Pat Nevin joined the Wednesday's Football Show on Off The Ball where he recalled Alex Ferguson using the hairdryer treatment very selectively.

Nevin was talking about a point raised by Wayne Rooney in his Sunday Times column, where he said that Sir Alex Ferguson would only berate players who he knew could take it.

So, Ryan Giggs would get a half-time dressing down for losing possession, even though Nani was the more obvious culprit.

Pat Nevin, having played for Scotland under Ferguson, is familiar with the tactic, having picked it up from Jock Stein.

"It was explained to me one day," says Nevin "he used to want to hammer certain players but he'd say 'they can't take it, so I'm going to hammer you.

"He'd tell you beforehand and you'd get battered, but it's not aimed at you. It's aimed at him over there, who's thinking 'I'm going to get that next.'

Nevin says Stein used to target players for a verbal bashing, regardless of how they were playing, even telling other players beforehand.

Too big for his boots

"He got Daglish one day," recalls Nevin, "he scored a hat-trick, didn't matter, he hammered him anyway."

There was a reason though for the dressing down on Dalglish: "In the simplest terms he had gotten too big for his boots," according to Nevin.

"So it looks like loss of control (from Stein) and that's the point about Ferguson, it looks like a lack of control but it's not that.

"People (like Jock Stein and Alex Ferguson) are a lot cleverer than that."

Nevin says there is a worse treatment than the hairdryer, the opposite, and he was a recipient.

"I got silence," remembers Nevin. "I did the wrong thing playing for Scotland against England and instead of shouting and bawling at me, he just nodded in silence and walked away.

"I didn't think that's gone very well and I didn't get picked for going to the World Cup in 1986 under Sir Alex.

"I didn't do the right thing, that was just before the World Cup, I was kind of on trial with him.

"You actually knew that was worse than the hairdryer."

The reason for the silence was for not going down when Terry Butcher had made contact with him in the penalty area at Wembley, with Scotland trailing 2-1 at the time.

"He said 'Did Butcher catch you in the box?' and I said 'Yeah, he did but I've got good balance and managed to hold myself up and not go down'. He just walked away.

"He didn't say anything. He didn't need to say anything, but I didn't go to Mexico."

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