THIRD AGE: Working towards a new beginning

YOU can’t help but wonder how much Alex Ferguson, the former Manchester United manager, has really enjoyed his first full week of retirement.

Is he already bored, missing his former colleagues and the buzz of running a world class football team? Or perhaps, it is his wife Cathy, who is wondering whether he has made the right decision? She famously persuaded her husband of nearly 50 years not to retire in 2001 because she was worried he would be bored.

“When he’s under your feet, it is a nuisance. If he’s here too long, he gets in my road,’’ she once admitted.