"Sorry, lads, can't make it this weekend! I'm at a wedding."
While that sounds like a text message straight out of the Sunday League playbook, it was, in essence, what Sir Alex Ferguson told his team ahead of a highly-anticipated Manchester Derby on November 18, 2000. In a bizarre turn of events, the legendary Manchester United manager would be forced to miss one of his side’s biggest games of the 2000/01 season.
Ferguson had committed to being at his son, Jason’s, wedding during what was supposed to be an international break. But when the fixture list was shuffled, the Red Devils were pitted against their cross-city rivals for the first derby match in four years. That was the same day their boss was supposed to be in South Africa, and as the great Scot reaffirmed plenty of times throughout his glittering career, nothing was more important to him than family.
