–92 season.
He signed for Liverpool from Coventry City in July of 2000 and, although his time on Merseyside was short, McAllister established himself as a key addition to the Reds, playing a major role in treble winning season in 2000-01.
Dring an interview with talkSPORT, McAllister reflected on the moment he was released by Manchester United as he claims he vowed to prove them wrong in the years that followed.
“I was down at Manchester United as a boy, 11 to 16 [years-old], and got told that I wasn’t going to be good enough. I got rejected and immediately signed with my home club Motherwell.
Looking back, that did me good. I was going to show Manchester United that they made a mistake. Little did they know that further down the line that I would go and play for their two biggest rivals, but that little bit of rejection early on in my career set me up.”
Since McAllister’s playing career came to an end in 2004, the former Scotland international has had a number of coaching roles, including brief stints at Liverpool, Rangers and Aston Villa alongside former teammate Steven Gerrard.
