Lady Cathy Ferguson changed the course of history at Manchester United

It is rare the wife of a football manager is serenaded on matchday but Lady Cathy Ferguson was worthy of that privilege.

In 2002, Manchester United supporters' rendition of "Every single one of us loves Alex Ferguson" briefly omitted Alex at the expense of Cathy. For it was she who woke her husband up from a nap and told him he was not retiring.

Sir Alex Ferguson had decided at the denouement of the 2000-01 season the following campaign would be his last. On February 5 2002, United announced Ferguson would be staying on.

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"It was really Cathy's idea," Ferguson admitted at the time. "If she hadn't come up with it and the boys (their sons, Darren, Mark and Jason) hadn't given full support, I wouldn't have considered a change of mind.

"But I do have to confess that maybe it was an idea I was hoping deep down she would come up with."

There would be six more Premier League titles, three League Cups, an FA Cup, a Champions League and a Club World Cup across the next 11 years for United. Ferguson's epoch ended at 26-and-a-half garlanded years, rather than 15-and-a-half.

When Ferguson eventually headed upstairs in 2013, the catalyst was the death of Lady Cathy's sister, Bridget, in December 2012.

"She has lost her best friend, her sister," Ferguson explained after United's coronation day as Premier League Champions in May 2013. "She’s isolated a lot now, and I think I owe her a lot of my own time."

The Fergusons attended the 2014 Academy Award ceremony in Los Angeles as Lady Cathy had longed to go but the football calendar prevented her.

She was by her husband's side to pull the tarpaulin off Ferguson's