the mAtrix
Youth Team
He has laid out the Old Trafford welcome mat for children suffering from anything from cancer to poverty. Sir Alex has never knowingly refused any approach.
The impending kick-off of one fixture counted for nothing when a lad with leukaemia was given a day in a million, meeting his United heroes in the Old Trafford dressing room with Ferguson himself conducting the introductions.
He has also extended his generosity to his rivals. Unheralded, he went to Merseyside to make sure Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier's recovery from the trauma of open-heart surgery was going to plan.
When I was in a Newcastle hospital recovering from a quadruple heart bypass, Sir Alex visited. He will discover now, should he read this, that I've known all along that he offered to pay for the operation before being told it was covered by health insurance.
He swore the mutual acquaintance to secrecy about the gesture. I was supposed to keep the secret as well.
He stayed with me in the hospital for about an hour, chatting away on a range of subjects. Before he left, he handed over a fine bottle of red wine and said: 'Drink that when you get better, you wee Geordie bastard.'
Sir Alex has never forgotten his humble upbringing in Govan or how he fought his corner with the bosses as an apprentice tool maker.
He can be as considerate as he can be abrasive, as frightening as he can be charming. But there really is no more genuine man.
By, a Soccernet reporter. Beautiful words
The impending kick-off of one fixture counted for nothing when a lad with leukaemia was given a day in a million, meeting his United heroes in the Old Trafford dressing room with Ferguson himself conducting the introductions.
He has also extended his generosity to his rivals. Unheralded, he went to Merseyside to make sure Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier's recovery from the trauma of open-heart surgery was going to plan.
When I was in a Newcastle hospital recovering from a quadruple heart bypass, Sir Alex visited. He will discover now, should he read this, that I've known all along that he offered to pay for the operation before being told it was covered by health insurance.
He swore the mutual acquaintance to secrecy about the gesture. I was supposed to keep the secret as well.
He stayed with me in the hospital for about an hour, chatting away on a range of subjects. Before he left, he handed over a fine bottle of red wine and said: 'Drink that when you get better, you wee Geordie bastard.'
Sir Alex has never forgotten his humble upbringing in Govan or how he fought his corner with the bosses as an apprentice tool maker.
He can be as considerate as he can be abrasive, as frightening as he can be charming. But there really is no more genuine man.
By, a Soccernet reporter. Beautiful words
