Former Manchester United central defender Rio Ferdinand has disclosed that his ideal candidate that he preferred to take up the managerial role at the club after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement was José Mourinho. Sir Alex decided to call time on his coaching career and retired at the end of the 2012-2013 season after a lot of years helping the club win a lot of titles.

The former manager did not make his intention of retiring known to the world until the season came to an end but there were a few people who knew what he had decided and Ferdinand was one of them. Mourinho was on the list of the candidates who were eyed as a replacement for Sir Alex by Manchester United but he was still the manager of Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid even though his time at the club was also coming to an end.

According to the Portuguese tactician, he had already come in contact with Chelsea and also agreed to take up the coaching role at Stamford Bridge before Sir Alex told him of his plans to retire. Instead, the Red Devils chose to go for then-Everton manager David Moyes who they ended up recruiting as the club’s next permanent manager after putting pen to paper on a fresh six-year deal.

However, Ferguson has revealed that he did not like Moyes’s coaching pattern and believes he was not the man who was supposed to succeed Sir Alex but Mourinho. Speaking to the FIVE YouTube channel, Ferdinand said at the time, all his thoughts were that Mourinho was supposed to be the ideal candidate and the next manager at Manchester United without any doubt because of the wealth of experience he already had coaching top teams like Real Madrid, Chelsea, and Inter Milan.