Sir Alex Ferguson and What Will Happen When He Retires?
Firstly we need to look at the character of the man, including one striking characteristic. It's obvious to everyone the gaffer is a control freak, for lack of a better term, and his final act as United's manager will be one under his control. That is of course unless he leaves this mortal coil the same way his mentor Jock Stein did but we do not even want to consider that possibility (although its not beyond the realms of fantasy and maybe it would be his Valhalla). Leaving a half time exit from the whole show aside, the most likely transition he will choose will be in the summer time, not this summer time, but definitely during the summer months.
The announcement of his pending retirement back at the start of the last decade was, I am sure, one of his few missteps as the manager, it derailed the clubs title bid in 01/02 and when Sir Alex reneged on his retirement plans and reaffirmed his commitment to the club he would have inwardly sworn to himself that we wouldn't make the same mistake again. Hindsight is certainly a wonderful thing and imagining a Manchester United throughout the "noughties" with say Sven Goran Eriksson in charge of the club instead of Ferguson makes me shudder.
When he does decide to leave for real this time I am certain he will have a hand in picking his successor, its entirely probable that he may be already involved in drawing up a short list of potential candidates. He has said himself many times that there are always flavours of the month when it comes to managers and you can never predict who will be in demand whenever he decides to retire but the two obvious names Jose Mourinho and Pepe Guardiola are surely beyond other likely candidates.
Personally for me Guardiola would seem to be the most likely replacement for Sir Alex but he does come with some caveats mainly his ability to handle a high pressure job long term. Why he left his beloved Barcelona and took a sabbatical still raises some eyebrows around the footballing world be it the pressures involved with keeping Barca at the top or wanting to try something else it still is a small concern should he become the leading candidate. His time at Bayern Munich will be watched intently by those associated with United.
As for Jose, well he would certainly be capable of taking the baton from Fergie without missing a beat however he has a penchant for moving on after a few seasons and what you would gain in probable continued success you would most certainly lose in continuity once he gets itchy feet again. Besides he will most likely be firmly entrenched within the Premier League again by the time Ferguson leaves.
Finally we must take in the Glazer factor into consideration because they obviously will have a final say on the hire whenever the boss retires. Firstly they obviously back Sir Alex one hundred percent and despite being wildly derided and hated for their burdening the club with debt they have presided over a rich period of success for the club.
However if you look at the Glazer's business operations which include the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers they don't seem to be formulaic or predictable especially when it comes to the hiring and firing of head coaches for the aforementioned Bucs. It doesn't give us much insight when they have hired two proven and successful coaches and two young first time coaches within their two decades of ownership. What is clear though is that these coaches have no control whatsoever of that organisation but that is the nature of the beast in the NFL, even legendary coaches who in stature would compare to Alex Ferguson would not have a fraction of his control over their organizations
I think once Sir Alex relents and leaves the job they will adopt a somewhat more hands on approach but via the hands of Ed Woodward. Woodward would seem most likely to play it safe in the hiring of Ferguson's replacement because after the previous manager enjoying such success and longevity hiring a successor who is unproven at this level would be disastrous to say the least.
It also seems the departure of the much maligned but in my opinion superb David Gill might be an early warning that the mechanism for Fergie's retirement has been fired up and with this seemingly the case I maintain the following,
