Roy Keane hit me at Manchester United training when I was 15 – I’ll never forget what he said to me

Alex Notman remembers standing in the Cliff training ground the morning after the night before. It was Thursday, December 3, 1998, and the previous evening the 19-year-old Scottish striker had made his Manchester United debut. Now his fellow Scot and club manager was heading his way.

“I thought you did really well last night,” Alex Ferguson told Notman that morning. “I think you can get in front of a few people on that team, just go the way you go.”

There were just under 20 minutes left in a League Cup tie at White Hart Lane when Ferguson motioned for Notman to return from the warm-up.

“I wasn’t sure if he was going to put me on, the next thing he called me back to go and then he put me in front,” Notman recalled. “It was me, Solskjaer and Sheringham, because at that point I think we were 2-1 or 3-1 down. I felt I did really well.”

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Ferguson’s comments the following morning supported this view. Unfortunately, those players he was trying to get in front of were Solskjaer, Sheringham, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke. This explains why it never happened for Notman, who approached teams after that but was unable to build on his debut.

Not that he ever lost faith. The season in which he made his debut was United’s best, culminating at the Nou Camp on 26 May 1999. By then, the young striker had returned to Scotland, following events from afar after a depressing loan spell at Aberdeen.

Notman still felt some of that success, even if his involvement came in the only competition United did not win that season. He also maintained the belief that his move to Pittodrie was just another step on the ladder to breaking the glass ceiling at Old Trafford.

“I always felt I would go to Aberdeen, hopefully score a few goals, do really well and come back and still be very involved,” he said.

“I wasn’t involved much with the first team. I remember going in to see Sir Alex (in February 1999), knocking on his door and saying, ‘Look, how about going on loan somewhere? ‘ And he said, ‘yeah, okay,’ he literally said, ‘give me half an hour.’ And he called me back and then he spoke to Aberdeen and said “okay, you’re going to Aberdeen”. ‘.”

The move did not work out and Notman felt that the manager at the time, Paul Hegarty, did not want him. It was the beginning of the end for him at Old Trafford too. That was a far cry from the expectations and excitement that surrounded his arrival at the club, joining permanently from Rangers aged 15 when he completed his studies in Scotland.

He was spotted by a United scout three years earlier playing for Tynecastle Boys Club in Edinburgh and began coming down on holidays to train in Manchester. In Scotland, he was with Rangers, but when it came to deciding whether his future was at Ibrox, United or elsewhere, a personal touch from Ferguson persuaded him to move south.

“He was always involved and when they wanted me to sign, he brought down my whole family, my dad, my immediate family, even my grandma and grandpa and my aunt, my sisters,” Notman told Manchester Evening News.

“He put us up at the Castlefield Hotel. That night he came, I think I trained or had a game, I was also with Andy Perry, the United scout, and he (Ferguson) came and had a meal with all of us and told them to my mum and dad that he really wanted me to sign for United. It was just an incredible touch.

“I he was a massive Rangers supporter and Rangers still wanted me. To be honest, I chose the clubs I could have signed for – 10, 15 clubs back then. But he came that night and made it clear that he wanted to sign me.

“That same weekend I went to a game and he took me to the dressing room before and then back to the dressing room after the game, so it was an incredible experience and a great weekend. That was the kind of personal touch that made me want to sign for United.”

Notman scored goals for fun for the A team, B team and reserves, often forming an unstoppable partnership with another young striker who joined the club from Norway, Erik Nevland.

Nevland is several years older than Notman and his United career lasted just three more appearances, but for a while there was excitement about their potential, so much so that Ferguson sang their praises before they were close to a discovery.

In November 1997, Ferguson said of the pair: “They are the best young forwards the club has had, as a pair.”

Notman certainly felt his fellow Scot liked him, saying he got “vibes” from him that he was close and that his debut should have come sooner than it did. In October 1997, when Notman was still 18, his performances in first team training earned him a place in the squad for a League Cup tie at Ipswich.

“I think it was the Coca-Cola Cup then and I was training with the first team and he (Ferguson) said ‘come with us tomorrow night’. I said “oh, I can” t. He said, “What do you mean?” I said, ‘Oh, I’m off with Scotland,'” Notman said.

“Erik Nevland went on and came on in the second half. So I probably would have started then. I would have liked to go, but unfortunately it’s hard to come out when your country is calling you. I did.” I really don’t have a choice, I think I had to go when you are called and you are fit.

Notman had started resisting his training from an early age. He remembers being in his first session with the first team and playing alongside Roy Keane. Age was no barrier to tongue-lashing from the tough-talking Irishman.

“I remember the first time I trained with the first team, I think I was only 15,” he said. “We were trying to keep the ball and we were on Roy Keane’s side.

“I gave the ball two or three times and he hammered me, he gave me a good king. I was only 15, but let me tell you what I didn’t give the ball after that. That was him, he was just a winner You could see the difference in the standard.

“They train like they play, they’re just born winners. And then if you’re going to train with that group, then you have to be at that standard. It didn’t matter who you were, it didn’t matter if you were 15 or 30. If you weren’t producing or playing well then you should have been told and rightfully so, that’s the standard and that’s why they were so successful over the years.

Even after returning from his loan spell at Aberdeen to a team that had won the treble, Notman felt he would have a chance. There was another short loan spell with Sheffield United before he got the call to go and see Ferguson in November 2000.

“It was never in my mind to leave for good,” he added. “I always thought I would get my chance and if I kept going, kept scoring goals in the reserves then eventually I would get a chance. But it never happened.

“Then I always remember when Norwich made a bid for me, they called me into the office and said, which was a real surprise to me, ‘this has been your best season for the last two or three’ . And then, I never said anything, but I kind of thought to myself, well, I thought I was doing fine.

“You know, I wish someone would have pulled me in and said, ‘By the way, you’ve got to do better or you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that.’ But I thought I was doing well, but obviously they didn’t think so. I did very well.”

Notman was 20 when he moved to Carrow Road, but a nagging injury struck and he managed just 58 appearances for Norwich before retiring aged 23.

“My right ankle was a problem, it started at United. I probably went back 15 to 20 years seven or eight times. You’d be gone for two or three weeks and then come back, but I’ve done that a good few times,” he said.

“At Norwich it was a live game on Sky against Ipswich, I blocked a shot from Mark Venus and the same thing again. I’ve done it many times just thinking ‘same thing again’, I’ll be out for three weeks and then I’ll be back, but it’s never worked out that way.”

Notman tore the ligaments in his ankle and, after seeing a specialist and undergoing surgery, was told it was impossible for the ligaments to be reattached. He attempted another comeback before collapsing again and having to call it a day less than five years after his United debut at 19.

After being so instrumental in persuading a 15-year-old to leave Scotland to sign for United, Ferguson was once again influential. Notman was wondering what the rest of his life would hold when his phone rang and a familiar voice said hello.

“I’m really sorry you had to finish, if there’s anything we can do to help, I’m just on the other end of the phone,” Ferguson told Notman. There was even the offer of a coaching job back at United’s Center of Excellence.

“I was 23 when it all happened and I was still so young that I was kind of sick of it to be honest. I needed to get away from the game,” Notman said.

Instead, the wife’s uncle offered her a job in the oil and gas sector. He took it, but never thought it would stick. Twenty-one years later, he’s still in business. And his ankle is still strong enough to allow him to run out some vets and a five game.