In Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, Sir Alex Ferguson sat with a group of coaches the night before Manchester United played Real Madrid in the 2017 UEFA Super Cup.
Ferguson was no longer manager of his club but that doesn’t mean he didn’t feel the pang of lost opportunities. ‘I don’t know how we missed the boy Alli,’ he mused. ‘He was right there in front of us. What a mistake.’
Ferguson was talking on the night in August 2014 when Dele Alli, then 18, played in an MK Dons team that beat Louis van Gaal’s United 4-0 in the League Cup.