The sight of Sir Alex Ferguson back in the stands watching Manchester United again is heart-warming after his brain haemorrhage shocked football back in May.
Ferguson looked happy, healthy and able to enjoy his retirement once again - but many of his fellow managerial greats in British football have not been so fortunate.
Here are the stories of how they fared after their times in the big jobs came to an end.
SIR MATT BUSBY
(Manchester United 1945-69, 1970-71, 1972)
He built the legend of Manchester United by producing two great teams; The Busby Babes, many of whom perished in the 1958 Munich air disaster, and the Best-Law-Charlton side of the 1960s which became the first English club to lift the European Cup.
Busby's retirement was relatively long and contented. He didn't suffer from drink or dementia, but there were initial problems with United over finance and his presence at Old Trafford was seen as detrimental to the succession when he initially retired in 1969, aged 60.
Busby, who incidentally has the honour of being the only football personality to be named in a Beatles song, kept an office at Old Trafford and new title, general manager.
Director Martin Edwards, later to be chairman, said the club took his recommendations to appoint Wilf McGuinness and then Frank O'Farrell as managers, neither of whom were successful.
On both occasions Busby had to return as caretaker-manager after his proteges had been sacked. But when Tommy Docherty was appointed in late-1972 to rebuild United, Busby wasn't in the loop.
As a thank you to his services, Busby was given the United club shop as a reward only for the family to later relinquish control as it was seen as standing in the way of the club's commercial potential. Busby was frustrated his son, Sandy, wasn't given any power at the club while the son of chairman Louis Edwards, Martin Edwards, also went on to become chairman.
Busby remained close to the club however, a regular at home and away games. He was famous enough for his car to be surrounded by hostile Leeds fans at one match at Elland Road.
He continued to live in Sale, close to Old Trafford, moving in with his daughter Sheena later in life. He'd join the rest of Manchester's social elite, the footballers, wealthy businessman and Coronation Street actors at the city's most sought-after nightspots, including the Playboy Casino, tame by today's standards though the waitresses' bunny outfits were considered risque back then.
When a fellow Scot, Alex Ferguson, arrived in 1986, he made a big fuss of Busby, and made sure he saw him regularly, asking advice and taking him out for dinner. Busby was at Old Trafford in 1993, the year before he died, to see United lift their first league title since his time.
BILL SHANKLY
(Carlisle 1949-51, Grimsby 1951-54, Workington 1954-55, Huddersfield 1956-59, Liverpool 1959-74)
Credited with creating the modern Liverpool, Shankly took the team from the old Second Division to champions of England and set the foundations from which they'd go on to dominate Europe.
His retirement aged 60 was announced after Liverpool had won the 1974 FA Cup and it stunned the city. It was a decision he was later to deeply regret as premature.
Shankly was a football obsessive and without a day job, found himself at a loose end. He'd remain a frequent visitor to the club's Melwood training ground, turning up in full training kit, where former players would still refer to him as 'Boss'.
It became awkward for his successor, Bob Paisley, and the club chairman John Smith politely requested Shanks stay away. It hurt him deeply.
Life was very different for retired grandees back in the 1970s, the celebrity circus and coterie of advisers and agents just didn't exist. Liverpool didn't offer him a director's role at the club, revenge some felt for the demands he placed on them as manager. Shankly's view of club directors was similar to Clough - that they knew very little.
Shankly was restricted to hosting his own talk show on local radio for a short period and playing five-a-sides with other senior citizens. When Liverpool no longer welcomed him at their place, he'd pop next door to Everton's training ground for a cup of tea and a chat, even helping out with club juniors, unpaid.
He took up advisory roles at lower league clubs not too far from home, Tranmere and Wrexham. He'd pop in to local sports centres to help out, anything to fill the football void.
He was a popular local figure, very much a man of the people, and it was nothing unusual for children to ring on the doorbell of his normal residential house close to Anfield and get an autograph. He'd always be chased for a quote by the growing football media.
He did release a book about his life and career in 1976, entitled Shankly: My Story, and enjoyed a promotional tour. In one famous interview on Thames TV, Shankly was bright, alert and engaged - too young to retire in other words.
His brother died of a heart attack aged 53 and Shankly was conscious of staying fit after retirement; he trained, didn't drink or smoke, ate the right things. 'I want to die a healthy man,' he said, a typical Shanklyism.
Unfortunately, family genetics meant he did die of heart attack, aged 68 in 1981. In death, he got the recognition from Liverpool Football Club he deserved and supporters from around the world make a pilgrimage these days to the Shankly Gates outside Anfield.
