Sir Alex Ferguson retired in May 2013, and Manchester United have been searching for his successor ever since. Six permanent managers, two caretakers, one interim — and now, with Michael Carrick in the job, a seventh permanent appointment.
Here is every United manager since Ferguson, ranked from worst to best.
8. Ralf Rangnick — The Interim Who Changed Nothing
Rangnick arrived in December 2021 as the man who would modernise United. Instead he presided over one of the worst seasons in the club’s modern history: a sixth-place finish, no trophies, and a dressing room that had stopped listening by February. His two-year consultancy deal was scrapped before it began, and he left having changed almost nothing. The worst of the post-Ferguson appointments — and, given the expectations, the most disappointing.
7. David Moyes — The Chosen One Who Never Stood a Chance
Moyes was hand-picked by Ferguson, and he inherited a title-winning squad. Within ten months he was gone, after a seventh-place finish and a Champions League quarter-final exit. The mitigating factors are real — he was given neither the time nor the backing that Ferguson had — but the football was dreadful, and the club never recovered the momentum of the Ferguson years. A good manager in the wrong job at the wrong time.
6. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer — The Caretaker Who Stayed Too Long
Solskjaer arrived as a caretaker in December 2018 and won his first eight games, including the famous comeback against Paris Saint-Germain. It earned him the job permanently, and for a while it worked: a second-place finish in 2021, a Europa League final, and the best football United had played since Ferguson. But the decline was brutal, the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool was the low point, and by November 2021 he was gone. A club legend who restored the mood, but not the trophies.
5. Louis van Gaal — The Philosopher Who Won a Cup
Van Gaal’s two seasons were a strange mix. The football was slow and possession-obsessed, and the fans were bored rigid. But he won the FA Cup in 2016 — the club’s first trophy of the post-Ferguson era — and he gave debuts to a generation of young players, including Marcus Rashford. Sacked hours after lifting the Cup, he remains the most divisive of the post-Ferguson managers. The trophy says he deserves to be higher; the football says otherwise.
4. Erik ten Hag — The Cup Winner Who Lost the League
Ten Hag’s first season was the best of the post-Ferguson era: a League Cup, an FA Cup final, and a third-place finish. But the second season was a disaster — an eighth-place finish, the club’s worst in the Premier League era, and a dressing room in open revolt. He won a second trophy, the FA Cup, in his final game, but the league form was unforgivable. A manager who could win cups but not build a team.
3. Jose Mourinho — The Special One Who Delivered, Briefly
Mourinho’s first season brought the League Cup and the Europa League — the club’s first European trophy since 2008 — and a sixth-place finish that was forgiven because of the cups. The second season was better still: second in the league, 81 points, and a run to the FA Cup final. But the third season collapsed in acrimony, and he was sacked in December 2018. The most successful of the post-Ferguson managers in terms of trophies, and the one whose departure hurt the most.
2. Ruben Amorim — The Gamble That Did Not Pay Off
Amorim arrived in November 2024 as the most sought-after young coach in Europe. His 3-4-3 system was bold, his ideas were clear, and his first months were promising. But the results never matched the rhetoric, and by the time he was sacked — after a run of one win in nine — the experiment was over. He is ranked this high because the idea was right, even if the execution was not. United’s next appointment will be judged against his failure.
1. Michael Carrick — The Best of the Bunch, So Far
Carrick is the best of the post-Ferguson managers — so far. The football is the most coherent United have played since 2013, the results are the best of any of his predecessors’ first months, and the players look like they believe in the plan. It is early, and the sample size is small. But on the evidence so far, Carrick has done something none of his predecessors managed: he has made United look like a team again.
For the full picture of what he is building, read our guide to how this United team sets up — and for the work still to do, the problems Michael Carrick must fix. And if you want to put the trophies in context, here is how many trophies United have won.
