When Sir Alex Ferguson finally allowed himself a quiet moment behind a closed office door at Carrington, the weight of a decision three decades in the making came crashing down. He sat at his desk and wept. "I knew then it was over," he writes in his new book, Games of My Life. "I'd not be taking this team to Wembley or European games, and I'd not be sending a team out to win a cup or a league."

The moment retirement became real

Ferguson had kept his plans to step down tightly guarded, determined not to repeat the turmoil caused by a premature announcement in 2001. The decision itself crystallised in October 2012, following the death of Bridget, the sister of his wife Cathy. On the surface, nothing appeared to change for the watching public — but privately, everything had shifted.

Only when chief executive David Gill visited Ferguson on a Sunday afternoon in February 2013, to share his own plans to retire, did Ferguson reveal his intentions to anyone beyond his immediate family. He held himself together while informing his coaching staff and players at Carrington. The moment the office door closed, he could no longer hold back.

His final match in management came on May 19, 2013 — a chaotic 5-5 draw at West Bromwich Albion that, in any other circumstances, would have drawn a fierce dressing-room response. Instead, there were celebrations: the season had brought a Premier League title, Paul Scholes had played his 718th and final professional game, and Ferguson had managed his last.

He left for France shortly afterwards, returning to a hotel the family had visited for years. At check-in, the concierge noted that Ferguson would no longer need the special messages he had always arranged — advance copies of the Premier League fixture list. "For the coming season it was no longer my responsibility," Ferguson writes, "and I could concentrate on enjoying my first free summer since I was a boy."

How Dion Dublin's broken leg led to Eric Cantona

In Games of My Life, Ferguson also revisits a far less celebrated match — a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace on September 2, 1992 — as the unlikely starting point for Manchester United's first league title since 1967.

That afternoon, a routine challenge from Crystal Palace's Eric Young left Dion Dublin with a broken fibula and a dislocated ankle, ruling him out for six months. Ferguson had signed Dublin to address the goalscoring problems that had allowed Leeds United to claim the 1991-92 title, after failing in his pursuit of Alan Shearer — snapped up by Blackburn Rovers for £3.6 million — and David Hirst of Sheffield Wednesday.

The search resumed. Shearer and Hirst were targeted again; Peter Beardsley was considered while he was out of favour at Everton. None of it led anywhere. Then, almost by accident, Eric Cantona emerged from a conversation about a potential Leeds United bid for Denis Irwin.

"Like other natural leaders, Eric must have been born a rebel," Ferguson writes. "He was a man capable of playing as a lone striker or as a deep-lying forward. He was also someone who relished long conversations about football and an arm around the shoulder."

The impact was immediate. Manchester United lost the league only twice more after Cantona arrived, ending a 26-year title drought. Ferguson credits him as the foundation for four Premier League titles in five years — the sole exception being 1994-95, when Cantona was banned following his altercation with a Crystal Palace supporter. "That fan and that decision cost us the league," Ferguson states bluntly.

As for Dublin, he made a handful of further appearances before being sold. Ferguson takes satisfaction in the striker's subsequent career — but acknowledges, as Dublin himself has, that his defining contribution to Manchester United was inadvertently delivering Cantona to Old Trafford.

A life beyond the dugout

The book also reveals lesser-known chapters from Ferguson's life. He grew up a Rangers fan in a cramped two-bedroom flat in Govan, Glasgow — sharing a room with his brother while his parents slept in the kitchen — despite his father supporting Celtic. As a young player at St Johnstone, a hat-trick against Rangers earned him his father's long-withheld approval.

During his early managerial years at East Stirlingshire and St Mirren, Ferguson simultaneously ran two pubs, having purchased one outright at the age of 32 as a source of steady income.