Fergie ‘greatest in history’

You can never escape history at Manchester United; the place is steeped in it.

So when Bobby Charlton, a man who links the club’s glorious present to its glorious past, describes Alex Ferguson as the greatest manager in the history of football he doesn’t mean it lightly.

Charlton, who has been a director at Old Trafford since 1984, was influential in the appointment of Ferguson when he arrived in Manchester two years later and has seen at close quarters how the Scotsman has transformed the club over a period of more than 26 years.