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One of the most important conversations in the history of Manchester United took place in the bar of the Royal Lancaster Hotel on the evening of May 12, 1990.

The FA Cup final against Crystal Palace had finished in a frantic 3-3 draw. There would be a replay on Thursday evening. Jim Leighton, the United goalkeeper, had endured a torrid afternoon.

His deputy, Les Sealey, watched the game from behind one of the goals, sat with the photographers. Sealey was a 32-year-old journeyman keeper, on loan from Luton. In the previous 13 months, he had played twice.

Now, he was at the bar when Sir Alex Ferguson walked over.

“Do you know your loan spell is up?” he asked Sealey.

“Yes I did.”

“Do you want to be involved?”

“Definitely, if the club wants me to be involved, I’ll help in any way I can.”

“Don’t worry,” the United manager replied, “You’ll be involved.”

Ferguson called the decision to replace a goalkeeper he had known for a decade, with whom he had won titles and a European trophy at Aberdeen, with someone he had barely worked with: “an animal instinct.” His time at Old Trafford was almost up. In three-and-a-half years, he had vastly outspent his predecessor, Ron Atkinson, and won nothing.

United finished 13th in 1990 after a season in which the chairman, Martin Edwards, had been assailed by supporters in the directors’ box at Old Trafford. During a 2-1 defeat to Palace in December, a supporter had reached into a carrier bag and pulled out a banner that seemed to sum up the Stretford End’s mood: “Ta-ra Fergie”. Leighton thought Ferguson had lost the dressing room. Edwards reflected that it would have been “very difficult” to see how his manager could have survived defeat at Wembley.

Had Sealey not kept a clean sheet in the replay, had Lee Martin not finished off a wonderfully worked move, Ferguson would have joined Dave Sexton as a manager who should have done great things at Old Trafford but somehow left trophy-less.

Of the candidates to succeed him, Bobby Robson had signed a contract with PSV Eindhoven once the World Cup in Italy was done. Graham Taylor, who had taken Aston Villa to second in the league, was bound for the FA. George Graham and Terry Venables were dug in at Arsenal and Tottenham. With two league titles at Everton, Howard Kendall had been seriously considered to replace Ferguson when Michael Knighton made his abortive takeover of United in the summer of 1989 but Kendall had joined Manchester City.

The likeliest candidate was the man who would have beaten Ferguson to the FA Cup. Steve Coppell was then just 35, a former United player – scouted by Jimmy Murphy, Matt Busby’s right-hand man. By now he would have promoted Palace to the big league and won the FA Cup. He was a university graduate whose teams played attractive football.

Six years later, Coppell did come to Manchester, where he found the atmosphere at Maine Road so toxic he resigned after 33 days. The boardroom at United was more stable. There is no reason to imagine Coppell would not have had some measure of success. In a pre-Premier League era, attendances were still the major source of revenue and even after a decade and a half of Merseyside dominance, Old Trafford’s were still bigger than anyone else’s.

Coppell, who excelled working with young footballers, would have inherited Ryan Giggs whom Ferguson had visited on his 14th birthday to snatch from under the noses of Manchester City, the club where he was training. He would have inherited the ‘Class of 92’ – David Beckham, the Neville brothers and Nicky Butt. Whether anyone else would have had the courage to throw them into action as quickly as Ferguson did, is open to question.

Some of Ferguson’s other great gambles, such as signing Eric Cantona, a man who had fallen out with every one of his previous managers, would probably not have happened. However, had he made a decent fist of United, Coppell, a former England international, may well have succeeded Graham Taylor in 1993. Bryan Robson, the man most of his teammates expected to take over from Ferguson, would have become manager of Manchester United years ahead of schedule. The newly enriched Blackburn and Newcastle would have fought over the league until the arrival of Arsene Wenger announced the long years of Arsenal’s dominance.

And what of Ferguson? There would always be a warm welcome at Aberdeen and the money at Glasgow Rangers would have been attractive but Ferguson’s time as a Rangers player had been unhappy. His wife, Cathy, was Catholic and he loathed the sectarianism at Ibrox. If he returned to his home city, it might have been to Celtic, where he would have transformed Parkhead while supporters serenaded him with choruses of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

This is an edited extract of On Days Like These: The Lost Memoir of a Goalkeeper by Tim Rich (Quercus Books, 2023). Available now.

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Manchester United look likely to be without £80m winger Antony for the FA Cup final showdown with neighbours Manchester City.

The Brazilian injured his ankle in United’s penultimate Premier League game of the season, the 4-1 win over Chelsea, eight days ago.

By last weekend, Erik ten Hag appeared optimistic that the 23-year-old was winning his race to be fit for the derby final.

