It did feel a little bit like the old Manchester United coming out to pay its respects to Kath Phipps at Manchester Cathedral.

Sir Alex Ferguson spoke about first encountering her at the Cliff training ground in 1986. Current player Jonny Evans said he knew her when he arrived at the club from Northern Ireland as a schoolboy due to the amount of books and magazines he had read about the club.

Roy Keane was there. So too Peter Schmeichel. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer flew in from Norway. Michael Carrick took time out from his busy schedule as manager of Middlesbrough.

And David Beckham was there as well. The former England skipper went to see Phipps in her last days, to say a personal goodbye to a woman who devoted virtually her entire life to Manchester United. She was still busying herself at the training ground into last year, even though she was frail and a shadow of the bubbly, fun character she had been.

Ruben Amorim and United’s first-team squad sat quietly through a service that included the revered football anthem Abide With Me.

But it was not just the star names. It was the ordinary people at United. Many of whom have left the club, some of whom have been among those made redundant in the purge that has followed Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s arrival. All turned out because they loved Phipps. She was always there with a cuddle, with her ‘look-on-the-bright-side’ approach to life.

It was pointed out this ‘club mentality’ is at odds with the cost-cutting that has been undertaken. That Phipps was the very embodiment of a ‘United person’, loyal, defiant, always willing to help – Ferguson recounted Phipps had offered to go see his own wife Cathy in hospital in Manchester, not long after the Ferguson family had moved south from Aberdeen, even though the pair had never actually met.

Ferguson repaid that kindness in spades. When Phipps’ wife died, it was Ferguson who ensured a taxi would be provided to ensure Phipps – a non-driver – could still get to work and back.

He spoke to the media about Phipps at the foot of the Cathedral steps before he headed off:

“She was a special person,” said the Scot. “I’m glad the players turned out. She would really have appreciated that.”