The club that Alex built

The Premier League without Alex Ferguson: it will be like looking out your window one day to savour a familiar view and discovering a whole mountain has disappeared.

It’s not just Manchester United who are entering a new era — the very landscape of club football in England will be forever transformed.

That the retirement of a 71-year-old should prompt such seismic shock tells you all you need to know about what a vital force the Scot has continued to be nearly 27 years after he came south from Aberdeen to Manchester.