But Antony has not progressed as had been hoped this week and ten Hag now rates him as extremely doubtful to take part in the Wembley clash.

“Unlikely, but he still has a chance but a really small chance,” said ten Hag.

“He didn’t make progress so he still has a chance but unlikely he is available.”

With Antony Martial already ruled out with a thigh injury, it means Ten Hag looks set to be without two potential starters for the meeting with Pep Guardiola’s treble chasers.

Ten Hag could hand a dramatic start to teenage winger Alejandro Garnacho to replace Antony against the Premier League champions.

But his more obvious choice would be to start with Casemiro and Fred in holding midfield roles and move Christian Eriksen into the number 10 position, with Jadon Sancho and Bruno Fernandes out wide and Marcus Rashford up front.

“These questions [arise] so many times from [the] absence of players,” he said. “It is about the players who are available and many times we were successful.

“We have a good squad and from the good squad we make a good team.”

Regardless of his selection, Ten Hag knows United supporters are desperate for his side to stop City from matching the Red Devils’ 1999 team by winning the treble.

“We want to win a cup, it is not about stopping them, it is about winning the cup in a great opportunity,” he said.

“I think they do a very good job, they play very good football so they deserve it. Of course, I look at our opponents but we look to ourselves and you have to see where you are as a club and from there you have to make progress.

“And I think we did last season, we are in a good direction and we have our opportunity in the summer to make new targets, new goals.

“But the longer term they will stay the same. We want to restore Man United, but they will stay the same.”

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Manchester United have held advanced talks with England midfielder Mason Mount and are confident they can broker a deal with Chelsea.

Erik ten Hag wants Mount to add dynamism and creativity to his midfield and it is an indication of the club’s intentions this summer that they have moved quickly to start negotiations.

Having held talks with Mount’s representatives recently, the Red Devils have ascertained that Mount is keen on a move to Old Trafford and have an agreement on his personal terms.

But there is still a considerable difference in valuation between Chelsea and Manchester United, who have stolen a march on rivals for his signing including Liverpool and Arsenal.

Mount is valued at more than £60m by Chelsea despite having just a year left on his contract. Attempts to broker a new deal – which, as i revealed last year, have been ongoing for 12 months – have reached a dead end and the Stamford Bridge hierarchy are prepared to listen to offers.

Mount, too, is understood to believe that a fresh start would be for the best. He has been assessing options and has taken a methodical view of his future, identifying Manchester United as a club on the rise who can offer him a chance to cement his starting role for England.

Manchester United are also assessing striker targets, having assembled a list of alternatives to Harry Kane.

Roma’s Tammy Abraham is one option who has been monitored all season and is available this summer for £67m.

Atalanta and Denmark forward Rasmus Hojlund has emerged as a priority target. The 20-year-old scored eight goals in Serie A this season and is viewed as a player with huge potential.

The recruitment activity illustrates that Manchester United are proceeding with transfer plans despite the continued uncertainty and inactivity around the takeover.

There have been fears that the Glazers’ indecision around the future of the club might hit summer plans at Old Trafford.

But the word in recruitment circles is that Manchester United have begun making enquiries and are speaking to executives and agents about potential targets.

Sources close to the interested parties have indicated that they are still waiting for Raine group to contact them.

It is more than a fortnight since Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Al-Thani made a fresh bid for 100 per cent control of the club and a source told i that “it will all come down to whether the Glazers will sell”.

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Eventually, all roads, well the major ones, lead to London. On Saturday it is a good job they do.

Manchester will empty this weekend as tens of thousands of Mancunians from both sides of the city descend on the capital for a first-ever derby FA Cup final between the old foes, flanked by supporters from all over the country, utilising various modes of transport, but almost all of the four-wheeled kind.

Industrial action by the RMT and Aslef means there are no trains out of Manchester on the day of the final or the day before, with other northern cities operating a skeleton and long sold-out service.

Any vessel will do, as long as Manchester United and Manchester City fans get there.

“The club made a big song and dance about subsidising coaches to take us down because of the strike, and then knocked £5 off. Yeah, cheers for that,” Jeff Gavin from Leigh, Greater Manchester tells i.

“So we organised our own minibus. I’m not paying £50 to sit on a coach for six hours after we get battered by City. At least the train would have only been two.”

Between both clubs, 160 official coaches will depart from various locations across Greater Manchester, with departure points separated after intervention from the police.

All transportation has been told which service stations to stop at and where to drop supporters off near Wembley to avoid a repeat of clashes between United and City fans prior to the 2011 FA Cup semi-final.

Supporters going down in the car have also been told where they can and cannot stop, such is the concern from both clubs.

