Deep in the bowels of Old Trafford there is a room not much larger than a cubicle located off the corridor leading up to what is now known as the media centre.
Occasionally, in moments of great excitement or high agitation, Fergie would use it as a bolt-hole.It was there, on the evening of Wednesday, April 7, 1999, that he seized me by the elbow, propelled me through the door and slammed it shut behind us.
Then he banged two glasses down on the table and poured a slug of fine Scottish whisky for each of us.
Wrapped up in the moment: Alex Ferguson hugs his coaching staff after the 3-2 win over Juventus in TurinHe had just finished the post-match press conference following the 1-1 first-leg, semi-final draw against Juventus which threatened elimination from the Champions League, a result which would have been even more damaging but for an added-time equaliser by Ryan Giggs.
Diplomacy is not a word often used in association with Sir Alex Ferguson but he had gritted his teeth in front of the cameras and notebooks and given due credit to Juventus for their classical Italian defending and typical menace on the counter-attack.
Then, after gulping down the Scotch, he told me: ‘We’ll beat these Italian b******s over there if it’s the last bloody thing I do.’
The Italians, had they over-heard, could have taken that not as insult, but a compliment.
Well, Manchester United did beat Juventus in Turin two weeks later but not without more trauma and drama.
Filippo Inzaghi looked to have finished them off with two goals in the first 10 minutes. Then came a comeback for the ages, with goals from Roy Keane, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole transforming despair into ecstasy.
But no, it wasn’t the last thing Fergie ever did. Far from it.
In the end, it was plane sailing: Fergie relaxes with a drink after that amazing victory over Juve in 1999In the ensuing weeks he marched United onwards to the Premier League title, FA Cup final, then the Champions League showpiece in Barcelona.
There, by virtue of another astonishing recovery, they came from behind to defeat Bayern Munich with Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer scoring two more goals in Fergie time.
Famously, as the only Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble was accomplished, he said: ‘Football, bloody hell.’
Football, bloody great, thought many of us as we watched his cavalier teams keep piling up the silverware. Enough to fill the vaults of the Crown jewellers to over-flowing, the last coming now with his 13th winning of the league title. All hoisted with a flourish in keeping with the United tradition of attacking, entertaining football, as established by Sir Matt Busby.
Party like it's 1999: Ferguson and his team lifting the Champions League trophyAnd there, in a single sentence, is the rebuttal of all this week’s nonsense about how impossible it will be for the new manager to work in the shadow of Ferguson the club director.
Who in their right mind would throw out all that knowledge and experience?
Could anything be more beneficial to David Moyes than having his mentor from whom to seek counsel when needed, to protect his back under duress?
Before Fergie arrived hot-foot from Aberdeen It took United several attempts to find the manager big enough to rise to the inspiration of Busby after he moved upstairs, not pale in his shadow.
This time, they may have got it right first time.
Old friends: Sir Alex Ferguson (left) congratulates his pal Jeff Powell on 45 years at the Daily Mail in 2010The most eye-catching headline of the week thus far reads: David Replaces Goliath. But amusingly clever as it is, it does not tell the story.
There is no fight to the death here. Ferguson has anointed Moyes as his own successor in the conviction that he, too, is a strong enough character to prosper, not flounder, in the wake of genius.
Ferguson embraced the Busby legend and made Sir Matt his friend. Moyes is half-way to that transition already, having been chiselled from the same Scottish rock-face as Ferguson.
Not that he is an exact chip off the old block. The sorcerer is charisma personified, the apprentice comparatively dour.
But they are equally intent on winning and this David will have his Goliath to lean on when he wishes.
One going out, one coming in: Moyes (right) will replace Ferguson (left) at Old TraffordFerguson can be monstrously one-eyed in battle but the image of the manic hairdresser with the flame-throwing blow-dryer is but a fraction of the whole reality.
Two of the several pillars upon which Sir Alex has built his dynasty are made not of salt (to rub into wounds) but of intelligence and generosity.
He will sense when Moyes needs to draw upon his wisdom and will give of himself freely. Not only in support of his Chosen One but to protect the future of the club he built into a global corporation. All while nurturing no fewer than four champion teams. Even as the players changed around him from virtual slaves to pampered princelings.
Not bad advisers: Moyes can call on the wisdom of Ferguson and Sir Bobby CharltonIntelligent? One hairdryer could never fit all.
Generous? How much more giving of nature can any Scot be than to keep developing England footballers?
As for Moyes, he will have not one but two Old Trafford legends to call upon.
Sir Bobby Charlton is already on the Board. As he tells it: ‘With Alex as manager we have really had very little to do.’
Even less from now on, one suspects, with Alex as a director.
