Who will take over from Sir Alex Ferguson?
David Moyes and Jose Mourinho are the bookies’ favourites to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson, whose retirement as manager of Manchester United was announced today.
Moyes, manager of Everton since 2002, is credited with helping his players punch above their weight in terms of money spent and league position achieved.
A Glaswegian like Ferguson, Moyes would be an unflashy successor brought in for the long term.
The danger with Mourinho, who has been strongly linked with a return to Chelsea after his expected departure from Real Madrid this year, would be that is he perceived as too flashy and short term for a club that been managed by the same man for 26 years.
Moyes has not won anything at Everton, but the club qualified for the Champions League in 2005 and reached the FA Cup final in 2009.
He was the League Managers Association manager of the year in 2003, 2005 and 2009 and is the third longest serving manager in the Premier League, behind Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.
Mourinho, winner of seven league titles, two of them at Chelsea, and two European finals, could cope with the demands of the job, but to Paddy Power and William Hill, he is less likely than Moyes to get the job.
Other contenders
Other contenders include former Utd stalwarts Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Gary Neville, Ferguson’s eldest player Ryan Giggs, and Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp.
Solskjaer, who used to manage Utd’s reserve team and scored the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final, has turned down Premier League management jobs in the past and has said he wants to remain in Norway with his family.
But the Molde manager has also admitted that returning to Old Trafford would be a dream come true.
Neville is now a Sky Sports commentator. He would surely relish a return to his old club, which he served with distinction, but the odds on his doing so are long.
Likewise Giggs, who has been publicly touted as a Ferguson replacement by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Utd’s veteran midfielder Paul Scholes.
Sir Alex himself is also said to believe that Giggs, who is pursuing his coaching badges, has many of the qualities needed for the job.
But the bookies think Klopp, who has won the Bundesliga twice and has taken his team to this year’s Champions League final, is more likely to succeed Ferguson than anyone from the Old Trafford crowd.