Ferguson memoir: I'll be at new stadium 'in person or in spirit'

📰 Sir Alex Ferguson, 84, opens up on United's new stadium, death and his Guardiola regret in a new memoir. 📌 Key points 📖 Ferguson's new book, Games of My Life, came out on 8 October. 🏟️ He vows to be at the new stadium opening "in person or in spirit". 🕊️ He says calmly that he is not afraid of dying. 🍷 He regrets not having dinner with Guardiola earlier in 2012. ⚽ The book is built around 21 matches that shaped his life. 📝 What happened 📖 In the memoir, published by Macmillan, Ferguson looks back on 21 games that defined his career and life. It also covers his recovery from a brain haemorrhage in 2018 and the death of his wife Cathy in October 2023 after 57 years of marriage. 🏟️ He writes that when United announced plans for a new stadium to replace Old Trafford, he found himself wondering whether he would be around to celebrate its opening. The £2bn, 100,000-seat ground is expected to take five to six years, but he writes: "I know I'll be at the ceremony one way or another – in person or in spirit." 🕊️ "I'm not one to dwell on what my Maker has in store for me, nor am I afraid of dying," he says. 🍷 He also recalls dinner with Guardiola in New York in 2012, when the Spaniard had all but agreed to join Bayern Munich. "If I could rewind time, we would have dined some months earlier, I would have poured plenty of Tignanello and I would have tried my hardest to convince him that his future lay in Manchester," he writes. Ferguson had not yet decided to retire then, but made the decision after the death of Cathy's sister in December 2012. 📊 By the numbers • Ferguson's age: 84 • Matches covered in the book: 21 • New stadium: £2bn, 100,000 seats • Expected build time: five to six years 🔭 Why it matters These are the words of United's greatest manager, and the near-miss over Guardiola reads all the more painfully given the club's path since he left. United host Tottenham at Old Trafford on 10 October.