Alex Ferguson, one of the most prolific authors of our time (in Roy Keane's view anyway - and Roy himself may well be on the way to becoming a literary heavyweight of similar proportions), has another book out. We're all aware of that.
This one is called 'Leading', and it's written, not with a Daily Telegraph football writer, but with Michael Moritz, the chairman of Sequioa Capital, a private investment firm which 'helped shape and organise such corporate giants as Apple, Cisco Systems, Google, PayPal and YouTube'.
As has been noted before, them's the kind of guys Fergie hangs around with these days. They presumably don't chat much about Fergie's days as a shop steward in Glasgow in the late 1950s/1960s.
In the book, he addresses the most fraught question of his post-retirement. The Moyes business. In the two years since Ferguson stood on a sodden Old Trafford turf and assigned to Manchester United the task of 'standing by your new manager', Moyes has been dumped and left for Spain.
Fergie now reveals that Moyes was possibly only the sixth choice candidate for the job.
The five names he scoped out before turning up at Moyes house in the days leading up to the Swansea game have a slightly starrier quality than the then Everton gaffer.
First up was Pep Guardiola, whom he asked to call him before accepting another offer. Four other names were looked at - Mourinho (already promised Abramovich he'd go to Chelsea), Ancelotti (taking over from Jose at Madrid), Klopp (happy with his lot at the time), and Van Gaal (World Cup to think about).
Life is such that the best of theories, or the best of intentions, sometimes don’t translate into practice. Believe me, the United board wanted nothing more than to select a manager who would be with the club for a long time.
When we started the process of looking for my replacement, we established that several very desirable candidates were unavailable.
It became apparent that Jose Mourinho had given his word to Roman Abramovich that he would return to Chelsea, and that Carlo Ancelotti would succeed him at Real Madrid. We also knew Jurgen Klopp was happy at Borussia Dortmund, and would be signing a new contract. Meantime, Louis van Gaal had undertaken to lead the Dutch attempt to win the 2014 World Cup.
And so it came to be that David Moyes became 2014's answer to the similarly unfortunate Wilf McGuinness...