SIR ALF RAMSEY
(Ipswich 1955-63, England 1963-74, Birmingham 1977-78)
It's hard to believe that England's only World Cup-winning manager spent the final 25 years of his life out of the game bar a brief spell of six months as Birmingham City manager and a season 1979/80 as technical director with Greek side Panathanaikos.
Instead, after being sacked by The FA for failing to qualify for the 1974 World Cup finals in West Germany, Ramsey was largely shunned by the game, with a ghostwritten newspaper column his main contribution to the game.
He felt betrayed by the FA, who shunned him in a similar way to Ramsey's captain, Bobby Moore, and led a reclusive life in Ipswich, where he'd once remarkably led the town's small football club to the First Division championship before getting the England job, and making the weekly trip to London by train to fulfil his weekly media obligation.
Sadly, Ramsey suffered from Alzheimers in later life, struggling on a modest pension before his death in 1999.
BOB PAISLEY
(Liverpool 1974-83)
Prior to Sir Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley was the most successful manager in English football. His trophy haul included three European Cups - a total that has still never been bettered.
Paisley, a down-to-earth Geordie who had served his managerial apprenticeship under Bill Shankly, called it a day in 1983 at the age of 64, bowing out with the First Division title and League Cup. As a sign of respect, Liverpool captain Graeme Souness asked Paisley to lead his team up the famous Wembley steps to lift the trophy.
Retirement post-Liverpool wasn't as rewarding for Paisley as it might have been. He lived for 13 more years but the grip of dementia took an increasing toll on his quality of life in later years.
Soon after he left Liverpool there were job offers, including the Israeli national team, that were politely declined. But when the Republic of Ireland came calling in 1986, he considered it because of the close connections between Liverpool and Ireland.
Famously, he won the first ballot for the job but ultimately lost out to Jack Charlton.
Back at Anfield, the appointment of a novice manager, Kenny Dalglish, in 1985 led to Paisley being given a job as adviser with his own office at the club, and he joined the board. Dalglish was his own man so Paisley's role was more ambassadorial than executive. He travelled on occasions to represent the club.
When Liverpool were going through a bad spell in early 1989, he was quoted in a newspaper as having a go at the players. When the story went to print, bylined to a non-football reporter, Paisley was mortified at breaching the club code of keeping opinions in-house.
He was asked to attend a Liverpool board meeting and offered his resignation. In retrospect, maybe Paisley's condition had a part to play in him being uncharacteristically indiscreet. When he was no longer a director due to his health, he became club vice-president as an acknowledgement of his achievements.
More happily, Paisley was able to indulge in his passion for horse racing after retirement. Like Ferguson in later years, he befriended those involved in the sport, though he never went as far as owning his own stock. Friends thought he liked the sport of kings at least as much as football.
His best pals in the racing game were Yorkshire trainer Frank Carr, who he would happily visit and help out unpaid, and jockey and trainer Frankie Durr.
He also had an active family life, with wife Jessie, three children and seven grand-children. At his funeral a few miles south of Anfield, the four Liverpool managers who succeeded him - Joe Fagan, Dalglish, Souness and Roy Evans - all attended.
DON REVIE
(Leeds United 1961-74, England 1974-77, UAE 1977-80, Al-Nasr 1980-84, Al-Ahly 1984-85)
Revie was still only his mid-fifties when he returned to England after eight controversial years abroad in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. Retirement was thrust upon him rather than being voluntary, the stigma of leaving the England job in 1977 to sign a contract in the UAE counted against him.
He was a leading contender to succeed Alan Mullery at QPR in 1986, suggesting he wanted to continue working, but after being overlooked for Jim Smith, he accepted his time in football was at an end.
He went to live in Scotland, where his wife Elsie came from, but was cruelly robbed of a happy retirement when he contracted incurable motor neurone disease in 1987. A tribute game was held at Elland Road the following year, with a frail Revie attending in a wheelchair. By the end, his weight had halved to eight stone and he could communicate only through blinking. He died aged 61 in 1989 on the same day that Arsenal won the league title at Anfield.
His funeral in Scotland was attended by many of his friends and former players in the game, from Johnny Giles, one of the fulcrums of his great Leeds team, to commentator Brian Moore. Former England forward Kevin Keegan flew from his home in Spain to attend but the FA notably didn't send any representatives. In 2012, a bronze statue of Revie was unveiled at Elland Road.
BRIAN CLOUGH
(Hartlepool 1965-67, Derby 1967-73, Brighton 1973-74, Leeds 1974, Nottingham Forest 1977-93)
The most charismatic and outspoken manager of his generation, Clough won the First Division title with two provincial clubs, Derby and Nottingham Forest, and even more improbably won back-to-back European Cups with Forest in 1979 and 1980.
