Guardiola to succeed Ferguson at Manchester United?

Reports for years have come out about both a Sir Alex Ferguson imminent retirement, and a list of potential candidates as his successor.

The Mirror reports that Barcelona boss Josep Guardiola is being lined up as Sir Alex's successor at Manchester United, and how Ferguson has recommended Guardiola because of his style of play.

Guardiola, 39, is believed to have a strained relationship with Barcelona's new president Sandro Rossell and the ex-Spanish international's contract expires next summer.

Guardiola's agent Jose Maria Orobigt says there has been contact from a top European club as United look for a long term successor for 68-year-old Ferguson.

Jose Mourinho has often been tipped as the next Old Trafford boss but if United could land Guardiola it would be seen as a huge coup and would help pacify supporters after Ferguson's departure.

Mike Walters writes in his blog about why 'Pep' would be an ideal and inspired choice to replace Sir Alex.

And sooner or later, Manchester United will have to grasp the nettle and find a long-term successor for Sir Alex Ferguson. The old Govan growler had second thoughts after he was tempted by the pipe and slippers eight years ago, but at 68 the search has intensified again, and smoke signals emanating from Spain suggest Barcelona's Pep Guardiola is the man in pole position - recommended by Fergie himself.

He would be a good choice, if only because - in the worst case scenario - Guardiola would be expendable if his inheritance from Fergie turned out to be a poisoned chalice. A battalion of United legends, including Mark Hughes, Steve Bruce and Roy Keane, were revered at Old Trafford as players - but their reputations would be tarnished if they returned to the club as Ferguson's immediate successor and found him an impossible act to follow.

When Sir Matt Busby stepped down, Wilf McGuinness and Frank O'Farrell never stood a chance of emulating the United godfather's triumphs. Not a prayer. It was almost as if United's nosedive, culminating in reluctant executioner Denis Law rubber-stamping their relegation in 1974, was a necessary evil so that Tommy Docherty, Ron Atkinson and Sir Alex could restore the club's fortunes.

On that basis, Guardiola would be an inspired appointment. If he makes a hash of it, United fans will not be forced to loosen or sever emotional ties with a favourite son; but if he brings the same brand of slick, pass-and-move football which has turned Barcelona into market leaders worldwide, he will fit like Cinderella's glass slipper.

As a player, Guardiola was an aristocrat, a product of Barcelona's La Masia nursery - the dream factory which churned out Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi - so his pedigree is not an issue.

Even as Barca were passing United to death at the Champions League final 17 months ago, Ferguson recognised a kindred spirit in the way Guardiola's team played the game: an accent on flair rather than suffocation, a commitment to attack rather than absorbing pressure and stealing points with the stealth of pickpockets, entertainment rather than clinical efficiency.

Those are the principles which sets Guardiola apart from Jose Mourinho, now his rival across the Gran Classico divide at Real Madrid.

And Guardiola's relationship with new Barcelona president Sandro Rossell is said to be strained after Mourinho stole a march on Barcelona in La Liga.

If there is a parting of the ways at the Nou Camp, there are worse candidates to succeed Ferguson than Spanish football's king of the Pep-talk. Watch this space.