Sir Alex Ferguson said (at the thanksgiving service at Durham Cathedral): "It was not a question, it was a demand. 'You're not retiring are you?'.
"'Of course I'm not'. Not after he'd said that.
"A man like that could have gone on and on.
"He never forgot that. He always knew his roots.
"Fantastic that he would do that, not to change his entire life.
"It's a great talent that, not to change, to be the same person.
"He fought his disease with incredible courage and resilience and showed you what his background was.
"He never lost that enthusiasm.
"That enthusiasm, you just can't explain it, special people have got it.
"I think I speak for almost everyone here in football terms, he influenced me but what made him so special was he influenced people who didn't know him. They admired his courage, his dignity, his enthusiasm.
"It has been one of the privileges of my life to have met him and to have been enthused by him.
"He influenced me then and he's always influenced me."