However, the end of his career was a sad one and he was persuaded to step down in 1993, still only 58, with Forest relegated and amid strong rumours of the manager's heavy drinking.
Alcohol, so often an achilles heel for many of those involved in English football, would go on to affect his retirement.
A devoted family man, Clough finally stopped drinking after an appeal from his grandson Stephen, but stomach cancer was diagnosed in 2003 during a long operation to transplant his liver. He kept news about the cancer quiet from the public but died the following year.
Clough actively courted publicity during his two decades at the top of management but seemed happy to keep a low profile after his sad exit from centre-stage.
'It's a smashing thought to wake up in the morning and realise you're only going to do what you want to,' he said, though observers noted how pale and gaunt he began to look.
After years of friends begging him to tackle his drink problem, he was finally taken to a clinic in 1996 as he became aware of his alcoholism.
He continued to live in the picturesque Derbyshire village of Quarndon where he'd be a frequent sight walking his dog around the local cricket pitch, gritting his teeth whenever his knees started to play up.
By his own admission, alcohol reduced the time spent on hobbies he enjoyed, including cooking - he'd make soups and stews - and gardening. He had a love of planting trees, particularly conifers.
He'd make a point of listening to his great friend, Geoffrey Boycott whenever he commentated on an England Test match and liked watching tennis on the television with wife Barbara, a big fan of the sport.
Gradually Clough felt comfortable in returning to the public arena. Forest invited him back to the opening of the new Brian Clough Stand and the unveiling of a special plaque in 1999, accompanied by his proud son Nigel and grandson Stephen, and in 2001 he was awarded the OBE, quipping it stood for Old Big 'Ead. Nottingham gave him the Freedom of the City.
He was proud to have a strong family unit; he and Barbara had three children, and they savoured their last year together when they knew, but the rest of the world didn't, that he was dying.
SIR ALEX FERGUSON
(East Stirling 1974, St Mirren 1974-78, Aberdeen 1978-86, Scotland 1985-86, Manchester United 1986-2013)
Until a brain haemorrhage in May this year, Ferguson quipped he was busier in retirement than he'd been as manager of Manchester United, where he'd won a record 13 league titles including three league and cup doubles, and two Champions Leagues, one of which completed the Treble in 1999.
When Ferguson left Old Trafford in 2013, he took his long-time secretary with him and she'd regularly go to his home in Wilmslow to go through the dozens of offers and invitations he received every week.
Always an early riser as a manager, Ferguson still liked to be up early to help organise his life and kept a small personal office in the town.
He gave talks to the Harvard Business School and other business forums around the world, a motivational speech to the European Ryder Cup team on the eve of battle at Gleneagles in 2014, chaired the UEFA Elite Coaches' forum in Geneva, and still managed to watch most United games home and away, even in Europe.
His love of football remained undimmed. When United had a blank weekend because of an international break last season, he took his brother-in-law to Macclesfield Town, then in the National League, to enjoy hospitality in the directors' box and some 'proper' football, even bumping into a friend from the horse racing world while he was there.
Everything changed of course when Fergie was rushed to hospital in May. But the prayers of the football world were answered, he recovered brilliantly and in September was given a standing ovation when he returned for his first United game since the illness.
ARSENE WENGER
(Nancy 1984-87, Monaco 1987-94, Nagoya Grampus Eight 1995-96, Arsenal 1996-2018)
Younger than two current Premier League managers (Roy Hodgson and Neil Warnock), one senses 69-year-old Wenger doesn't see retirement as a permanent state, having been effectively shown the door by Arsenal at the end of last season.
Wenger spent the summer on different luxury holidays, something he'd been unable to do during his pressured time as a manager, and this season has remained based at his home in Totteridge, north London waiting for the phone to ring.
The really top job offer hasn't materialised so far and if that remains the case in the new year, don't be surprised to see him take an opportunity somewhere like Japan.
Not that Wenger has been reclusive. In October, he helped out his former player Kanu by aggreing to be a celebrity manager at a charity game hosted by the Nigerian in Barnet. A fortnight later, he went one better, playing for an hour in a charity match in France alongside World Cup winners Didier Deschamps, Christian Karembeu and Laurent Blanc.
Wenger has even returned once to the Emirates, keeping a low profile for Arsenal's home game against Leicester, accompanied by a bodyguard just in case there was too much commotion. He achieved his goal of watching his beloved Gunners without the fanfare of an announcement.
He's turned down opportunities from British broadcasters to comment on Arsenal but has travelled to Qatar to be a guest pundit there.
'I feel rested and ready to work again,' said Wenger recently. Don't bet against it.
