A regional sports reporter’s new book has turned back Fergie Time to unearth the secrets behind “how the best was won” for the UK’s legendary football boss.

Michael Grant, chief football writer at The Herald newspaper in Glasgow, lays bare the story behind one of the little known periods of former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s stellar career.

In Fergie Rises: How Britain’s Greatest Football Manager Was Made At Aberdeen, the journalist recalls the day in 1978 when a hot-headed, rebellious young boss arrived at Pittodrie – after being sacked by St Mirren.

The tome charts Sir Alex’s eight-year revolution that saw the Dons and their ambitious young manager knock the Old Firm off their perch, taste victory in Europe for the first time, and electrify Scottish football.

When Ferguson finally left the club for Manchester United, in 1986, the footall world recognised he had pulled one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the game’s history.

The book lets us peep into the world which shaped the most successful football manager Britain has ever seen. By the time he stepped down at the end of the 2013 season, Sir Alex had he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League and two Champions League titles – in fact twice as many as his nearest rival.

The author’s newspaper career has a ‘winning’ pedigree to it as well.

A football writer for more than two decades, Michael has covered Scottish club and international football all over the world, including three World Cups and three European Championships.

He began his journalism in Inverness before moving to the Press & Journal in Aberdeen and then, in 1999, becoming chief football correspondent of The Sunday Herald. He took his current position at The Herald five years ago.

Michael is already an acclaimed author – having co-written The Management: Scotland’s Great Football Bosses.

Two former players from the Ferguson era who figure in the work – Alex McLeish and Willie Miller – joined Michael last night at the book launch at Waterstones in Glasgow’s famous Sauchiehall Street.