Leading performance poet Tony Walsh (Longfella) has written a poem in honour of Sir Alex Ferguson – and read it out at the renaming of a road in tribute to the former Manchester United manager.

United fan Tony delivered his epic tribute, ‘The Govan Boy: A Poem For Sir Alex Ferguson’, at a ceremony at the renamed Sir Alex Ferguson Way, which leads to the club’s Old Trafford stadium.

Ferguson, aged 71, retired earlier this year as Manchester United’s manager after 26 years and dozens of trophies.  He has also been awarded the freedom of Trafford.

The poem includes references to the “young gods” killed in the Munich air disaster, and the brilliant but wayward George Best. It praises Ferguson for the way “the way he fired their bellies, the way he dried their hair” – a reference to the former manager’s famous “hairdryer treatment” which often saw United turn around a game in the second half, after they had looked like losing it.  

There are references to the famous “Fergie time”, when the team famously snatched victories very late in games: “Those extra times, those special times … the way that football teaches life, that every second counts”, and to European triumphs, “from the Red Square to the Ramblas”. In the poem Tony attributes the strength of Ferguson’s reputation to his tough Scottish upbringing in a Glasgow tenement - “made from grit and granite … forged by the Clyde”. 

A visibly moved Ferguson described the poem, which was featured on Sky Sports News,  as “absolutely brilliant”, and signed the original copy of the poem. Tony said he had worked “day and night” on it to get it ready in time for the ceremony.

You can hear the poem here. 

PHOTOGRAPH: MIKE BLACK