Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill has revealed that Alex Ferguson is not happy with the decision to sell defender Jonny Evans in the summer of 2015, which was green-lit by Louis Van Gaal after a season of injury troubles for the Northern Irishman.
Evans made just 14 appearances in his final season at Old Trafford, but after joining West Brom for £6m he went on to record 30+ appearances in back-to-back seasons and, it could easily be argued, out-performed the defenders that were kept ahead of him at Man Utd.
O'Neill explained to the Belfast Telegraph that Ferguson had aired his displeasure with Michael O'Neill at a conference after Euro 2016, where the legendary manager revealed that Jonny Evans was supposed to succeed either Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic at the heart of United's defence, where the Scot saw Evans staying for his entire career.
In September after last year's Euros, there was a conference in France for the coaches and Sir Alex was there talking about it and he openly said to me that he could not believe Van Gaal had sold Jonny from United because having seen him come through, he felt Jonny would spend his whole career at United or certainly to the latter stages of his career.
I think there were a lot of factors why he ended up at West Brom. In the previous two years he had an injury and at Manchester United they had Ferdinand and Vidic and then Jonny and there was a succession plan that didn't happen because of the change in manager.
Instead, Van Gaal deemed Evans surplus to requirements, a decision he would rue during Man Utd's annual defensive injury crisis.
The £6m fee has proven to be an absolute steal for Tony Pulis, but O'Neill believes that even if that fee was multiplied, he would still represent value in today's market.
When I look around the Premier League and see British centre-backs, I don't see anyone better.
I look at Gary Cahill at Chelsea and Chris Smalling at Manchester United and Jonny Evans is every bit as good as them. His move away from Manchester United to West Brom was maybe the right thing for him at that stage in his career but he is a player who I believe can play right at the top of the Premier League.
Evans perhaps doesn't get the credit he deserves, as he has been one of the most consistent performers in his position in the Premier League since moving to The Hawthorns, and enjoyed spells of strong form during his United career.
Ultimately injuries were his undoing, and O'Neill also suggested that Evans' record may have put a number of bigger clubs off when it came to the transfer window.
While Jonny Evans isn't exactly someone Man Utd fans lose sleep over, he absolutely would have been useful to have over the past few years and perhaps would have cemented a place of his own if fully fit.
After Jose Mourinho publicly blasted the decision to sell Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez, it's clear that Louis Van Gaal's transfer policy left a lot of puzzled figures around Old Trafford.
