Ranking 10 Man Utd legends by their suitability for caretaker role: Ferdinand last… | OneFootball

Ruben Amorim has been sacked. The latest reports suggest that Manchester United will take their time to appoint their long-term successor, with a caretaker coach set to take the reins for the remainder of the 2025-26 campaign.

Who that ship-steadier will be is anyone’s guess. There are several viable candidates on the market, but how many of them would be willing to take the job on a short-term basis?

Could we see a former player return to Old Trafford to do their old club a favour? We’ve picked out 10 United icons and ranked how they’d fare if parachuted in as caretaker manager.

10. Rio Ferdinand

You’ve seen Ferdinand’s punditry, haven’t you?

A profoundly clueless man. The appointment that every non-United fan is praying for.

9. Gary Neville

Neville was a breath of fresh air when he became the face of Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football after hanging up his boots in 2011.

But somewhere along the way – be it getting his arse handed to him by Barcelona, turning to property investment and pushing Huel – you sense that his head got turned.

Listening to Neville talk football in 2026 reminds you of the dinosaurs he helped retire back in the day. When was the last time you heard him make a genuinely insightful point?

It’s all ‘hunger’, ‘experience’, ‘leadership’. He’s been getting lapped by Jamie Carragher when it comes to proper tactical analysis for years now.

To be fair to Neville, he has self-awareness to concede that he was out of his depth at Valencia.

He surely knows he doesn’t have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with the best and brightest minds in the Premier League.

8. Ryan Giggs

Leaving aside the elephant in the room, have you seen Giggs’ final team talk from his last caretaker stint?

Napoleon, he ain’t.

7. Darren Fletcher

Look, we’re not going to pretend to have studied the tapes of the 14 matches that Fletcher has taken charge of in the Under-18s Premier League this season.

We couldn’t tell you about Fletcher’s out-of-possession approach, how he feels about hybrid pressing or where he falls in the relationism vs positionism debate. We’ll leave that to the lads at Tifo (we say with full love and respect).

All we can go on are vibes. And the vibes are… kind of dour? Sorry, Fletcher. Prove us wrong.

6. Paul Scholes

Say what you like about Scholes, but there’s a man who knows what he likes. Or, more specifically, what he doesn’t like.

Of the myriad former United players working in the media these days, few have excoriated the club and where they’ve been going wrong as incisively and effectively as Scholes.

Time and again, he’s been vindicated in his criticism of United managers.

“I don’t think this manager gets this club, full stop. I just don’t think he’s the right man,” Scholes said of Ruben Amorim last month.

“United is about risk and entertainment more than anything. Having fans on the edge of their seat, ready to go.

“Wingers who beat people, shots on goal, bits of skills. There’s nothing there. That’s from the club.”

We’d be less confident of his ability to put that into place. If you thought a Giggs team talk was uninspiring, we can only imagine how a Scholes one could send you to sleep.

But identifying where the club needs to go is a start.

5. Roy Keane

Everything we said about Neville’s punditry applies just as much, if not more, to Keane. But at least he possesses the force of personality to make you believe ‘wanting it more’ is really all that matters.

We have our doubts over his tactical acumen, but you imagine he’d scare the bejesus out of the United squad enough for them to run harder than the opposition and win their duels.

And yes, maybe occasionally smash into somebody just to make them feel better.

4. Wayne Rooney

There is almost nothing about Rooney’s prior coaching experience that suggests he’s the right man for the job.

His disastrous spells in charge of Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle don’t exactly scream “future Manchester United manager”.

And yet… We can’t help but feel there might be something there. He’s been a refreshing addition to the world of punditry, demonstrating a clear-eyed honesty and genuine footballing intelligence.

Rooney’s drive also commands respect, particularly in his readiness to take on tough jobs that other ex-players of similar calibre might shy away from.

Therein might be the issue. He’s on a completely different planet from the players he’s been coaching at Plymouth and Birmingham. The Glenn Hoddle paradox.

This is a bloke who famously thought to himself “these are crap, I’m better than all of them” when he first trained with Everton’s senior professionals as a 16-year-old.

United’s squad might not be what it once was, but it’s still full of seasoned internationals. You sense that Rooney might be more on their wavelength.

3. Michael Carrick

Carrick feels like a composite of a lot of the other names on this list.

His exceptional reading of the game as a player, his experience under Sir Alex Ferguson, later serving as an assistant to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. There are a lot of pluses.

That first year or so at Middlesbrough, too, saw the former midfielder establish himself as one of the most promising young English coaches in the country.

Things have fizzled out a bit since, with the likes of old pal Kieran McKenna stealing his thunder a bit, but we still feel he’s got a bright future.

2. Ruud van Nistelrooy

Statistically speaking, a 75% win ratio makes Van Nistelrooy the best coach in Manchester United’s history. Ahem.

Of course, two of his three wins were against a truly dismal Leicester City side – as he found out when he subsequently oversaw their plummet back down the Championship.

The Foxes mustered just four wins from his 25 games in charge last season. An average of 0.6 points per game makes the Dutchman one of the worst Premier League managers of all time.

You’d think that would be grounds to have Van Nistelrooy languishing at the bottom of this ranking, but hear us out.

Vincent Kompany went from 0.63 points per game in the Premier League with Burnley to 2.51 points per game in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich. You’re only as good as the tools at your disposal.

Van Nistelrooy’s prior interim stint showed that he can bring the vibes. He wouldn’t try anything too ambitious tactically or attempt a formation unsuited to the players inherited.

We’ve seen before that a positive voice that Knows The Club™, with a relatively simplistic play style, can steady the ship in the short term.

He’s nobody’s idea of a long-term solution that could build an all-important “project”. But a passable stopgap? We could see it working. Honestly. Stop sniggering.

1. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Been there, done that.

Queue up God’s Plan, One Kiss and Thank U, Next.