How will Utd cope without Fergie?

Critically, he used the time to overhaul the entire ethos and culture of the club, to develop a youth system that would bear unprecedented fruit.

Outside football, only a few stellar names rank alongside. There is Green Bay’s own era-builder, Vince Lombardi, with his five NFL league titles in seven years, and ice hockey’s Scotty Bowman, who won nine Stanley Cups with three different teams across 29 years.

There is zen master Phil Jackson, as calm as Fergie could be furious, winner of six NBA titles over nine years with the Chicago Bulls and five in 10 years with the LA Lakers, a man who too could rebuild teams repeatedly and bring the best from legends and toilers alike. Britain’s own cycling sorcerer, Dave Brailsford, has also achieved what was thought to be impossible.

Ferguson’s triumphs were certainly aided by cash. Outside the big-budget interregnums of Jack Walker, Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, he was backed with the sort of money that few of his rivals could match, ensuring that the most expensive names could be brought to United throughout his reign. But he also discovered diamonds,
rough-cut or ready-polished. Peter Schmeichel, Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all cost less than contemporaries like Dave Beasant, Chris Kiwomya and Brian Deane.

He was given time. It took him five and a half years to secure that precious first league title, an indulgence that few managers today could expect. In December 1989, after six defeats in eight games and an infamous 5-1 thrashing from arch-rivals City, execution was stayed when many would have been for the chop.

Critically, he used the time to overhaul the entire ethos and culture of the club, to develop a youth system that would bear unprecedented fruit.

When the time came to move players on, Ferguson knew even before they did, perhaps only Jaap Stam of his big names sold too soon. As the game changed, the ageing man changed with it as his rivals - George Graham, Kenny Dalglish, Arsene Wenger - perhaps could not.

Many of those who most love Ferguson will struggle to imagine Manchester United without him, in part because many of them will never have experienced it. It is the footballing equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall: you knew it was inevitable at some stage, but when it happens few can believe it. Even those who hate him, or have seen their own team’s hopes wrecked by his relentless quest for supremacy, have had their supporting lives defined by his
achievements.

He has given phrases to the dictionary - Fergie Time, the hairdryer treatment, squeaky-bum time.

More than that, he has become one of Britain’s most recognised sporting figures across the globe - a birthday guest of Nelson Mandela, feted by youthful idols like Usain Bolt, Rafa Nadal and Rory McIlroy as news of his departure spread.

Nadal was just five months old when Ferguson was appointed Manchester United manager, Bolt three months. McIlroy would not arrive for another three years. Ferguson’s own iconic status meant that they paid homage nonetheless.

No other manager could conceivably have drawn such tributes, just as only the most loyal or loved have also been awarded knighthoods.
Walter Winterbottom, Alf Ramsey and Bobby Robson all have their indisputable place in football history, yet Ferguson’s impact on the game was possibly - respectfully - greater than all.

When great dynasties come to an end, there is always fear of what might follow. Ferguson has come to define his club’s timeless image, even as its true nature has been transformed under the Glazers’ predatory ownership.

With chief executive David Gill also on his way, Rio Ferdinand out of contract, Ryan Giggs approaching his 40th birthday and Wayne Rooney repeatedly rumoured to be heading overseas, this may be the end of an era in more ways than one.

For those who have been part of it, there will be both a celebration of what was achieved and a certain sadness that it is, at last, no more.

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