10 Players Sir Alex Ferguson Was Completely Wrong About

9. Frank Lampard

Manchester United once had the opportunity to sign a young Frank Lampard, and Sir Alex Ferguson scouted him during his early days playing for West Ham United, but stopped short of sanctioning a move before later going on to say he doesn't consider the Chelsea and England midfielder to be "an elite international footballer". Lampard joined the Blues instead of the Reds after leaving West Ham and became a club legend, making 648 appearances for the Londoners and breaking Bobby Tambling's long-standing all-time goal-scoring record by netting 211 times to become Chelsea's top scorer. And Ferguson said he could have played at Old Trafford instead. He admitted last year:

"Lampard has been unbelievable. I don't think a midfield player will be able to do that figure again. It's quite phenomenal. Like Bryan Robson, he has had a great knack of timing his runs into the box at the right time. John Wark was another one at Ipswich. The other things is I can't remember Lampard ever being injured. When he's not been playing it's because they thought he was past it. The guy has had a great career. I must say we looked at him when he was at West Ham as a young player and I maybe regret not having done it. Where else could I get 200 goals?"

However, in another interview in 2013, Ferguson criticised Lampard and perhaps explained why he didn't bring him to United all those years ago. He added:

"Lampard, for me, was a marvellous servant for Chelsea. But I didn't think of him as an elite international footballer."

This is surely a harsh criticism considering Lampard has played in two Champions League finals - against United in 2008 and Bayern Munich in 2012 - and even won the competition with Chelsea two years ago. The midfielder has also been capped 106 times at international level by England, and is one of only eight players to have earned a centenary of caps for the Three Lions. This one has to go down as another judgment call Ferguson got wrong.