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Sir Alex Ferguson will retire as one of the managerial greats

Sir Alex FergusonClive Mason
By Phil McNulty
Chief football writer

Manchester United's landscape - and that of British football - changed forever just after 9am on Wednesday, 8 May 2013.

This was when the domestic game's towering figure called time on the successes, trials and tribulations of 26 years at Old Trafford. Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson announced his retirement.

The 71-year-old Scot, with a stand bearing his name and a statue on the concourse outside, will take charge of his final game at the self-styled Theatre of Dreams when United face Swansea City on Sunday.

It was an announcement that came as a seismic shock to football's system, coming so soon after a series of bullish statements from Ferguson hinting at exactly the opposite of walking away.

How swiftly the scenery has been moved at Old Trafford. It was only in March, as Ferguson prepared to face Real Madrid in the Champions League, that he wrote these words in his programme notes:

"This is what it is all about - a packed Old Trafford, the floodlights on, the pitch glistening and two of the greatest and most romantic clubs in the game about to do battle.

"People ask me why I don't retire after so many years in the game, but how could anyone with an ounce of ion for football in their soul voluntarily walk away from the opportunity to be involved in this kind of occasion">