Sir Alex Ferguson was among the mouners at Graham Taylor's funeral on February 1 and he shared his memories of the Watford legend in United Review, the matchday programme for the Hornets' 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford on Saturday.

With the permission of Manchester United, this is what the former Red Devils boss wrote of a "top-flight rival who became a friend":

"When someone dies, it’s quite often the case that so many plaudits come out that some of them aren’t completely factual. In the case of Graham Taylor, however, everything that has been said about him, both as a man and a manager, has been completely true. He was an excellent manager and a truly good person as well.

That much was clear from my very first experience of Graham back in 1984, when I was manager of Aberdeen and Graham was at Watford for the first time. We tried to sign Mo Johnston, who had been doing really well at Vicarage Road, but Celtic were after him at the same time and Graham accepted their offer. He was good enough to ring me up and have a chat about the transfer, and I’ve never forgotten that.

A couple of years later, in my first season at United, he got back in touch and said: ‘I’d just like you to know that John Barnes’s contract is up at the end of the season. He’ll be leaving and I think he’s a Manchester United player.’ Straight away, I dug out the reports we already had on John Barnes. Quite amazingly, we only had two, even though he’d already played for England and had that great game against Brazil, but we had a big problem. We’d already done a deal with Jesper Olsen to sign a new contract and he, of course, played in the same position. So our hands were tied a little bit, but I went down to see Barnes play anyway against Norwich.

I remember it vividly; it was a Friday night in December 1986 at Vicarage Road and I think fate played a big part that night, because it became the night when Steve Bruce really caught my attention. He was absolutely outstanding throughout the game and looked a fantastic talent. My interest in signing him started that night and, ironically enough, he made his debut for United exactly a year later. That game was also the first time I ever saw Mike Phelan play and, of course, Mike also ended up coming to join us at Old Trafford. So even though we didn’t end up signing John Barnes, Graham had a big influence on my early transfers as United manager.

Watford Observer:

Sir Alex Ferguson arrives for Graham Taylor's funeral.

It would be selling Graham short to just salute his character, though, because he was a fantastic football manager. When you think about his career, it’s absolutely remarkable that he became manager of Lincoln City when he was 28. I took the job at East Stirlingshire when I was just 32, and I thought that was some kind of record, but if it was, then Graham shattered it! To manage a club like Lincoln at that age, and then get promotion, is an astonishing achievement. It says a lot, though, that Graham’s feats with Lincoln were quickly overshadowed by his work at Watford.

What a remarkable story that was, whereby he came into contact with Elton John, who had not long taken over at Vicarage Road. Graham earned Elton’s faith and trust and took Watford from the Fourth Division up to the First Division. Just six seasons after taking charge, he led them to second in the First Division in 1982/83, and a year later they competed in the UEFA Cup and were runners-up to Everton in the FA Cup final. It’s an absolutely remarkable record.

The impact on Watford was unavoidably huge when he left after 10 seasons to join Aston Villa, and Watford were relegated straight away, at the same time that Graham was bringing Villa back up to the top flight from the Second Division. Two years on, he was a hair’s breadth away from pipping Liverpool to the title, and I’m afraid we stood in their way. Villa came to Old Trafford in mid-April well in the hunt for the title – if my memory serves me right then they would have gone top of the table with a win – but Mark Robins scored twice and we won 2-0.

That Villa team was really formidable at times, thanks in no small part to Graham’s management. Our old player Paul McGrath was probably the mainstay of that defence with his experience and ability. Graham took a chance with Paul, which other managers might not have done because we were letting him go, but he was fantastic and went on to play at Villa Park for about seven years! How Graham utilised him and managed him was just fantastic.

It wasn’t long before he became England manager, and even then he remained hugely helpful to anybody and everybody. In taking the England job he automatically became the president of the League Managers Association and he played a great role in that. He was very positive and proactive with it, so he was a manager who was there to help a lot of other managers, even though he was in a very difficult job himself. If anybody went to him for advice or help then he would always do everything he could to help.

I always remember Graham coming into my office the night of that game when we beat them 2-0, and he came in before the game and had a cup of tea with me. He always had that distinctive camel coat on and I told him to take it off, but he told me he was quite comfortable with it on – it was probably his lucky coat!

The managers who were well established, the mainstays of management like Bobby Robson, Lawrie McMenemey, Jimmy Smith and people like that, they were always great company in your office, it was always a pleasure to see them, and Graham belongs in that company. Apart from LMA meetings, you only really see each other when you play each other, and it’s a moment when you can sit and relax after the game and share your thoughts with other managers – not even necessarily about the game itself, just your thoughts on management and how the game in general is going. Doing that with Graham was invariably a pleasure.

I’ll put it this way: you always fall out with somebody in management. You don’t always agree. You don’t necessarily have arguments with them, but you always have differences of opinions. That’s a fact of the job. You protect your club and the other managers protect their club, and everybody looks out for their own interests, so there are bound to be clashes, but Graham didn’t have fall outs. That’s where the plaudits and praise for Graham Taylor as a person and a manager are 100 per cent true. He was a really splendid fellow, one of the good guys, and he will be sorely missed."