If there ever was a ‘Manchester United way’, they need to get with the times and scrap it.

It is pretty much accepted that Manchester United will soon have a new manager. The question isn’t so much whether Louis Van Gaal will go but when he will go and who will replace him.

Most in the football world agree, it would be a huge failure on the part of Ed Woodward if United didn’t end up with either Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola as manager next season. (For the purpose of this discussion, let’s assume Guardiola is going to Manchester City as is widely reported).

Yet some people, both inside and outside the club, seem to favour an alternative solution, and believe there is a man who would be better for the job.

Could it be Manuel Pellegrini? Diego Simeone? Errr… Brendan Rodgers? Nope, it’s Ryan Giggs, a man with no managerial experience beyond four games as United caretaker boss.

These people see some sort of false virtue in a Manchester United way, as if it is acceptable in the modern game to just gracefully ride off into the sunset happily handing over the baton of success to another team, proud that you did things your way until the end. But there is no virtue in refusing to choose from the best coaches available to you, only a ridiculous act of self-mutilation.

Believers in the ‘Manchester United way’ even forget that Sir Alex Ferguson joined the club as a top coach of his generation. To this day there aren’t many more impressive achievements than leading Aberdeen to the Cup Winners’ Cup and beating Real Madrid in the final.

Some might look at Pep Guardiola at Barcelona and believe that appointing a club insider to his first job can lead to similar success. But Barcelona at the time had one of their best squads ever. There would never have been a scenario where they didn’t qualify for the Champions League and if the worst came to the worst, the club would have been prestigious enough to return to a conventional approach and hire somebody like Mourinho.

Man United do not have that luxury. So many people, journalists in particular, are suffering from the delusion that Manchester United will always be one of the world’s leading clubs. But the reality is they are in serious danger of dropping out of that category. Just think, Barcelona have done it before, Juventus have done it before and AC Milan, Inter and Liverpool are doing it now.

United have an average squad and the last thing they need is a rookie to learn on the job. It is a matter of urgency that they get a top manager who can build a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and restore the prestige of what might soon be called a ‘fallen giant’ or a ‘once-mighty club’.

Which brings us to Jose Mourinho, the only person in history to be criticised for bringing instant success. This is Mourinho’s critics’ way of saying that hiring him will bring problems two or three years down the line, which is to say there is no problem whatsoever.

If he brings two years of phenomenal success, which even the biggest doubters believe he would, then Manchester United will once again be a club which anyone in the world would be privileged to play for or manage. Who knows, they might even be able to sack Mourinho and bring in Guardiola.