Sir Alex Ferguson statue unveiled at Pittodrie to mark his Aberdeen exploits

A “proud” Sir Alex Ferguson declared his achievements with Aberdeen as “almost a miracle” as he unveiled a statue in his honour at Pittodrie.

Ferguson was joined by a number of his former Dons players as the club showed off the bronze statue, which will be located outside the Richard Donald Stand and was created by Andy Edwards of Cornovii Edwards.

The sculpture was based on a photograph taken of Sir Alex at Easter Road in 1980 after a 5-0 win over Hibernian clinched the Scottish title, the first time in 15 years a club outside of Celtic and Rangers had won the championship.

Ferguson went on to win three titles in all plus four Scottish Cups, one League Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the European Super Cup during his spell in charge from 1978 to 1986.

During the ceremony, the 80-year-old said: “It’s a fantastic honour. You have to reflect on my life in that way because what we achieved here at Aberdeen was almost a miracle.

“When you try to put a light switch together, if you don’t get the wires in the right place it’s not going to work.

“I had the right material. They were all there. All they needed was the direction and desire and they showed that eventually. It was an absolutely brilliant period for me.

“My first year was hard for me. My father had cancer and I decided to do a stupid thing and go to a tribunal with St Mirren. These were learning lessons.

“Once I got that year over I knew where I was going, because I had the materials.

“The thing about human beings, some people want to go to the moon for their holidays and some want to go to the local park. These boys wanted to go to the moon.

“They had the desire to be better and better and that gave me the incentive to work with them and let them understand