But John Gilligan has stepped into the role of a figurehead and I’m told he and George Letham have been taking a really hands on approach to guiding the club through the recent upheaval.
Ferguson and his suited friends sat in staunch silence waiting for the moment to pass, the final whistle to blow and the chance to disappear into the bowels of the stadium.
I’m sure no one will be more frustrated about it than chairman John Bennett but I must say take my hat off to him for the way he’s gone about trying to address it.
Before I walked down those steps I’d pull my shoulders back, puff out my chest and keep my head held high at all times. I was there to represent my club. I had the badge on the chest of my tracksuit top and I couldn’t have been any more proud…
I look at some of the players inside Clement’s dressing room and I see players who I’d have been more than happy to stand beside in the trenches at a moment like that.
By this time next week Ferguson and the other bears will have a good idea whether this summer’s Revolution is the real thing or about to go the same way as last summer’s imaginative signing policy undertaken by Giovanni van Bronckhorst.