“It has taken so much planning,” Joe Liddell from Cheadle, Greater Manchester, tells i.

“With Istanbul to pay for [for the Champions League final], I didn’t need having to pay for a hotel in London the night before the final. But we didn’t want to risk the roads in the morning of the match. It better be worth it.”

While the coaches will be slow and perhaps not the most comfortable, at least that is an option for Manchester-based supporters. Many fans from other parts of the country who are not part of a supporters’ club – something that is much less common nowadays – have been left with car travel as the only option.

“I am going down with Henry Winter,” Russ Kelly, from Lincoln tells i.

“It is a generous offer from him but I am sure he will get some entertainment out of it. The car is split between City and United fans. The strikes almost ruined it but we found a way.”

The Times’ chief football writer put out a tweet to offer places in his car for people local to him in Stamford, Lincolnshire on the morning of the match, due to the problems so many were having getting there, but he had to quickly turn off his replies as he filled the car in no time and was inundated with requests.

Difficult situations bring the most resourceful to life. Spotting a gap in the market, Will Line sprung into action and advertised the app he helped create, Staxy, that normally provides students at various universities with carpooling options to get from accommodation to campus, to supporters looking to club together for Saturday’s final.

“We asked United supporters at their match in Bournemouth a few weeks ago if they had sorted transport and so many hadn’t and were looking for options,” Lines tells i.

“We then contacted several social media fan accounts from both teams, saying we would offer our app to fans driving down and willing to offer places in their car or pay for a seat in a car, for free. We are football fans too and wanted to help.

“Soon we had 1,200 downloads of the app and fans started getting together to head down. This is something we will look to continue to do in the future. Trains aren’t always reliable even when there is no strike!”

The venue was never going to be changed. Changing the date would not have worked, as the strike would just have been moved to maintain levels of disruption.

Supporters have had no choice. Road travel it is. One way or another, however, those wanting to see their team in the first-ever Manchester derby in a FA Cup final will get there. By any means.

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Newcastle United will spend “as much as they can” this summer while complying with Financial Fair Play limits to build a team capable of balancing the demands of the Champions League with competing for domestic honours.

CEO Darren Eales says Newcastle will “build” for next season but that recruitment will be balanced with bringing in the right characters who won’t disrupt the team’s chemistry.

Speaking at the end of season True Faith podcast talk-in on Monday, Eales said the Magpies were in “good hands” with director of football Dan Ashworth and “unbelievable” Eddie Howe. And he promised that the club would not “rest on their laurels” after finishing in the top four.

i understands that preliminary budget meetings were held before last weekend’s game at Chelsea. The club’s hand has been significantly strengthened in the transfer window but it is wage demands of their top targets that could present a challenge – Newcastle’s wage bill has already increased significantly since the 2021 takeover and now needs commercial revenue to catch up to allow them to compete with teams offering the most competitive salaries.

Newcastle are looking to sign a central midfielder and are also keen on Leicester‘s James Maddison and Nice’s Khephren Thuram. As i reported on Monday, they are also monitoring the availability of Everton’s Amadou Onana.

The club’s record in the transfer market has been impressive over the last three transfer windows and the broad philosophy will stay the same. Eales said recruitment would be “methodical”.

“We’ve got to savour this moment because we’ve got to the Champions League,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean we want to rest on our laurels, we’re going to build for next year, but it’s really important when we build that team that we bring in the right characters, the right people that fit.

“We’ve all seen at other football clubs it isn’t just the amount of money you spend, it’s how you spend it. The weekend game [at Chelsea] is a perfect example of that.

“The club is in safe hands with Eddie [Howe] and Dan [Ashworth] in terms of knowing what it is we’re looking for.

“The reality is we’re always going to spend what we can under Financial Fair Play and that’s a great thing. I can say hand on heart the club will always be doing its best to get to where we want to get to.

“But we’ve got to make sure we do it methodically and in a way that’s sustainable.

“It’s unbelievable to see what Eddie Howe has done with the squad, how he’s galvanised them. We’ve got a great pair of hands there with Eddie, he’s just unbelievable.”

While Newcastle’s spending has been beefed up by qualifying for the Champions League, it’s understood the club won’t be tempted into selling Bruno Guimaraes – who has been linked with a move to Real Madrid. Liverpool have also been credited with an interest.

Being in the Champions League next season protects them from having to sell key assets. Newcastle are understood be in talks with Guimaraes about a new contract.

Asked about qualifying for the Champions League, Eales said: “It’s pretty remarkable.

“I think if you’d have asked us at the start of the season if we’d have had this spot, we were just looking for progression.”

