Top 10 things to miss as Sir Alex Ferguson quits Old Trafford

By: Laura Williamson/DailyMail

Certain Premier League managers and fans may not miss Sir Alex Ferguson’s ability to build, inspire and rebuild a winning team but, with the Manchester United boss ending his remarkable 27-year reign at Old Trafford, English football will suddenly feel a very different place.

Here are the some of the things we will all surely - if, perhaps, secretly - miss about Sir Alex…

‘FERGIE TIME’
You know the drill: the fourth official shows the allotted amount of stoppage time United need to win and they duly step up and score a vital goal. It has happened time and time again, demonstrating the sheer force of will of Ferguson’s teams – and perhaps also the manager’s influence on the touchline.


The phrase ‘Fergie time’ was not coined until 1998, but it was happening way before that. Think of April 1993, when Steve Bruce scored twice to give United a 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. Bruce scored the winner six minutes into stoppage time.

It is agony if your team is punished in those extra two or three minutes, but it is great drama for the neutral. But woe betide the referee Ferguson thinks cannot add up the correct amount of ‘Fergie time’…Ouch.

THE TRADITIONS
For fans of a certain age, Ferguson is Manchester United. Some will not be able to recall watching a United match without the Scot chewing gum incessantly in the dug-out.

He has become as a familiar as the black zip-up jumper and the red Wales hat he likes to wear for training before big games – he nicked it from Ryan Giggs in 1996 and has no plans to give it back.

THE PITHY SOUNDBITES
You might have to listen very carefully to that Glaswegian growl, but Ferguson has conjured up some wonderful phrases in his time. Roy Keane’s display in the 1999 Champions League semi-final, despite the midfielder knowing he would be suspended for the final, was ‘the most empathic display of selflessness I have ever seen on a football field’, for example.

More famously, Ferguson said he wanted to knock Liverpool ‘right off their f***ing perch’ and Dennis Wise could ‘start a row in an empty house’. Then there’s ‘squeaky-bum time’ when the season gets a bit ‘tickly’, and the occasion he said he would not sell Real Madrid ‘a virus’… shortly before United pocketed £80million for selling Cristiano Ronaldo to the Spanish side.

And, of course, the most apt comment of them all after the 1999 Champions League final: ‘Football. Bloody hell.’ Quite.

THE HAIR-DRYER
His players might be the lucky ones in that they get it behind closed doors, while others – fellow managers, referees, opposition players and members of the press – get it full throttle, no matter who is watching. Ferguson has showed no signs of slowing down, either. Only this season Alan Pardew was labelled the ‘manager of a wee club in the North-East’.

‘I am the manager of the most famous club in the world,’ Ferguson added. ‘I was demonstrative. I am always demonstrative. Everyone knows I am an emotional guy but I am not abusive.’

THE FALL-OUTS
Ferguson does not do things by halves, that’s for sure. There have been the spats with fellow managers – Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez, to name but two – and the star players who have fallen foul of the boss.

Ferguson said it was a ‘freakish incident’ when he allegedly kicked a boot which hit David Beckham just above his perfectly-manicured left eyebrow and called Paul Ince ‘a bully, a f***ing big-time Charlie’ after he left United.

Jaap Stam recalls how Sir Alex raced to meet him in a petrol station after an argument on the training ground following the publication of his autobiography: Ferguson got in his car, told the defender he had to leave and then sold him to Lazio for £16.5m.

'YOU'LL NEVER WIN ANYTHING WITH KIDS'
That philosophy just does not count at Manchester United, and we should be grateful for it. It is wonderful to see youngsters given a chance in the Premier League, particularly homegrown talent - and Ferguson has never been afraid of buying British.
Recently he has recruited England players such as Phil Jones and Chris Smalling and he is at it again, even now, with the acquisitions of Wilfried Zaha and Nick Powell.

THE LOYALTY
If you’re out there appears to be no way back, but win Ferguson’s favour and it is a difficult bond to break. This faith has been repaid by long-serving players such as Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, of course, but it is also evident in other ways.
Remember Sir Alex’s decision to break his silence on the BBC to present Sir Bobby Robson’s lifetime achievement award at the Sports Personality of the Year awards, or his wonderful, unscripted speech at the former England manager’s funeral at Durham Cathedral?

Those are just two public examples, but many more current and former football bosses will eulogise over the next few weeks about the quiet and constant help Ferguson has provided for them and their careers.

DAD-DANCING
In 1993 Ferguson said his Eric Cantona-inspired side were playing in a way ‘that’s got middle-aged fans jumping about like two-year-olds’. Well, that’s exactly how the United boss still celebrates crucial goals. The boyish smile, the little jig, the sheer glee and the complete disregard for anyone who might find it amusing. Dad-dancing at its finest.

THE STARS
United's ability to win football matches may seem machine-like at times, but Ferguson's sides have long relied on craft and individual creativity as well as a solid spine. Players like Cantona, Ronaldo, Giggs and now Van Persie have flourished under Ferguson's tutelage, providing us with some of the key moments of the Premier League era.

For all United's success and the emphasis on playing attacking football the right way, however, they have only boasted four Premier League Golden Boot winners - and two of those, Dwight Yorke in 1999 and Dimitar Berbatov in 2011, had to share their titles. Perhaps this shows that the team really is king, rather than any one individual.

THE TROPHIES
Thirteen Premier League titles, twice a Champions League winner, five FA Cups and four League Cups, to name but 24 of Ferguson's major honours. Like him or loathe him, you cannot help but respect such a great and consistent sporting winner.