SIR Alex Ferguson has revealed one of football’s finest careers might have been over virtually before it had begun.

Fifty years ago Ferguson played his first match for Queen‘s Park, starting a life in the game which saw him star most notably at Dunfermline and Rangers as a player and Aberdeen as a manager before moving south to Manchester United where he has earned iconic status in 22 remarkable seasons.

Yet Ferguson’s initial career path was as a toolmaker on the Glasgow shipyards. And, as he looked back on an amazing career, the 66-year-old admitted he could easily have emigrated to Canada.

“I was on the point of emigrating to be with my father’s family,” said Ferguson.

“I could have taken up tool-making there because it was a great trade in Canada. I was a part-time player at St Johnstone at the time, so the incentive of leaving was quite obvious.

“Canada is a great country but then things changed.”

In Ferguson’s case ’things’ turned out to be a diagnosis of bowel cancer for his father and a subsequent operation which effectively ended his own working life on the Glasgow shipyards and concentrated his son’s mind on becoming a professional to ensure he could support his family.

“It is hard to say whether it has gone quickly,” he reflected.

“How do you judge time? As you get older the days seem to go a bit quicker but 50 years is a long time.”

Ferguson has never forgotten his debut and a half-time team-talk delivered by Queen‘s Park trainer Jackie Gardiner.

“Queen‘s Park were all amateurs, with a lot of doctors and teachers, so people thought they would be namby-pamby players,” recalled the United boss.

“But they were as tough as nails, every single one of them. That was a big lesson for me.

“I was not doing that well in that first game and the manager asked me what was wrong. I complained a member of the opposition team had bit me. He just said ’bite him back’.

“It was an indication of what life was like at Queen‘s Park. You did not sidestep players you went through them.

“He was a very competitive man but all the Queen‘s Park players were like that. It was a great upbringing for me.

“I was only 16 and they looked after me. They made sure I got the bus home at night. They were great and it was a great time.”

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