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Soccer Aid is back for the 12th time this month, and as always will pitch celebrities and football legends against each other in the classic England vs World XI format.

The Unicef event was created by Robbie Williams in 2006, and last year raised a record-breaking £15.6m for the charity, which is working in 190 countries and works to stop preventable diseases spreading throughout communities, using money raised on vaccines and other treatments.

A number of familiar faces will return this year, including the likes of Usain Bolt, who captains the World XI, and Sir Mo Farah, who will play for England.

Former pros in the line-ups include Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Roberto Carlos, Francesco Totti and Gabriel Batistuta.

When is Soccer Aid 2023?

Soccer Aid returns on Sunday 11 June with the action kicking off at Old Trafford, Manchester at 7.30pm.

You can watch it live on ITV or online on the ITVX, with the build up starting an hour earlier.

Who is playing for England?

The following celebrities and former players are confirmed to be in the England squad:

• Jill Scott (C)
• David James
• Paddy McGuinness
• Danny Dyer
• Gary Neville
• Gary Cahill
• Nicky Butt
• Paul Scholes
• Jack Wilshere
• Jermain Defoe
• Eni Aluko
• Karen Carney
• Scarlette Douglas
• Alex Brooker
• Chunkz
• Tom Grennan
• Sir Mo Farah
• Bugzy Malone
• Joel Corry
• Liam Payne
• Chunkz
• Asa Butterfield
• Tom Hiddleston

The management team will include Emma Hayes, Harry Redknapp, Vicky McClure, Stormzy and David Seaman.

Scott becomes the first woman to ever captain the England team in Soccer Aid history. The Lionesses legend said: “The Euros, The Jungle and now Soccer Aid for Unicef – it’s the holy trinity.

“I’ve won two of them, so just need Soccer Aid now to complete the treble. I think of all three, this might be the one I’m most nervous about though. Just look at the names involved.”

Who is playing for the World XI?

The following players are confirmed to be part of the World XI squad:

• Usain Bolt (C)
• Ben Foster
• Leon Edwards
• Patrice Evra
• Nani
• Maisie Adam
• Kaylyn Kyle
• Heather O’Reilly
• Mo Gilligan
• Lee Mack
• Steven Bartlett
• Kem Cetinay
• Noah Beck
• Roberto Carlos
• Gabriel Batistuta
• Tommy Fury
• Francesco Totti
• Niko
• Sam Claflin
• Hernan Crespo

The management team will be made up of new Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino, Robbie Keane, Martin Compston and Mel C.

How can I get tickets?

You can buy tickets via the official Soccer Aid website here.

Prices for children start at £10.50, £21 for adults and £100 for premium seats.

Wheelchair and ambulant disabled tickets are available in various areas of the stadium, and includes a personal assistant seat.

Who won last year?

The World XI won last year’s match – their fourth consecutive victory.

The game finished 2-2, with Mark Wright and Tom Grennan scoring for England, and Noah Beck and Ken Cetinay finding the net for the World XI.

In the shootout, Grennan and Russell Howard missed their penalties for England while the World XI scored all four of their attempts.

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Something that runs like a vein through women’s football is that everyone has a “The Roadblock” story, at least one (and there are usually more) occasion on which they were stuck knocking on a door that wouldn’t open.

For Kay Cossington, the Football Association’s women’s technical director, it came at school. She was selecting her GCSE options and wanted to do PE because she loved football. When it came to the practical classes, she was told that only dance and netball were open to her.

Football was in Cossington’s blood. As one of five children in a West Ham-mad, working class family in east London, she had a secret plan to absorb live sport.

Her Dad didn’t want her to experience the swearing, so she waited an hour, ran to Upton Park and was allowed to enter the ground with 10 minutes remaining when the gates opened for the early leavers.

The hard bit was running home twice as fast before her Dad got back. She spent her days on the concrete square outside the house, pretending to be Hoddle, Waddle or Gascoigne; there were no visible female football heroes for her then.

Cossington worked in finance with NatWest, combining it with playing for West Ham Ladies and taking the first steps in coaching. Joining children’s charity Barnardo’s opened her eyes to the idea that you could spend your professional life making a real difference, but it was when she got a full-time role at Millwall that she says her life changed.

“At the time I was already coaching the England Under-15 women’s team, but this was as a coach education officer,” Cossington says. “I remember going to the interview thinking ‘What am I doing?’. It was Millwall! But I got the job, and I took it.

“That was the great turning point of my life and one of its greatest moments. Everything I had learnt at Barnardo’s came to life there through the power of football. It taught me that you could do magical things with the sport I loved to change people’s lives and affect communities in a positive way. I became a first-team coach and technical director, and then the women’s game started to evolve.”

