Manchester United chief executive David Gill has confirmed the club want to have a squad of the 'right age profile' for when Sir Alex Ferguson eventually retires.
The vastly-experienced Scottish tactician announced his planned retirement date from Old Trafford once before, but performed a dramatic U-turn in 2002 with no specific schedule for when he will eventually leave the dugout.
Ferguson is now on a rolling contract and while Gill is not expecting any imminent announcement regarding the manager's future, he always knows that day will eventually come.
Gill is happy that as long as the 68-year-old retains the hunger and desire to continue managing the Red Devils that the prospect of who takes over is not an issue.
The United chief has confirmed whoever succeeds Ferguson must have a pedigree of success and understand the history and heritage of the Premier League giants.
The likes of Jose Mourinho and Laurent Blanc have been tipped as potential successors, although Gill refused to confirm who is on the club's potential short-list.
"He is on a rolling contract for a year, but seriously I've not discussed this issue with him for quite a while," he told US-based radio station Sirius XM.
"He works and enjoys it, he talks about his health, he looks after himself in terms of the gym and exercise and all of that, he delegates well to the team around him and so long as that desire and enthusiasm is still there it sort of becomes a non-issue.
"Obviously at some stage Alex will retire, whenever that may be.
"What we're doing with him, with his coaches and scouts, is getting a great squad with the right age profile so that a new manager coming in - yes, he will probably want to change one or two players, that's always the way, or two or three - but he won't need to make wholesale changes.
"There will be a sensible transition to the new manager. So that's where we're at. As I say, it's not something we worry about. We worry about other things but we don't worry about that.
"What happens on the pitch is crucial to all of our off-the-field aspirations and we have to understand that. So someone coming in to take over Manchester United will have to have that pedigree, will have to have that logical success and achievement because it's such a big club.
"But I think the other key asset, or key requirement for someone coming in, is to understand the history and heritage of the club, to understand how we work commercially and what we aim to achieve and to get the right balance there and make sure we can continue as seamlessly as possible as we have done under Sir Alex.
"Those are the things but identifying that person is not easy but I'm sure we'll get it right when that times comes and I stress that we don't know when that is."
Man. Utd 1/5, Draw 5/1, Wigan 14/1
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