Who is ferguson replacement

The year-old Norwegian, a Champions League winner with United in , began his managerial career with Molde after injury ended his playing days, and has already won two domestic titles in his homeland.

Before that he successfully coached United's reserves. The year-old Italian has won virtually every honor in the game as a player and manager with clubs including AC Milan, Roma and Chelsea.

There has been intense speculation Ancelotti will leave French league leaders at the end of the season. He took Sunderland into the Premier League at the first attempt but quit in December after a run of poor results. The Welshman, who is 40 in November, has signed another one-year playing contract. Bobby Charlton: Ferguson's best moment Watch: Alex Ferguson's legacy. Ferguson will join the club's board as a director and "ambassador," Manchester United said.

It is the right time," Ferguson said. The quality of the team, the balance of the players' ages and its upcoming youth squad will contribute to its continued "success at the highest level" and "ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one," he said. Seven moments that defined Ferguson's managerial career.

Ferguson paid tribute to the club's "players and staff, past and present," thanking them "for a staggering level of professional conduct and dedication that has helped to deliver so many memorable triumphs. Without their contribution the history of this great club would not be as rich. He also expressed gratitude to his own family, the Glazer family, and the club's many supporters, at home and abroad.

His determination to succeed and dedication to the club have been truly remarkable," Joel Glazer said. The club also quotes former Manchester United and England captain Bryan Robson as saying Ferguson is the "greatest there has ever been.

Whoever takes over at Old Trafford has a hard act to follow, Hamilton said -- but Manchester United will have been planning carefully for this moment. Fans' thoughts are bound to turn quickly to the season, starting in September, as Manchester United prepares to defend its domestic title and attempts another win in Europe. As recently as last week, Ferguson suggested that he was fully involved in those future plans, promising the club would be "competitive" in the summer transfer market.

Ferguson's retirement 'a sad day' Speaking to Inside United, the club's official magazine, Ferguson said: "Hopefully the players we bring into the club in the next year or so will be of the quality we need. Manchester United coasted to this year's English Premier League title with a victory over Aston Villa in April, with four games in hand.

Ferguson is due to undergo hip surgery this summer, according to UK media reports, but it's not clear how much of a role health concerns have played in his decision to stand down.

When you get to my age, if your health is good, you like to work," he told CNN in a interview. Sports writer Mihir Bose said he was surprised by the timing of Ferguson's decision, despite his upcoming surgery, saying he had expected him to carry on as manager for another couple of years.

Ferguson -- who is seen as a kind of father figure by some of the young players he developed -- has "that ability to reach out to people," said Bose, but he is also a skilled political operator. Those who got the famous "hairdryer treatment" -- loud shouting directly in someone's face -- included many sports journalists over the years. Ferguson would also refuse to speak to reporters if he didn't like what they said. Despite that thorny relationship, Ferguson will be remembered as an iconic figure in English football history, said Bose.

The big challenge now is how Manchester United will manage the transition to ensure continued success, he added. I'm shocked, I'm sad, I'm disappointed. It's a day I think everyone who loves Manchester United, everyone who's worked with Sir Alex -- it's a day that we've been expecting, but I have to be honest I didn't think it would be now -- I thought it would be a couple of years down the line. Alex Ferguson's football legacy Schmeichel said he was certain that Ferguson had not been forced out but had made the decision himself, given his record of success and changes already happening on the club's board this summer.

He paid tribute to Ferguson's knowledge, skills and philosophy as a manager, particularly his ability to bring on young players. He's a really good friend as well.

Ferguson's talent has been in managing players individually rather than as a group, Schmeichel said. In a way he becomes your second dad. He has to educate you in life, he has to prepare you for what comes next in life after football. David Gill, who will step down as chief executive of Manchester United in June, said it had been a "tremendous pleasure" to work alongside Ferguson over the past 16 years.

The end credits roll on every film. And even the greatest manager in the modern era will call time on his career, and as the great man celebrates his 25th year at the club that made him a legend, we all know that the end is coming sooner rather than later.

But a managing career that has been at times a Shakespearean tale of intrigue and tragedies that has been symphonic in its triumphs and cinematic in its scope began more humbly than it can possibly end. Twenty-five years ago, a young Scotsman named Alex Ferguson arrived at Manchester United to find a team in disarray.

But while said team was burdened with expectations it was incapable of reaching, the new manager had no such pressure. Win, yes. But this was a team without a sniff of a chance at knocking Liverpool of its bleeping perch, and thus was Ferguson given an opportunity to craft his team, his vision, in relative peace. At first, anyway. Twenty-five years later, the story at the club is completely different.

The young Scotsman is now "Sir Alex," the giant colossus of English football who has left Liverpool's perch well and truly abandoned. He has created a mentality where winning everything is not only expected, it is a life philosophy. Manchester United is now a club poised for greatness each year as established talent cycles out to allow new blood into the fold, learning from each other in a symbiotic relationship of excellence.

It is an empire presided over by a man who has seen French, Portuguese and Spanish pretenders to the managerial throne come and go. And it is into this man's shadow that the next United manager will have to begin his career. The skyrocketing expectations, the history of winning, the new challenges of Manchester City , Chelsea , Liverpool and Arsenal Here are my top 10 candidates to take on that challenge, with varying degrees of probability mixed with hopefulness, of course.

Continuity may be a key factor in this decision. This is a group who will have developed a chemistry and understanding built upon years of camaraderie at the senior level and, for some, the youth setup. This is a side poised for success, and it would have been formed by Sir Alex. The departure of Sir Alex will definitely have an effect on the team on multiple levels, but having Mike Phelan step in would mean a direct continuity of tactics and philosophy that would ease the transition.

It may just be for a short while, for nobody knows if Phelan has what it takes to manage United for the long term, but it could be an important step in between Fergie and any other great manager who may have different ideas and tactics. This is the gentleman in charge of what is, arguably, the single greatest team assembled in the modern era.

He is also one of the very few managers to essentially out-manage Sir Alex in consecutive high-stake clashes. His grasp of tactics, discipline and integration of youth and experience makes him one of the most ideal choices for Sir Alex's successor.

The only problem is that I, and most other United fans, don't see him trading the Blaugrana for the Red and White any time soon. Perhaps some time down the line, he may be convinced to leave Spain, but until then the ideal man remains exactly that In his new book Leading , Ferguson reveals that he met the former Barcelona coach in September , while the Spaniard was on sabbatical in the United States, with a view to convincing him to fill the forthcoming managerial vacancy at Old Trafford.

Ferguson reveals that he asked Guardiola to contact him before accepting any other role. However, four months later, without any prior notice given to Ferguson, Bayern Munich announced that Guardiola would replace their coach Jupp Heynckes at the end of the season and United were forced to look at other candidates. Jose Mourinho was discounted on the belief he had an agreement to join Chelsea with Carlo Ancelotti, another target, ready to replace the Portuguese coach at Madrid.

Jurgen Klopp was believed to be settled and happy at Borussia Dortmund and Louis van Gaal, the current United manager, was engaged with the Netherlands in their World Cup campaign. Ferguson's eventual successor, David Moyes, therefore appears to have been sixth choice in the list of preferred successors. Upon his appointment, the former Everton boss was hailed as dour Glaswegian moulded in Ferguson's image, an ideal successor, and awarded a six-year contract with the club.