That evolution has felt a lot like revolution in real time. We are chatting 12 years to the day since the first ever WSL match, Arsenal vs Chelsea at Tooting & Mitcham United. For many years, England lost many of its brightest talents to the US college system, but that need no longer be the case. Now the WSL is arguably the strongest in the world with links to further and higher education programmes that allow for greater personal development.

Alongside the determination to never allow complacency to creep in, it’s worth taking the time to appreciate the pace of the transformation. It strikes that one of the most rewarding aspects of working in women’s football is that you get to make noticeable improvements in a short space of time.

“You do forget to allow yourself to appreciate what has been achieved. I love the next challenge, but the last 12 to 15 years have been an astonishing journey. It wasn’t that long since there were four or five of us as the only people working full-time in women’s football.

“Now, in the division at St George’s that looks after the women’s national teams, we have circa 65 people. That was unheard of before. In every aspect: growth, success, participation, performance – it has been exceptional.”

That peaked in the summer of 2022, when the Lionesses won the European Championship and went stratospheric. It was way ahead of schedule, as Cossington freely admits. Her role combines long-term strategy with focus on the immediate tournament cycles, and 2022 was a dream. Not only because of the fulfilment of the grand ambition, but because of the individuals involved.

“I was watching Alessia Russo, Chloe Kelly, Lauren Hemp, Leah Williamson – players with whom I had been a part of the journey, from selecting them at young age groups to seeing them represent their country and become the incredible people that they are,” she says.

“It’s so, so rewarding. I’m old enough to remember some of them when they were eight, nine, ten years of age. I remember the first time I saw them play.

“Every one of those players is a game-changer because they are authentic. It’s not just words, it’s definitive action: equal access, the work on pathways. They are genuinely interested and determined to make a difference.

“We are the guardians of the game, and it is our responsibility to leave it in a better place than we found it. That is how we will grow and create a sustainable model with the value of the women’s game at the heart of it. Having courage, being resilient, finding a way – these are the foundations of every element of the women’s game.”

The challenge for Cossington and her team is to oversee both a top-down and bottom-up approach. At the top, it is ensuring an elite performance environment so that the national teams can continue to compete to win tournaments, starting with this summer’s World Cup. At grassroots level, she uses the example of Millwall.

“I worked in two of the toughest boroughs in the country and I saw girls and young footballers in housing estates that were really talented. I was an England coach and I knew that I would never get them in that environment because the two worlds were just so far apart. My passion was always: how can I bring these worlds closer together to make those girls ready for performance sport, if that is their dream. It’s not enough to say ‘There is a club over there – go to it.’ That’s not enough.”

This is aided by an acceptance – no, an insistence – that the men’s and women’s game be treated differently. There is no copy-and-paste system or ethos. Within the FA, the technical division was split into two during the pandemic.

That allows for a sharing of information, but a separation of resources, control and, occasionally, strategy. The women’s technical division can recruit their own staff, make their own decisions, allocate their own budget.

“It’s the same sport, but a different game right now,” is how Cossington explains it. “We’re both teams of 11 players and we both want to score more than the opposition. But the journeys of the players getting to the world stage are uniquely different. So how we support that ecosystem is uniquely different too. One of the biggest things was getting everyone to understand that treating the men’s and the women’s game differently would have a positive outcome for both.”

There will always be challenges: talent identification, equal access within the education system, player development, mass participation. There are new ideas too: up to 70 Emerging Talent Centres that will be funded by the FA and Premier League for younger age groups and Professional Game Academies within the professional game for the 24-20 year-olds. It is both a daunting task and the most rewarding experience Cossington can imagine.

And there are wins, mileposts along the road that guide you along the way. During her first few years at the FA, Cossington became obsessed with discovering how other countries were making rapid progress: Germany, successful at every age group level and then seniors; the French and Spanish teams, successful at Under-17 and Under-19, but didn’t quite kick on thereafter; the power of the US, for obvious reasons; Japan, who went and won the World Cup.

She studied each of them intensely – participation, youth coaching, performance coaching, nutrition, education. The greatest compliment is how that shoe has changed feet.

“Over the last 12 months, I’m now getting the calls,” Cossington says and smiles as wide as the meeting room in which we are sitting. “That is the loveliest feeling in the world. I sit there and think ‘that was me searching and studying; now you’re ringing me’.

“That isn’t just because we won one tournament. That was merely the dream; we’re talking about the process. It’s because Leah Williamson went from a 13-year-old at an elite talent camp at Warwick University to becoming England captain. People want to know about a system that produces that quality and quantity and that age. And we’ll never stop improving.”

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