SIR Alex Ferguson is a one-off whose achievements will not be repeated, according to Alan Hodgkinson, who spent eight years working at Manchester United.

The 71-year-old Scot stunned the football world yesterday by announcing his 26-year spell in charge at Old Trafford will finish at the end of this season.

He will take up a dual role as director and ambassador after winning 38 trophies for the club, including 13 league titles and two Champions Leagues.

Hodgkinson, who retired as Oxford United’s goalkeeping coach last summer, is well placed to assess Ferguson’s impact after working part-time on Manchester United’s staff for most of the 1990s.

The 76-year-old was full of praise for his former employer.

“Sir Alex is a one-off. In today’s football, managers don’t stay very long,” he said.

“Sir Alex is not only a true professional, but a gentleman with it.

“You can get professionals who are very hard people to deal with, but he would listen to anything you had to say.

“He would take on your opinions and that’s good management and why he’s lasted as long as he has.

“He never has a piece of paper with him during games because he’s got a photographic memory and a football brain.

“I will be forever grateful that I have been in his company — he’s a great man.”

Hodgkinson enjoyed some of his best coaching years working at Old Trafford and helped discover Peter Schmeichel, who went on to become one of Ferguson’s top signings.

But the former England keeper admits he only took up the role because of the Scot’s persistence.

He said: “It was in the early 1990s when actually they had a few bad results and he was under a bit of pressure.

“I started working with the Scotland national team and did some courses up there.

“He saw a lecture I did and asked if I would come down.

“He was very persuasive, so I went there one afternoon and never looked back.”