Union role helped me be a leader

SIR Alex Ferguson said the skills he forged as a trade union official helped him become one of the greatest football managers of all time.

- 

The 82-year-old former Manchester United boss said he struggled academically after being kept back a year at school.

But Fergie, brought up in Glasgow's Govan, found his "voice" when he started as an apprentice toolmaker at a Hillington factory. He became a shop steward aged 19 and led a strike over pay in the early 60s.