Transfer Talk: Jaap Stam

How are you son?

"That’s the first thing he says when he speaks to young players,"Stam explains, recalling his first encounter with Ferguson, in 1998.

It was a welcome relief for an anxious 25-year-old PSV Eindhoven defender.

"I think it’s good he does that,"says Stam. "It’s very flattering if a person talks to you like that, who has achieved so much at that club, been there for so many years, so many trophies, and he wants to sign you. As a player that gives you a great feeling."

He doesn’t remember the location - "somewhere in Amsterdam" - but nerves were particularly raised for Stam after struggling to understand Ferguson in the prior telephone calls they had exchanged. "When you go to school in Holland you learn to speak English and write in English - but English is different from the Scottish language!"

Stam, awestruck, wondered 'what the hell am I going to say now?' But Ferguson kept the meeting short. His brother had been watching Stam's matches for some time and PSV’s open training sessions meant United scouts could observe the player’s character close up.

"He made his thoughts clear to me," says Stam. "He told me what he wanted me to do, that he already had a great team but wanted to have additional players to help him have a team capable of winning a trophy going forward in Europe and to keep winning the league."

I see you as one of these pawns within that team.

Stam felt lifted. Six months earlier he had suppressed United's interest and instead signed a new contract at PSV. "I didn’t feel ready as a person," he explains. But after less than half an hour with Ferguson, he had changed his mind.

Stam would become the world's most expensive defender shortly after the meeting, but the details of the exchange would also have a major role in how he would come to leave Manchester United...

"It was not an autobiography,"says Stam.

Head-to-Head was released in August 2001 with the intention of "giving an insight of how we work at United, the atmosphere in the dressing room, nothing about criticism towards other players or managers".

But that was not how the tabloids saw it. Details of Stam’s first meeting with Ferguson saw the United manager embroiled in 'tapping up' allegations.

"I was completely shocked as to how it was put in the papers, because it was not how it was in the book,"says Stam.

"I know, and everyone knows it happens in football. It’s not about getting a player out of focus or to lure them away from a team, Fergie was very open, we just had a conversation and he expressed his feelings about me as a player basically.

"He told me to think about it, if I didn’t want to go that’s fine and they would look for someone else. He didn’t say things like you need to go, not at all."

Stam was due to leave on international duty the same day the story broke, but spoke to Ferguson before travelling to London where Holland would play England two days later.

"He told me not to worry about it, that he’d had the same with his own book," says Stam.

More revelations followed, though. A national newspaper was serialising a new extract from the book each day Stam was away with the national team.

PSV, Stam's former club, accused Ferguson of acting "against the rules and the spirit of world football".

"I didn’t focus on football, my mind was only on the papers and what people were thinking about it, how they were reacting," says Stam.

He returned to Manchester to meet with a hairdryer-armed Ferguson straight after Holland’s 2-0 win over England at White Hart Lane.

"I’d heard he wasn’t too happy with everything," says Stam. "We had a brief conversation, not the best to be honest."

But the worst was still to come.

"I got back in my car to go home. I phoned my wife, then straight away my agent called me. He told me United were going to call me back because they’d sold me.

"I thought he was joking.

"I hung up and after that the manager phoned me.

Where are you?

"I told him halfway from Carrington to my house."

Wait for me, I’m going to come over.

Ferguson was no longer angry by the time he reached Stam. The drive gave him time to adjust his tone before informing Stam the club had agreed a deal with Lazio and he was to prepare for life in Italy.

"He was calm but of course he wanted to tell me himself what was the situation," says Stam. "He told me what his thoughts were at the time, that they had an offer and he wanted to play with someone else."