When you first met, you had no idea that they were ‘the one’, but here you are, twenty seven years on. Contemplation fills your mind, tracking along every obsession filled vein, to that major organ in your skull. You didn’t see it coming, the finishing line, but it was inevitable. The split is wholly amicable in the end, we have run our course now, and it is time to find a life apart from each other. But it hurts. It hurts so badly. And all you can do is drop them off at the station, to catch that train that will take them away from you…forever.

As relationships go, it felt fairly normal at the start. Those early days of flirtation and folly, were soon replaced by the mundane routine of life in the slow lane. But as the months turned into years, and our futures materialised into the present day, it became ever more apparent that our two destinies were joined at the hip, and that this amazing journey we were about to undertake, we would take together. Hand in hand. Devoted and united.

In 1986, we had no idea what Alex Ferguson would mean to us in 2013. We had no idea about the kind of relationship we would have with the man. We had no idea that we would name a stand after him at our holiest of homes and build a statue of him to overlook that location. We didn’t know that this would not be just another fling: An Atkinson, a Docherty, a Sexton. We had no idea of the incredible longevity, and of all the wonderful memories we would create together. And we had no idea of the depths of love and loyalty we would achieve.

And we had no idea how much pain we would feel when it was over.

I was ten years old when Fergie took over at United – I didn’t take to him immediately. That first year I missed the glamour that Big Ron brought to our club, which was previously welcomed with open arms by a fan base who didn’t really have trophy success to consider, in a Scouse sense of the meaning. Where Atkinson was larger than life and covered in gold and diamonds, Ferguson was British Steel and coal mines. It felt…wrong. It felt like a relationship with little direction. Maybe a rebound affair? Anyway, it would surely all be over before long, and we would get ourselves our very own Terry Venables character. Right? Thankfully not.

Fast forward almost three decades, and it is time to say goodbye. Everything comes to an end, even the very best things in the world. We have all contemplated the idea that this relationship was eternal, and in many ways it is. But physically, it is impossible. Our relationship with the manager can no longer be measured in anything less than repeated golden generations, but now it is time to write a new passage in this rollercoaster story, called Manchester United.

So the clock has been ticking for a couple of weeks now, and the train is pulling into the station. I had no idea how I would say goodbye, but I knew I wanted to stop spontaneously bursting into tears, when I thought about the level of loss I was feeling. I was going to take a deep breath, be the man I wanted to be, and wish the love of my football life a ‘bon voyage’ as I forced a smile, my face all lines of worry and pretence. I could do that, couldn’t I? Even though I died on trophy presentation day at Old Trafford and emotionally collapsed, I felt equally reborn the following day, in the streets of Manchester. Positivity oozed out of me and all of you, from Chester Road to Deansgate, and into the throng of Albert Square.

But yesterday really was the end. So as we kissed goodbye one last time and he boarded that train, my heart felt heavy. I remembered all of those times I didn’t believe in him, but that was mostly Djemba Djemba’s fault. However, the overriding memory was one of love and security. Security is one thing that is rarely present in a football relationship like this. So as the train pulled away from the platform, the ground swallowed me whole, and I was temporarily spat out into an oblivion I had never experienced before. The tears rained down, and it was time to accept that moving on was the only option.

Situations like this call for the pub. So that is where I headed, a football singleton for the first time in forever. But wait! Who is that attractive new red head behind the bar? I recognised them but I wondered what their name was? And as Slade’s ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ played on the jukebox, I made a move.

A new relationship had begun. We’ll get wild wild wild…all over again.

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Follow Rob on Twitter.

David De Gea

Rafael
United’s most improved player this season. Always an attacking threat, witness those stunning goals at QPR and Liverpool, he is now wiser and less rash in defence as well. Keep this up and he should be United’s right-back for the next decade.

Jonny Evans
I’m still not convinced. If he played for another side would you covet him, would you want to see him in a United shirt? I wouldn’t. And yet he is always a solid, if unspectacular, presence in the centre of defence.

Nemanja Vidic
A United legend, who can still be a commanding presence in the centre of defence, and yet the question needs to be asked: Has he really been the same player since that long injury lay-off? I sense he hasn’t, and could be past his very best now.

Phil Jones
I winced when Ferguson said he could be United’s greatest ever player. He’s good, very good, but has done nothing yet to prove he could get anywhere close to that revered status. Might be best to eventually move him back in to central defence.

