West Bromwich Albion side had qualified for the UEFA Cup three times in four seasons with top-five league finishes, reaching the quarter-finals on one occasion. Atkinson insisted in his footballing biography published in 1999 that Edwards was the best chairman he worked for, and he accepted the offer, and soon after this appointment, Edwards made the funds available for Atkinson to bring in Albion's midfielder Bryan Robson for a national record fee of £1.5 million. This national record would remain unbroken by English clubs for six years, and Robson went on to be one of the club's greatest ever players. Atkinson guided United to two FA Cup glories (the first in 1983 and the second in 1985) but in the 1985–86 season United faded away to finish fourth after a 10-match winning start to the league season, and speculation about his future as manager was mounting. In 1983, Edwards had begun looking for younger colleagues to introduce to the club's board. Sir Matt Busby had been appointed president of the club and Michael Edelson was appointed to replace him on the board by Edwards, followed in June 1984 by the addition of club solicitor Maurice Watkins and club legend Bobby Charlton. In the summer of 1986, Edwards generated £2.3 million (a record fee involving a British club, though Robson's record set in 1981 had yet to be broken by a British club) from the sale of striker Mark Hughes to Barcelona of Spain. On 4 November 1986, United were floundering in the bottom half of the top division and that night were eliminated from the Football League Cup with a 4–1 defeat at Southampton. The following day, the four-man board convened in Edwards's Old Trafford office and decided a change of manager had to be made. The unanimous decision was to see if Alex Ferguson, then manager of Aberdeen F.C. in the Scottish league was available. According to Ferguson's autobiography, he received a telephone call in his office at Pittodrie from a man with a Scottish accent. He subsequently discovered that this was Manchester United director Michael Edelson who asked Ferguson if he would be interested in meeting Edwards. Following a short discussion, Edwards made contact with Aberdeen chairman Dick Donald and the four-man United board drove immediately to meet Ferguson halfway between the two cities in Glasgow. Negotiations were quickly concluded and 72 hours later Ferguson was installed as