Many speculate that Sir Alex Ferguson’s biggest regret at Manchester United may be failing to match Bob Paisley’s record of three European cups. Ferguson ended up with only two to his name.

The former United manager, though, has revealed that his biggest regret may be a surprising one for many since it involves the training ground. Ferguson said that once he made a trip to Barcelona that changed his view about the location of a gym. He feels that United should have had a gym overlooking the training pitches at Carrington. This, Ferguson says, is a great motivation to the players who are currently on the sidelines and trying to get back.

United moved to the new training ground based on Carrington back in 2000. Ferguson had a substantial amount of influence of the club back then, but not at the level he is right now. More importantly, Ferguson claimed that the visit to Barcelona came three years after United had constructed the Carrington training ground. Ferguson is one of the successful managers of all time after having led United to numerous titles in more than 25 years at the club. He retired from all forms of management in 2013 and is currently the club’s ambassador.

“One part I wish I’d done at United was that the gym is one floor up and you can see into the training ground.Three years after we’d built Carrington I went over to Barcelona and realised we’d made a mistake. Our gym at Carrington is enclosed.Looking out at the training ground makes the players hungry to get out there. So when a player is coming back from injury he can see the pitches it’s an incentive to get out there.So there are things I wish I’d thought about when Carrington was built that I see here,” said Ferguson.