"There are no hard feelings that he turned Manchester United down. Football is football. I'm sorry he didn't join us but there you are.
"Alan is the professionals' professional. The great thing about Alan is that he's had some serious injuries. It takes a lot of determination and will to get back from serious injuries but he has done it a number of times. That's the hallmark of someone who has great courage. This injury has just come at a bad time for him.
"In an era when the game is changing in terms of terminology of what a player is, he's a natural centre-forward in the tradition of the British game. The memory of Alan is his percentage of shots on target. If there was an opportunity to have a strike at goal he would get it on target. That stood him apart from other centre-forwards."