There are approximately five stages of grief and one Man United was still at stage one last night: Denial!

Alex Ferguson may have hung up the hairdryer, but one drunken fan called 999 last night demanding to hear the former manager's soothing words about the "crime" that occurred at the hands of Sunderland in the League Cup last night.

Obviously the telephone operator was not best placed to handle the query and you can listen to the full conversation below: 

Greater Manchester police addressed the "crime" on their Facebook page:

“Last night, at approximately 10.30pm a man from the Crumpsall area of north Manchester rang 999 in a drunken state demanding to speak to Sir Alex Ferguson about last night’s result.

“Obviously, it can be a sad and depressing moment when your football team loses a game, however can we all please remember that 999 is to be used for emergencies only.

“For any other police related enquiries that are not an emergency, you can ring 101."