Beyond Busby and Ferguson, every manager who served the club felt the lash of desperation of a falling giant. Ferguson mostly kept his own counsel as a well-remunerated club ambassador until Sir Jim Ratcliffe cancelled a £2m annual stipend in 2024.
Michael Carrick has become the latest insider to fall victim to isolation at Manchester United, emerging as likely the newest managerial casualty at a club described as a managerial dustbin. With glamour comes decadence, bringing the faded grandeur that has frequently chased previous managers out the door.
Ferguson mostly keeps his own counsel, a well-remunerated club ambassador until Sir Jim Ratcliffe cancelled a £2m annual stipend in 2024.
“My wife had to find out when she was in the lift with Woodward’s family,” Van Gaal said of finding, in the haze of celebrating the 2016 FA Cup final victory, that he was being replaced.
In the past 100 years, only Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson have knocked the club into shape.
In July 2013, Ferguson was celebrated as kingmaker, Moyes the rightful heir.
Ron Atkinson turned his November 1986 sacking into a party in the office that also housed the club sunbed.
Busby and Ferguson built the club around themselves, possessing the charisma to convince others that theirs was the path to follow.