Rio Ferdinand
Chris Smalling and Phil Jones will have to wait their turn because Rio Ferdinand is going nowhere, especially after enjoying arguably his best ever season at United. Getting better with age.

Patrice Evra
Maybe all those Leighton Baines rumours last summer did the job for this season Evra was almost back to his 2007-2009 best. One of United’s finest ever full-backs, but this might have been his last season if David Moyes ironically now bring Baines with him.

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Sam writes for FourFourTwo and is responsible for the excellent Best XI Manchester United book

The Telegraph reports on David Moyes’ first day at the club.

The Daily Mail shows Fergie giving autographs to and taking pictures with yesterday’s officials.

Red Flag Flying High has player ratings from yesterday’s game.

Today is the last day to vote for RoM to win blog of the year. Please take 2 ticks to support us.

By the time of the final whistle, when City players took part in the customary lap of honour, the ground was half empty, with the fans that did bother to show up passing up the opportunity to applaud their players for finishing 2nd.

The city is yours?

What was noticeable though, 20 minutes in to the game, was a change from songs about Ferguson to songs about the manager who will replace him.

“So come on David Moyes, play football like Fergie’s boys, we’ll go wild, wild wild, we’ll go wild, wild wild.”

This song has been muttered and passed around the internet in the weeks since Moyes’ appointment and was given a loud outing at United U-21s semi-final victory over Liverpool earlier this week. But today it really took off and you can only imagine how proud that would make the manager.

In his final speech after our win over Swansea last weekend, Ferguson urged us to get behind Moyes. There can’t be too many reds who’d had the Everton man as their first choice for replacing Sir Alex but now that the decision has been made, it is only right that we give him our full backing. Not just now, but after his first defeat, and second defeat, and third defeat…

The king is dead, long live the king!

Bench: De Gea, Scholes, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Giggs, Januzaj.

West Brom team: Foster; Jones, McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell; Yacob, Mulumbu; Dorrans, Morrison, Brunt; Long.

The Peoples Person looks at our chances of signing Fellaini.

The Guardian talks about Fergie’s future rule at the club.

Gary Neville writes for The Daily Mail about David Beckham.

Voting closes tomorrow. Please help RoM win the EPL Talk award for best blog.

Both West Brom and Manchester United players will form a guard of honour ahead of kick-off today for Sir Alex Ferguson, who is celebrating his 1500th and final game as our manager. Today is a day we will look back on and talk about for the rest of our lives. Today is the last day in the job for the greatest football manager of all time. When we reflect on this era, this magical period in the club’s history, we will remember exactly how we are feeling today.

At our last home game last weekend and at the parade on Monday, I felt like I’d said my goodbyes and was ready to move on. They talk about the different stages of bereavement and that’s what our fanbase has been going through since rumours began last week. Denial, shock, anger… acceptance. We are losing the influence of the man that has made our lives immeasurably better, and only United fans can truly understand how that feels. So, after thinking I was alright with his retirement (I didn’t even cry last Sunday, much to my surprise!) I am feeling fairly overwhelmed by it today.

I celebrated Rio’s late winner wildly last weekend. It’s funny that, even when there’s nothing to play for, you can’t help but thoroughly enjoy watching United win. It was important that we won Ferguson’s last game at Old Trafford though, and it’s important that we win his last game today.

“1500 games – it’s incredible,” he said in his last press conference. “West Brom have done fantastically, every team wants to win their last home game and obviously I want to win this one more than last week’s even.”

For that reason, you imagine the manager will go with a strong team today. The boss has confirmed that Lindegaard will play in goal and that Jones and Evans will play in the centre of defence. Rafael isn’t available and Smalling and Powell have been ruled out after having operations. Wayne Rooney has been given permission not to travel with the squad as his wife is expected to give birth any day now, but after being left out of the squad last weekend and the manager confirming he had requested to leave the club again, it’s unlikely he would have gone even if his wife wasn’t pregnant.

Hopefully we’ll see Robin van Persie and Chicharito start up front together, with the latter playing nowhere near as much as he should have done this season, although it would also be great to see Danny Welbeck get some minutes. Ferguson has claimed he might play some of the younger players today. By that he could mean Tom Cleverley ahead of Paul Scholes, or hopefully he’s going to give our Reserve Team Player of the Year, Adnan Januzaj, his début at some point during the game.

