Ferguson, inset left, embraced the presence that Busby, middle, had at the club — Solskjaer, inset right, seems to have continued in the same vein

As he casts his mind back more than half a century, Paddy Crerand smiles. He is painting a picture of camaraderie, of Saturday lunchtimes spent sitting around tables at Davyhulme Park Golf Club with his Manchester United team-mates: Bobby Charlton sitting upright, Nobby Stiles and Denis Law playfully winding each other up, George Best with a glint in his eye. Centre-stage would be Matt Busby, puffing on a cigarette, quietly exuding an aura as he took it all in.

It would be steaks all round for their pre-match meal. “Except for George,” Crerand, 79, says. “George would have beans on toast or something like that, but the rest of us would have steaks. We weren’t to know back then that it was the worst thing