Southend manager Steve Tilson and assistant Paul Brush spent a day with the champions at their Carrington training base.

"It was fantastic and certainly a worthwhile thing for us both to do," Tilson told his club's official website. "We watched them training at close proximity and then Sir Alex sat down to have lunch with us.

"For him to do that and allow us to watch the training and see the facilities they have is just superb and we're very grateful to him for letting us do it. It was all very interesting and we got to talk to everyone that was there, including the fitness staff which was very useful.

"It was in areas like that we learnt a lot and, although our facilities aren't anywhere near the same, there are still things we can try and use at Southend which I'm sure will help us next season."