So, here we go. An end of an era. Come on United!

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Sir Bobby Charlton is an obvious candidate. Our all-time highest goal scorer who lived through the tragedy of Munich and emerged the other side as a fantastic player who helped us become the first English European Champions, before dedicating most of his retirement to the club. Eric Cantona was the catalyst behind our first title in 26 years, who was a fantastic player, understood completely what our club was all about and whose legacy can be best viewed in the “kids” he inspired who later went on to win the Treble. Ryan Giggs came through the ranks of the club as a United fan, went on to play more games for the club than anyone else, has won a ridiculous 13 titles, and as he approaches is 40, is still capable of competing at the highest level. For me, there’s three examples of players you can’t doubt deserve the title “Manchester United legend”, and there are many more, but people tend to disagree about a lot of them. Roy Keane was probably the best captain we ever had but things turned sour when he left the club and comes across as fairly bitter when talking about us. Is he still a legend? Cristiano Ronaldo scored 42 goals in 47 games in the second most successful season in the club’s entire history, was named the best player in the world, and contributed to numerous trophies. But his dream was to play for Real Madrid and he left us before he even reached his peak, so is he a legend? We can go around in circles debating it all day. We’ve had so many fantastic players that it can be fairly difficult to separate one from another.

Another interesting candidate for legendary status at this club is David Beckham. His dad was a massive red and took him to games as a kid, he was a mascot for our game against West Ham when he was 11-years-old, he joined the club when he was just 14-years-old and went on to make almost 400 appearances and won 10 trophies. Gary Neville, who is red through and through, claimed that having his first conversations with a teenage Beckham made him realise that people not from Manchester could love the club as much as he did. But is he a United legend though?

Chris Waddle hilariously claimed this week that Beckham wouldn’t even rank amongst the top 1000 players in the Premier League. It’s difficult to even dignify that with a response. It would be like saying Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Peter Schmeichel or Tony Adams weren’t amongst the best. Beckham was a fantastic footballer, truly gifted, but then also tirelessly dedicated to improving. He was fortunate enough to come through with like-minded players, fans of the club, who were all desperate to be good enough to play for United. So whatever ability he had naturally he added to with his determination to be the best and hard work to make sure that he got there.

The beginning

On the opening day of the 1995-1996 season, when Alan Hansen told us we wouldn’t win anything with kids after a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa, it was Beckham who scored our only goal. That was his stepping stone. He finished the season with a winners medal for the Premier League and FA Cup, having played 90 minutes against Liverpool at Wembley. The following season he was voted the Sir Matt Busby player of the year by the fans and the PFA young player of the year by his fellow professionals, and won the league again.

Then came Beckham’s most productive league campaign so far, with him missing just one game and scoring nine goals. It was his first season wearing our #7 shirt after Cantona’s retirement. “I can remember David Beckham when Eric left,” Albert Morgan has said since. “He was desperate for that number 7 shirt, absolutely desperate.” However, whilst it was a good season for Beckham personally, it ended with Arsenal winning the double and one of the defining moments of his career, as he was sent off for England at the World Cup. He was a national hate figure and they were burning effigies of him in the capital, but as you would expect, our fans rallied behind him. He has since spoken out several times about the difference our support made to him.

“Everyone knows that’s what got me through what happened against Argentina, with my friends, my family and the manager,” he said in 2009. “I will never forget that. In my eyes they are the best in the world, without a doubt.”

We were rewarded for our loyalty when he went on to play an integral part in our Treble success the season that followed. It would be hard to single out just one person that year but Beckham was certainly up there with our best performers. That was really where things took off for Beckham. He wasn’t just that kid who scored from his own half, he was a European Champion, and on his way to becoming one of the best players in the world. Oh, and he also married some pop star that summer too.

The change

The following season he was named the highest earning English footballer (on a £27,000-a-week contract at United) as he brought in £1.4m a year. He won another league title and in the summer he was linked with moves to a whole host of top European club, including Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid and Inter Milan. He came second behind Barcelona and Brazil’s Rivaldo in the FIFA World Player of the Year award.

Just before Christmas, Beckham hinted for the first time that he may be open to a move away from the club. “If I’m happy and my family are happy then I will stay where I am, if things go well with the club and the contract,” he said. “But you don’t know. You can never say about that. So I will have to wait and see over the next few months.”

