Another stellar article from Jim White
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After what he termed the “absolute disaster” of his last ceremonial retirement announcement back in 2001, Sir Alex Ferguson said that next time he would go suddenly and without fanfare. A dozen years later he was as good as his word.
Following a night of fevered speculation in which a leak from the Manchester United players’ annual golf day spun round the ether, United revealed this morning that it was indeed the case.
The greatest manager in the history of the game in this country was to vacate the dugout immediately after the final game of the season against West Bromwich. He will take up a position on the board, where he will serve as club ambassador.
There was time to point out his achievements – the trophies, the dominance, the astonishing ability to stay one step ahead of the opposition across 20 years – but only just.
Almost as the words were delivered on to the United website that he was off, the speculation started about his successor. Ferguson more than anyone will appreciate that is the nature of football. As he has always maintained in his time at United, it is the forward momentum that counts.
In his analogy, the bus never stops moving on. Now the bus he constructed is seeking a new driver.
And what a job that will be. Standing every week in the technical area with the name of your predecessor pinned to the roof of the stand opposite will require some reserves of self-esteem.
Thanks to Ferguson’s efforts, managing United is far and away the biggest and most scrutinised position in English football. Get it right and accolades will be manifold. Get it wrong, however, and the pillory will be quickly built.
The bookies seem convinced the race is a straightforward one, between two men. Forget the romantic notion of Ryan Giggs or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being gifted immediate chance to manage the club they graced as players. There will be no risk taken on the inexperienced. Not with a business as financially significant as United.
That was tried the last time a great United manager retired. And for older members of the Old Trafford hierarchy, the memory of WIlf McGuinness taking over from Sir Matt Busby still hangs heavy in the boardroom, serving as a sort of perpetual inverse model of how not to plan a succession.
And the lack of experience that rules out Giggs and Solskjaer will count against a left field appointment such as Jurgen Klopp. He may speak such good – and such witty - English he could challenge Henning Wehn as German Comedy Ambassador.
But he has never taken charge of a Premier League club. He may be brilliant, but why take the risk?
Especially when the club can choose between two such excellent candidates as David Moyes and Jose Mourinho.
One of the things that is clear about Ferguson’s retirement is this: it may have come as a shock to the world beyond Manchester M16, but within Old Trafford they will have known about it for months. Indeed, that was one of his stipulations: that he be part of the process to decide who follows him.
And he likes both men, admires their methodology, believes they have the personal resources to take on the job. But they do offer different things.
Mourinho would undoubtedly have little worry about stepping into Ferguson’s shoes. His ego is sufficiently armour plated not to give a moment’s pause about the past. He is also a proven winner. One thing he will deliver to United is trophies.
But one thing he is less likely to bring is long-term dynasty building. He would be a quick fix.
Moyes, on the other hand, would be there for the long haul. He may not have won what Mourinho has (actually he has not won anything) but after 10 years at Everton he knows how to build and sustain a club. That will count high on Ferguson’s wish list.
This is a man who will not let the academy wither, who will maintain the club’s place in the community, who will subsume his ego into the fabric of the place, rather than use it as a platform to bolster his CV.
Which may be why the bookies have closed the betting on Moyes. He looks like Ferguson’s preferred choice largely because he resembles Ferguson in so many ways. The fearsome Glaswegian determination, the no nonsense demeanour, the long-term view.
My understanding is that the appointment has already been done and that an announcement will be made within 48 hours, giving the chosen one time to resign from his current place of employment. That doesn’t tell us who it might be. But the clever money has already piled in on Moyes.
He would be a terrific selection. But he will be aware of the risk entailed. A man of immense intellectual capability, he will have worked out what could go wrong. Sure he is inheriting a team that nicely mixes zest, skill and experience.
Sure he will be taking on a club so settled and calm it almost purrs like a perfectly calibrated machine. But what if, this time next season, his United lie third in the Premier League without a trophy to their name.
The bar has been set so high by Ferguson, anything but a title will be deemed failure. And how long will a club as financially dependent on success as United tolerate failure?
