"?Ryan Giggs has admitted that Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to retire from the post of Manchester United at the end of the 2012/13 season did come as a 'shock' to him.
Ferguson was manager of United for 27 years, taking over in 1986 and Giggs was part of the fabled Class of '92, which still receives substantial media attention even in 2016.
'All the things that Liverpool had failed to do after the 1970s and 1980s, United had done' https://t.co/NGHUToXSxT pic.twitter.com/Rf8PYqjktv
"He called me to tell me the evening before the club made the announcement," Giggs writes for the "?Telegraph.
"Although we talked a lot at Carrington it would be rare for his name to flash up on my phone out of hours and my first instinct in seeing it do so that evening was, "?Oh God, what have I done wrong?' Even at the age of 39."
"When I finished talking to him that evening my overriding emotion was a great sadness. He had been part of my life for so long. It hit me at different stages over the next few months.
"When we went back for pre-season and he was not there, and then at Christmas. He was such a massive part of all our lives, organising, nurturing, driving us."
Old Trafford and Sir Alex Ferguson applaud Robin Van Persie's goal vs Manchester United ? pic.twitter.com/AfBaEVi3ii
Ferguson left the managerial role at the club (though he retains a backstage input) in 2013, and Manchester United have failed to win the Premier League title in any season since.
The struggles of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal to do it have illustrated to many just what a legendary manager Ferguson must have been; the Scot won thirteen of them. United have won the league seven times in their history without him.
Giggs would go on to struggle under Moyes for game time as a player-coach, and finds himself away from Old Trafford this year in any capacity for the first time since he was fourteen years old.