Legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson has led tributes to a sports journalist who died aged 69.

Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex praised Glenn Gibbons, previously chief football writer at The Scotsman, as “a journalist of substance” following his death on Monday.

Glenn, pictured left, joined the The Scotsman in 1999 and won Scottish Sports Journalist of the Year in 2000.

He had become became close friends with Sir Alex, who also managed Aberdeen, after meeting in a professional capacity and later helped him fact check his autobiography.

Sir Alex said: “He had a wonderful, lucid writing style but everything he wrote was underpinned by an unwavering accuracy.

“His great knowledge of football was complemented by a fearlessness. He always expressed what he believed with courage and style.

“He was a marvellous chronicler of Scottish football and beyond.

“He had a passion for the game and his knowledge was unsurpassed.”

Glenn began his career at DC Thomson in Glasgow in the 1960s before working for the Scottish Daily Mail and the Guardian.

He retired in 2009 he continued to write a weekly Saturday column for The Scotsman.  He had been seriously ill for some months before his death.

Donald Walker, assistant editor and former sports editor of The Scotsman, said: “Few could match Glenn’s eloquence and authority in the sports pages of the Scottish press, and his passing marks the loss of one of football’s best-read commentators.

“His experience, judgment and professionalism shone through during his ten years as chief football writer with The Scotsman, and his weekly column was required reading. We will miss him enormously, and our thoughts are with his family.”

Glenn is survived by his wife Mary, son Michael and daughter Samantha.