Sir Alex Ferguson admits he had second thoughts about his retirement when learning chief executive David Gill would also be leaving Manchester United last season. With Gill informing Ferguson that he was also planning to step down, the Scot - who hand-picked Everton's David Moyes as his successor at United - has admitted in an interview with MUTV that Gill's plans forced him to question the timing of his own retirement.
"I had a meeting with David Gill in my house," Ferguson said. "He phoned me one lunchtime and said 'are you busy' - it was a Sunday - he said: 'I'd like to come over and speak to you.'
"He came over to talk to me about him retiring himself. I says: 'Christ I've made up my mind to retire myself at the end of the season.' That gave me a terrible quandary because you start thinking about leaving the club in the lurch.
"I said: 'I'll need to speak to Mr Glazer, to Joel.' And he organised for Joel to give me a call and I explained to him why I wanted to retire and why it was the right reasons and he accepted that.
"That was at the end of February. So that period was difficult. I was trying to keep it quiet and couldn't tell some members of my family."