In the February, Beckham was named England captain by manager Sven Goran-Eriksson but the following month was dropped by Ferguson for the game against Sturm Graz after a string of below par performances.

Having already won the title in April, United had a difficult game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals. Beckham picked up a silly yellow card for a foul on Stefan Effenberg and would miss the second leg.

“David on his best form would be a massive loss and, of course, I would prefer it if he was available,” said Ferguson. “But he has not been playing as well as we would have liked. He knows that. All great players have little spells when they are not at their best. He is going through it now.”

The road to Madrid

Ferguson is often blamed for Beckham’s departure from the club, with the misconception being that the player was forced out of the club after his relationship with the manager broke down. Some even say that the club sold him against his wishes, that a deal was done with Barcelona and Real Madrid behind Beckham’s back. People think that a fall out with Ferguson, which resulted in our manager kicking a boot at his head, paved the way for his exit, but Beckham’s journey away from United started long before that.

A year and a half before the boot incident, contract negotiations with Beckham began. He was deemed the 2nd best player in the world again, this time behind Real Madrid and Portugal’s Luis Figo. As a self proclaimed United fan, at the height of his career with the club he loved, there surely shouldn’t have been any stumbling blocks with his contract talks. But there were. Whilst club and player had agreed on a weekly wage, Beckham was not prepared to settle for what we’d offered him for image rights. “It’s not the salary that’s a problem,” he said. “It’s just the image rights that needed a little perking.”

In February 2002, The Telegraph reported that Beckham had already gone through 22 unsuccessful meetings with in the club in regards to his contract. “We will always try and re-sign any player at Man United and David is no different,” Ferguson said at the time. “Hopefully in the next two weeks we will get that sorted. The offer is there, it’s a good one and David knows where he is. I’ve spoken to him many times. I think when David was left out of the team it was an area of worry for him. Nobody likes to be left out but it happened for the best reason and David’s form now is because we rested him – if we hadn’t you would not see that form today.”

A few months later, the club and player finally came to an agreement, with the BBC reporting that his new contract represented a 300% increase on what he was earning before. His total earnings were expected to be around £11m a year.

So, did we have our happy ending? Not quite. Terry Byrne, Beckham’s friend and former manager, has since spoken to Sports Illustrated to explain what was going on behind the scenes.

In June 2002, Beckham called Byrne to tell him that he would be leaving his management group, SFX, and offered him the job. There was one condition though: he would have to move to Spain.

“David then called me and said, ‘Look, I’m going to split with SFX. Would you consider you and your wife moving? I’m going to go to Real Madrid next summer and leave Manchester United. Would you come and live in Spain and just run my world?’ I said, ‘OK, fine.’ And I can say this with my hand on my heart, I never took a penny of commission out of David. Ever. I took the same salary I was on at Watford. I said, ‘Look, it’s not about money. I’ll help you for a period, get your life sorted back out and then there will be a time when I step away.’ I managed him for five years. Lived in Spain, loved it. There came a point where the England players asked me to manage them too. David wanted me to move to L.A., and my wife and I didn’t want to. Our baby had just been born, so I said to David, ‘Now is the right time for me to step away.’ So I chose at that point to extricate myself from it. I still speak to David regularly, and he’ll ask my advice on whatever. But the friendship comes first and will always come first before business.”

This throws a spanner in the works for those claiming that Beckham was forced out the following year after the boot incident.

The exit

Four months before moving to Spain, Beckham was linked heavily with a move to Real Madrid in the press. “Any player would be honoured to be spoken about by Real Madrid,” he said when asked about the speculation. “They have great players and a great tradition.”

Whilst on holiday with his family Beckham told the Los Angeles Times, “I’ve never said that I’d never move away from Manchester, and I’ve never said that I’d end my career there.” This contradicts the comments Beckham has made since, insisting that if he’d had his way, he would have stayed at the club forever.

Barcelona put in an offer for him which was accepted and made public by the club, much the apparent disappointment of the player. “David is very disappointed and surprised to learn of this statement and has no plans to meet Mr Laporta or his representatives.” Beckham didn’t want to go to Barcelona, he wanted to go to Real Madrid. It wasn’t long before they then put in a reasonable offer too which was also accepted by United.

