Arms folded, Sir Alex Ferguson’s statue stares determinedly across the Bridgewater canal and into the distance. From the Old Trafford stand bearing his name, the bronze monument unveiled six years ago by Ferguson’s wife, Cathy, points towards the Salford Royal hospital where the 76-year-old is being treated after suffering a brain haemorrhage on Saturday.
Under cloudless blue skies, Manchester United fans gathered outside Old Trafford to express their shock and to pray that the club’s longest-serving manager makes a full recovery.
“I just couldn’t stop crying when I heard,” said Norma Smith, 73, a season ticket holder for the best part of 60 years. Wearing her United fleece despite the unseasonably warm weather, Smith looked close to tears as she said she was determined to be at the stadium on Sunday because “I want my heart here”.
“We’ve got our own chapel here at Old Trafford and I’ve been to church this morning to pray for him. Devastated, devastated,” she said.
Older fans listened to the radio and waited for news in the sun outside the vertiginous East Stand, where scarf sellers sold mementoes to the usual gaggle of day-trippers outside the club megastore.
Lee Turner, from Lincoln, was playing football with his nine-year-old son Ethan outside Old Trafford on Saturday night when the news broke. He returned to the stadium on Sunday to buy a replacement ball for the one Ethan had somehow lodged behind the East Stand’s statue of Sir Matt Busby.
“Whoever you spoke to last night had heard the news and was concerned,” Turner said. “He’s an absolutely iconic person in the history of world football and a global ambassador.”
Just like Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, the news of his sudden illness has been met with the familiar feeling of it being the end of an era for world football, not just the club he steered to 38 trophies over 26 years.
For Smith and others, Ferguson’s illness is more painful as it comes at the end of a season in which United have seen their rivals Manchester City – the team the Scot dubbed “the noisy neighbours” – dominate the Premier League, and Liverpool, romp to a Champions League final later this month.
“He was very special to us,” said Smith. “We loved him. When the news came on last night I cried immediately and it’s totally knocked me back. He was more like a father, not like the team we’ve got now. I’m heartbroken by our team today and that’s what makes this news sadder.”
Peter Bolton, 61, a season ticket holder for four decades, said he had watched United on five continents, last missing a home game in 1974, and had watched Ferguson lift every one of his 38 trophies. On Sunday he said he felt devastated.
“I’ve been all over the world watching United and he’s brought me so much joy. He’s been retired a few years but he’s still the top man. Our life has been improved more than we could ever imagine,” he said.
“The bottom line is 38 trophies in English football, not Scottish football or Spain or Germany – Fergie just knew what to do, how to do it and not only that, he did it,.
“What’s fascinated me more than anything is that whenever a challenger comes along, he was always absolutely able to raise the bar. Blackburn came along and splashed out on Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton – Fergie raised the bar. ‘The Invincibles’, the Russian money, the oil money – whatever they put in front of him, he knocked them off their ‘effin perch’, as he put it.”
Ferguson’s reign was marked not just by the trophies but also by the exponential growth of the club’s following overseas.
Taking selfies outside the Sir Alex Ferguson stand, Adam Dunga, 33, said news about the former United manager was dominating the headlines in his native Tanzania, 4,700 miles away from Manchester.
“United are big time back home and Alex Ferguson is a legend. Everyone has respect for him,” he said. “This news about Alex Ferguson, I read it first on my local media, Tanzania media – it’s such a big thing.”
Dunga, who works in a call centre in nearby Warrington, said he was not a football fan but that “Fergie” and United were famous in every corner of the globe.
“In Tanzania they stay up until midnight to watch Man United. They know I live near Manchester and the first thing someone there mentions is Old Trafford, Old Trafford, Old Trafford.”