Former Aberdeen captain Alex McLeish has revealed the attention to detail which has made Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson such a success.

Recalling in the Daily Mail, Big Eck wrote: "I'll give you an example from the day when I turned-out for Aberdeen's youth team in a match under the lights at Pittodrie against Celtic.

"He wasn't in charge that night, but as manager he had come down to watch.

"The game had gone badly. We were three-down at half-time. He raced from the stands to the dressing-room and launched into us.

"He turned to one of the boys, a team-mate of mine called Malky Thomson - and said: 'Tomorrow son, first thing, you are going for an eye test.'

"All the boys looked at each other, we thought he was taking the mickey. But Malky had been misjudging the flight of the ball in the floodlights.

"Sir Alex had called it. He was spot on. Malky went for that eye test. Turned out that my pal needed contact lenses. Oh, and we won the match 5-3."