It took Beckham two years to negotiate his last contract with United and if we are to believe Beckham hadn’t been speaking to Real Madrid behind our back, it took him a matter of days to agree a salary and image rights with them. And that was that.

When the news was confirmed, Beckham released a statement which thanked the manager and the fans, but also explained why he had chosen to leave. “I know that I will always regret it later in life if I had turned down the chance to play at another great club like Real Madrid, which also has world-class players,” he said.

Beckham was then unveiled at the Bernabeu and talked of how much the move meant to him. “Football is everything to me and joining Real Madrid is a dream come true,” he said. “Hala Madrid!”

Even if you were to believe Beckham didn’t want to leave the club, whilst I wouldn’t expect him to take to the mic and claim he would prefer to be at United, he hardly sounds like a player desperate to stay in Manchester for the rest of his career.

The re-writing of history

In October 2006, Beckham reflected on the damaged relationship he now had with Ferguson, suggesting that his decision to leave the club could have played a part.

“I have known Ferguson since I was 12 years old and we have had one or two problems in that time,” he said. “Maybe he didn’t want me to leave.”

Again, for those claiming Beckham was sold against his wishes, his own remarks on what happened don’t add up. But I can’t be too critical of people who stand by the claim that the player was forced out, as 2006 was probably the last time Beckham has been honest about what went on. He has since attempted to re-write history whenever he can.

“I always said that if I’d had my choice, I would never have left Manchester United because that was where I always wanted to start my career and finish it,” Beckham said in 2009. “Then I had to look at it in a different way. I’d been there over 10 years and been really successful and had amazing times and made so many great friends.”

“I’d have loved to have stayed at Manchester United for my whole career and never gone anywhere else,” he said in January 2010.

“When you are a Manchester United player and a Manchester United fan you never want to play for any other club,” he said the following month.

These statement don’t quite fit with the things he had said earlier though and certainly contradict the comments made by his friend Byrne. Maybe it’s cynical to suggest that this is a calculated move on Beckham’s part, king of successful PR, to try and build up his legendary status with the fans. Maybe the truth is Beckham really does feel that way about the club, that if he had his chance again he would see out his career here, but that he was a different person in a different position back then. Ten years have gone by and it’s easier to see things through rose-tinted specs now, so maybe he’s forgotten the ambition and drive he felt to leave the club and test himself elsewhere. Maybe he’s forgotten about the pressures of a demanding wife and the awkwardness of a deteriorating relationship with the manager. Maybe he’s forgotten what it felt like just to be one of the better-known Manchester United players compared to the global superstar he is today. Who knows. But what we do know is that Beckham had his say in what happened to his career and moving to Real Madrid was certainly not something the club or manager made him do against his will.

Legend?

Bearing that in mind then, given how much stick Wayne Rooney is getting for handing in a transfer request, is it accurate to describe Beckham as a legend? Whilst Rooney’s situation isn’t comparable with any other United player, given he has now formally requested to leave the club twice, we surely can’t paint him as a Judas for wanting leave, whilst putting Beckham on a pedestal with Charlton and Giggs.

It certainly isn’t my place to determine whether Beckham can be classed as a legend at United or not, but it is important that when people are weighing up the decision for themselves that they are aware of the full picture, not just the version Beckham has painted in the past few years.

Nothing can take away what a brilliant player he was and how much he was loved by our fans when he was at the club though. I do find myself irritated by his constant need to describe himself as a huge fan, but I suppose I am being unfair to him there. It’s nice that a fella who has been all over the place, playing football for the biggest clubs in the world, still holds us in such high regard. I suppose it’s the lack of honesty that is grating though. He wants people to see him as someone that was forced out of his boyhood club against his wishes, rather than someone who was drawn to Real Madrid for all the reasons you can imagine a player is drawn to them for.

Beckham’s retirement sees another of his generation bite the dust though, with our Fergie Fledglings dropping like flies, but you would have to argue he’s had one of the best careers of all time. He’s won titles and trophies all over the world which is a remarkable achievement, particular for an Englishman, given they so rarely leave our shores to play football. And genuinely, I am pleased for him. He’ll never be on the same level as Giggs, Solskjaer, Scholes or Cantona for me, but I’d feel daft if I couldn’t show him respect for all the brilliant things he did when he played for our club. Red legend? Not for me. But a truly brilliant player who we were fortunate to see in our shirt for ten years. Football legend? Definitely.