“I decided to retire last Christmas” – Sir Alex Ferguson

Retiring Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he made the decision to quit football at Christmas.

The 71-year-old took charge of his last game at Old Trafford – a 2-1 win over Swansea City – and will be stepping down at the end of the season, after making the announcement public last week.

The Scot who has been at the club for over 26 years, admitted that he struggled to keep the news under wraps, after he first disclosed it to his family.

“Probably last Christmas,” he told Sky Sports after he was asked when he decided to retire. “Basically, things changed when Cathy’s [his wife] sister died.

“She’s isolated a lot now and I think I owe her a lot of my own time. For 47 years she’s been the leader of the family, looked after our three sons, sacrificed for me, and now she’s got all her grandchildren: they all dote on her, and I think you know, she’s lost her best friend, her sister Bridget, and I think I owe her my own time.

“That was important. Also, to go out a winner, that is really important at this club. That’s the most important thing I ever wanted to do here, to be a winner.

“It was very difficult. Sometimes I nearly blurted it out to the family. We told our sons around about March. My brother didn’t even know until about Tuesday night, because I wanted to tell the players first really, the players and my staff.

“But unfortunately those rumours came out – where they come from, you never know. This club’s like a sieve. Stuff leaks out that shouldn’t leak out, so we started to speed it up a bit.”

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