Retiring United boss earns praise from former players.
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Manchester United legends David Beckham and Gary Neville lead tributes to manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who announced his decision to retire from the game yesterday.
The Scot will step down as manager after 26 years at Old Trafford, delivering glory that the club had never known before his appointment.
Beckham hailed his former boss, who helped make him a super star of the game during his days at United. The PSG midfielder told Sky Sports that Ferguson was a father figure in his development.
He said: “As I have said many times before the boss wasn’t just the greatest and best manager I ever played under he was also a father figure to me from the moment I arrived at the club at the age of 11 until the day I left.
“I am truly honoured to have been guided by the greatest manager in football and to have had the career that I had under him.”
Former United right-back Neville added that Ferguson was truly the man who turned the club around after taking over, admitting that they were a ‘laughing stock’ in the 70s and 80s.
Neville believes Ferguson’s unique methods of putting his whole heart and soul into the club are what helped transform Manchester United’s ambitions to be the biggest club in the world.
“He felt passionate about the football club,” said the Sky Sports pundit. “Winning the first trophy was a huge thing for the club and he demanded the [highest] standards of every single player that played under him.
“He changed the mentality of every single individual at that football club.
“It’s an incredible thing – balancing the traditional aspects of life with actually being open enough to change with the modern game. He is the last of a kind.”
Ferguson shocked the footballing world with his sudden plan to retire, and everyone is now eagerly awaiting the news of Manchester United’s next appointment as manager, widely tipped to be Everton’s David Moyes, though Real Madrid’s Jose Mourinho is also in the frame.