I read Beckham’s letters and was a friend of Ferguson’s. Incredible woman has been at Manchester United for 55 years
Nikita Paglazov July 14, 2023, 12:15 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Kat Phipps has 13 league titles and countless United legends.
Manchester United is a club with a great history and many legends. The team is associated with Sir Alex Ferguson, Gary Neville, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Eric Cantona, Sir Matt Busby, Bobby Charlton and other notable personalities. But there is one person at the club that the general public does not know about, although he plays an equally important role for United.
Kat Phipps has been with Manchester United since 1968. She appeared at the club under Sir Matt Busby and experienced different periods of history with the Red Devils. At first she worked as a secretary. Phipps was then promoted to base administrator and became a “second mother” to many of the players who came through United. Kat created the atmosphere at the base. Phipps first worked at the Cliff training facility and since 2000 she has worked at Carrington. Kat nabbed 13 Manchester United titles and three Champions League victories.
The board of the “United” acted ugly with the legend of the club:
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Phipps loves David Beckham more. It was she who constantly sorted out her mail, full of letters from fans. Beckham moved to Real Madrid in 2003, saying that Phipps was the first person he kissed at Old Trafford. And when David returned to Manchester, he visited Kat constantly. A beautiful story connects Phipps to former United player and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. In 1996, the Norwegian appeared at the club where Phipps had worked for almost 30 years. And in 2018, Solskjaer was appointed as Manchester United’s head coach. And what did he do on his first day at work? I arrived at the base at eight in the morning to give Kat Norwegian chocolate.
Phipps’ authority at Manchester United is so great that even Sir Alex Ferguson worries about it. A few years ago, Kat’s husband passed away. Learning of this, Ferguson demanded that a taxi come for Phipps every day. The Scotsman wanted to make sure that Kat continued to work at the base.
Kat Phipps
Photo: manutd.com
In 2022, Phipps was recognized at a special ceremony in London. She received an award for her services to soccer in the “Unseen Hero” category. Sir Alex Ferguson did not miss the ceremony, as did United’s caretaker manager Michael Carrick at the time. “In September 1968, I simply applied to Les Oliva (Manchester United manager at the time. – Approx. “Championship”) for a job and received a positive response within a few days. Sir Alex has been my longest serving manager. He was always by my side. It was great working with him. In all these years, we never fought. Even on game days. We are like brother and sister, this is how he always communicates with me. I wake up every morning a happy person. I come to the base and I like to see everyone. One day I will miss them, but right now I don’t want to go anywhere,” Phipps said at the ceremony. Of course, there was also a video greeting from Beckham. And the next day, Juan Mata went to his house to congratulate Kat.
Gary Neville, speaking of Phipps, said that every time he saw her at the club’s base, he felt proud to belong to United. It is on such inconspicuous heroes, carrying traditions for many decades, that great teams are built. Phipps has been at Manchester United much longer than Sir Alex Ferguson. unique woman. One of the team’s goals for the upcoming season is to please Phipps with trophies.
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