In this no-holds-barred account of his time in football, Parker details just how demanding Ferguson was in an era which truly launched Manchester United from an established, sometimes competitive, British football club to a global superpower.
For Parker, he wasn't just witness to this transformation, but also a key player as he arrived from QPR just 12 months before United and Sir Alex would be lifting the first of 13 Premier League titles during his reign.
However for Parker, that first season at Old Trafford ended with many in the dressing room questioning whether Sir Alex would be around in a year's time. Pipped by Howard Wilkinson's Leeds United to the 1991/92 title, Parker admits the belief inside the squad was the following the season would be a case of "now or never" in terms of not just the manager, but many of the senior players.
Recalling that critical time in the club's modern history, Parker told Tribalfootball.com: "There was disappointment, frustration. And as a group, I think everyone was panicking really because the boss was on the warpath.
"Anything that just moved the wrong side, that needle moved to the wrong side of the dial and you knew you were in trouble because it had to be done the following year. There was no... Otherwise, maybe it could have been his job, but you thought about yourself then. You wondered if you were going to be there too!
"What was going to be his next change if we didn't succeed? Yeah... And lucky enough, we succeeded. And all we did was get Roy Keane. And that's all it was. We just added Roy Keane to the team."
Meeting Fergie and Man Utd standards
But as Parker says, Ferguson was on the "warpath" over that summer.
"You'd think, 'Oh, he's on one'. Meaning you see his eyes and it's a kind of thing where you try and not let the big bad boss see you. And he was always a little bit edgy, especially when it came to the big games and things like that."
Indeed, as Parker says, the approach of Ferguson was always performance-focused - no matter the opposition.
He continued: "And that's why he was performance-orientated, because he never believed you could go into a big game off a bad performance. Mentally, he didn't believe you could do it. So he was big on performances. You know, anybody who says to me they win a game of football, they say, 'oh, it's just about the win'. I'll always argue that point because it's not just about the win. You get a good win (and performance) behind you and everyone sees it. It gets in people's heads because they've seen your previous performance and how you won.
"When you're a Manchester United, a Liverpool, something like that, and you go and play a side that's, say, second bottom in the league, you play against them and you beat them 1-0
and it's been a battle. And then you just go, 'a win's a win'. It's not because when you play those sides, you go and score three, four or five goals, and that's when people panic because they know you haven't taken your foot off the gas."
Parker added, "Not with Sir Alex, it wasn't that way. I mean, he roped us one time when we won 5-0 at Coventry. He'd come in shouting and screaming, 'what was this and that', and he just said, 'your performance did not befit a Manchester United team. You got arrogant, you started getting sloppy, you were trying stupid little tricks'. Oh, he went mad.
"The following season, we went there and done it again and beat them 5-0. But this time he was happy as we played as he wanted us to play.
"It definitely suited him because it was all about him. You keep him happy and then everyone's happy..."
- 'Tackling the Game, My Life in Football, By Paul Parker' is available from Pitch Publishing. Get your copy here just in time for Christmas.
