I was the chairman who brought Alex to St Mirren in 1974 and people forget that we actually struggled for the first two years he was in charge. He had a very bad start. But Alex gradually got things together, basically because he brought so many good, young players to the club. The likes of Frank McGarvey, Bobby Reid and Billy Stark meant we had a young team but a successful one which got us out of the old First Division and into the Premier League.

We stayed in the Premier League in season 1977-78 and that was a big achievement. Crowds had been as low as 1,000 when Alex took over; in his last season we sometimes had gates of 20,000 plus.

Alex did a great job for St Mirren. Nobody at the club worked harder than he did during the time he was there and everyone was very grateful for what he achieved. I got on well with Alex at the time, we were good friends and I have seen him a few times since. We have still been on good terms and I have been delighted at how well he has done. But in 1978 it was a simple case of myself, as chairman, doing what was best for the football club. I had no option but to sack him in the end.

Four days before he eventually left I knew perfectly well that he had told all the staff that he was moving to Aberdeen. A famous reporter of the time, Jim Rodger of the Daily Mirror, told us that Alex had asked at least one member of the squad to go to Aberdeen with him.

It was a clear breach of contract on his part; he was still under contract to St Mirren and Aberdeen had not contacted us to discuss compensation. There were various other stories at the time, such as one about Alex wanting players to receive tax-free expenses, but that was not the real issue. The issue was St Mirren being destabilised because the manager wanted to leave.

In the end the case went to an industrial tribunal because Alex thought he had been sacked unfairly and St Mirren won hands down, on every count relating to his breach of contract; the minutes of that meeting show you that.

I do regret it. As I said we got on very well. It was just a pity Aberdeen had not come out and said they wanted our manager because we could then have spoken about compensation and done things amicably.

Then what happened

Todd, now 87, is St Mirren's honorary president and still a regular at Love Street. Ferguson took over at Aberdeen the following month and joined Manchester United in 1986.