Ferguson's Old Trafford reign ends

08:15, 13 May 2013

LONDON. May 13. KAZINFORM You know it is not a normal football match when stewards in fluorescent orange jackets have to be sent in to control the queues for commemorative programmes. About 20,000 of those glossy programmes are normally sold for a big occasion at Manchester United but for this game almost four times that number had been produced. The front cover bore a simple message: "Thank you Sir Alex."

It was his final game at Old Trafford, with Sinatra playing over the loudspeakers, and the PA man, once he had gone through the long list of trophies accumulated (so long he needed to read them out from a script), neatly summed it up as "the impossible dream made possible".

When Ferguson took over in 1986 his first photoshoot had been in the centre-circle and the stand behind him was a tired old concrete terrace with ugly spiked gates, The Guardian informed.

He leaves Old Trafford a very different place: gleaming, happy, just a little anxious about life without him but bearing up well. The mosaic of red, black and white coloured cards spelt out "Champions" in the most vertiginous of the four stands.

Behind one goal it was "20" glittering in gold, reflecting on the number of times the club have now won the league. At the other end it was "13" to signify the number that have come in the Ferguson era, on a day when the most successful British football manager in history said his farewell and threatened to "start bubbling" at one point.

Nobody actually believed there would be any tears. And sure enough, he held himself together for that farewell speech. He nailed it, too. He thanked all the relevant people. There was a paternal message for his players ("You know how good you are, the jersey you are wearing, don't let yourselves down") and a special mention for Paul Scholes, one of the great footballers of his 26 years in charge, now retiring too.

Typically, he also remembered that another of his players, Darren Fletcher, is recovering from an operation. He talked about how important it was for everyone at the club to trust his successor, David Moyes, and then he wound it all up. "I'm just going inside now. Thank you once again, from all the Ferguson family. They're all up there [pointing to the stand]. Eleven grandchildren! Thank you. Thank you." Life at Manchester United will never feel the same again.

Well, there is actually still another game to go. Ferguson has to take his team to West Bromwich Albion next weekend but it felt almost like an afterthought. It did not even ruin the mood too much when Wayne Rooney, left out of the squad after asking to leave the club two weeks ago, was booed when it was his turn to collect his league winner's medal.

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