Reacting to Sir Alex's Retirement - as a Chelsea fan

A picture that was released by Manchester United’s official Facebook page shortly after Sir Alex announced his retirement.

“Nobody said it was easy; no one ever said it would be this hard”

Those words are lyrics to a song by Coldplay called the ‘The Scientist’ and are an understatement of how Manchester United fans must feel now.

Personally, as a Chelsea fan, it has become part of practice to embrace the fact that your manager might not be there when you wake up the next morning. I will never deny that I have always envied United and Arsenal because of how they were so managerially stable. I had hoped and wished time and time again that somehow someday, we’ll have our answer to Sir Alex Ferguson. I hoped it’d be Jose Mourinho, and right up to Roberto di Matteo, I kept hoping.

I used to genuinely think death was the only way to do Sir Alex and United apart.

I longed for a manager like him at Chelsea, someone who’s going to be there every season and has a solid long-term plan in mind. For 9 years of my life, Sir Alex has been one of the people that I severely despised for all the times he defeated and derailed my dear Chelsea with his tactical brilliance and the mental wars he’d wage. But denying a man like him respect is something football fans can never ever do. It’s just not humanly possible to not respect a man who’s devoted his life to a club for a quarter of a century and won so many titles and established such a sound team, with the right mix of money and youth.

A small, almost infinitesimal, part of me died today upon hearing that announcement. It is bound to be awkward next season, when we visit Old Trafford and the old Scottish man with his bulbous red nose and rectangular glasses, chewing away at his gum, won’t be there.

It’s won’t be just Manchester United, but the entire footballing world that will miss Sir Alex. Those witty press cons, annoying wins at Stamford Bridge and the fact that he always strolled out to rapturous applause at Old Trafford.

You’ve left behind, a legacy, Sir, that won’t be forgotten for a long long time to come.

Thank you, Sir Alex. Football owes you.

And perhaps, in this one scenario, we actually hope there is “Fergie Time” left.