With Michael Carrick reportedly on the verge of being sacked by Manchester United, the rumour mill is hitting fever pitch again as potential replacement candidates are touted.

However, United’s greatest ever manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, has already made his feelings known on who he sees as an ideal replacement.

Ferguson faced off against the manager way back in 2013, but is thought to still see the top coach as United’s best bet.

What Sir Alex Ferguson thinks about Mauricio Pochettino

Manchester United’s disastrous run of form amounts to their worst season start since 1896/1897, with that team mired at 18th in the table.

The Old Trafford hierarchy had opted to give Carrick a three-game stay of execution prior to the international break, before deciding on their next plan of action.

The trio of games brought a loss, a win and a draw, which Director of Football Jason Wilcox and CEO Omar Berrada have reportedly deemed dire enough to see club legend Carrick axed.

Apart from sporadic cup win and qualification for Europe, Manchester United haven’t reached the same levels of success craved by both the club and fanbase since Ferguson left in 2013.

However, it was in his final season at Old Trafford that Ferguson first encountered a manager he would later identify as his ideal replacement - Mauricio Pochettino's Southampton.

"For the first 30 minutes I thought we were fantastic, we played really well,” said the Scot. “But in the second half Southampton have been the best team to play here this season.

"We were fortunate to win the game. They pushed on top of us and didn't give us any time on the ball."

When Sir Alex Ferguson took Mauricio Pochettino out for dinner

As Manchester United began to churn through managers, first replacing Ferguson with David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal and then Jose Mourinho, the former was seen taking Pochettino, by then Tottenham Hotspur boss, out for dinner in London’s Mayfair restaurant Scott’s in 2016.

“The manager [Pochettino] has been fantastic,” Ferguson said in an interview not long before.

“They have a bad record of managers [at Tottenham], there is no doubt about that. They have had so many over the years, but this lad has composure.

“You never see him ruffled and the way his team play is a testimony to the work he is doing.”

Information on how Ferguson rated Pochettino then came from an unlikely source - Tottenham MP David Lammy, now Secretary of State for Justice.

"I'm going to let you into a secret,” he told The Spurs Show podcast also in 2016.

"About six weeks ago, I sat next to Sir Alex Ferguson at a dinner in support of grass-roots football abroad. He said to me, 'I think you guys have got the best manager in the Premier League.'

"Alex Ferguson said that."