Manchester United fans mourn Alex Ferguson's retirement

Young people living in shadow of Old Trafford 'have never known a world without Alex Ferguson', say supporters
Link to video: Old Trafford in mourning: Man Utd fans on Ferguson's retirement

It is often said that Manchester United's fans are more likely to hail from Surrey or Szechuan than round the corner in Stretford. But the club looms large over the redbrick terraces of this working-class area of Greater Manchester.

"I can't believe it!" wailed postwoman Lisa Walker, born and bred minutes from Old Trafford. "People keep rushing out of their houses, hands on their heads in disbelief asking me if I've heard the news," said the 32-year-old as she delivered letters in Gorse Hill.

"We're in shock. There's kids round here, 20 years old, they've never known a world without Alex Ferguson managing Manchester United. Being a red, I've lived with glory my whole life."

Felcjan Krause, 92, became a red 63 years ago when he emigrated from Poland. He used to go to the games – "Half a crown it would cost me in the Busby era" – but not any more: "I can't afford it, and my sight isn't what it was." Krause remembered when Ferguson took over. "He'd not been here a year and they were about to sack him. But they won the game and that was that."

In Tattitude on Chester Road, five minutes' walk from the ground, the tattoo artist Jordon Davis-Campbell, 24, reflected on what he called the "end of an era". He grew up in Moss Side, in a house he says was equidistant from Old Trafford and Maine Road, but chose United when he was six, largely because "I liked the colour of the shirts better".

He got hooked in 1996, "when Giggs, Beckham, Cantona, Schmeichel were playing", and as a young lad would train in the Manchester United soccer schools. Tattitude occasionally brands United fans for life, said Davis-Campbell, though "getting a tattoo of the badge has gone out of fashion. Now we do bespoke designs for people, like a red devil fighting with the moon."

Choosing United has shaped his life. "Football is a massive thing in Manchester. You meet someone, first thing you ask is: are you a red or a blue? City fans say we're not a Manchester club because we're based in Trafford [a borough of Greater Manchester rather than the city itself]. We say they're from Stockport."

It is common to hear grumbles that United lost its heart when the Glazers bought the club, saddling it with debt and listing it on the New York stock exchange. Davis-Campbell says he was sad when the shirts stopped saying "football club" on the front, but he is proud of United's international appeal. "City fans are always saying: 'Your fans are all Londoners or Chinese people or the Irish,' but I think it just shows how big United is.

"And look at what City are trying to do now – exactly the same thing."

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