It all makes sense.
Now we know why Sir Alex couldn’t bring himself to face the media after Manchester United’s controversial Champions League exit to Real Madrid. It was because the anger and disappointment cut that bit deeper than usual in the knowledge that this was to be his last European adventure.
This final success he craved above all others, and couldn’t achieve, was the Ferguson equivalent to Sir Donald Bradman’s duck in his last innings to give him a career average of 99.9 rather than that perfect 100. Sport doesn’t do perfect, even for the greatest of the greats, which the Scot undoubtedly was.
Now we know why Fergie has described his United class of 2013 as his best ever team, when it patently is anything but. Understandably, he wants us to think that he is leaving at a time when both he and his club are at their peak.
And now we know why Jose Mourinho is willing to go back to Chelsea. United is the job he truly craves, but if there was ever to be a time for him to get it, it would be now. Now or never.
He could go to United via Real, but he won’t go there via Stamford Bridge.
Unless we’re all being sold a dummy George Best would be proud of, the word is United don’t fancy The Special One, his top-down management style and the controversy he brings that didn’t befit Real and wouldn’t befit United.
If I was a Glazer, I’d overlook Mourinho as well, for all of the above reasons and more (his record in Madrid against a Barcelona team we now know is in decline is poor). You might get a short-term hit, but if the Ferguson years in England taught us anything it’s that longevity should be prioritised over instant gratification.
But David Moyes?
The man has no track record of winning not as a player and certainly not as a manager. When the big games have come round for Everton, they’ve lost. And the big games come round for United a whole lot more than they do at Goodison. He’ll bring them long-term planning, but he won’t bring the trophies (or attract the star names in the game).
The perfect man for the task was Pep Guardiola and he was snapped up by Bayern Munich in January, which tells me that Ferguson hadn’t made his mind up on retiral then, or surely United would have tried to persuade the Spaniard to hold fire. Or maybe they did.
Guardiola would have brought the measured approach, the instant hit and the gravitas all required of Ferguson’s successor.
As there is nobody else out there who marries all three qualities, I’d be tempted to stay in house and go for Ryan Giggs.
You don’t get managerial pedigree with Giggs but you get a man who knows how United go about things, an astute thinker on the game, and star quality. And with Ferguson saying he’ll be hanging around the place for a while longer, why not properly make use of him and let him help mould a new manager?
United have aped and surpassed Liverpool in many ways over the last two decades.
United should consider doing the same with the Anfield bootroom and start growing their own managers.