LARRY RYAN: How Fergie’s communications war never stopped

It was second nature. You ransacked Alex Ferguson’s retirement statement over and over. Shaking it down for clues. Or barbs. Or agendas.

Incredibly, there were nothing of the sort and it was just goodbye. Stock market rules, maybe.

It had been business as usual right until the end. Fergie slipping a message inside a rant and dispatching the media on an errand. Deliver or don’t come back.