Sir Alex Ferguson insists it is "nonsense" to suggest the correct processes were not followed prior to the ill-fated appointment of David Moyes as his Manchester United successor.
Moyes took charge of the club in the summer of 2013 as defending Premier League champions following Ferguson's retirement. However, by April of this year he had been sacked after a disastrous campaign which saw United miss out on a place in European competition.
It had been widely thought that Ferguson had hand-picked Moyes as the man to replace him at Old Trafford, but in excerpts of his updated autobiography published in The Guardian, he is at pains to point out that was not the case, and that it was a club decision.
"There appears to be an accepted view out there that there was no process. Nonsense," he writes.
"We feel we did everything the right way: quietly, thoroughly, professionally."
Ferguson also writes about how, as results continued to go against Moyes, he felt "the walls squeezing in" on the new man, which reminded him of his own early struggles at United in the late 1980s prior to the glory years which followed over the next two decades.
"As the results deteriorated, each defeat was a hammer blow to him," Ferguson recalled.
"I could see that in his demeanour. In January we bought Juan Mata and that gave everyone a lift but I could see the walls squeezing in, leaving David with less and less room to breathe. I know that feeling from 1989, when we went through a terrible spell.
"You feel you are being crushed. The results gnawed away at David. Nobody could dispute how disappointing the season was. And it cost a man his job."
Ferguson also claims that Moyes "had not realised just how big United is as a club" and claimed Moyes' United played at a slow tempo which ran counter to the philosophy which had brought Ferguson so much success.
Ferguson writes: "The reason for playing at speed was that United players had been accustomed to operating that way.
"If the tempo slowed for any reason, I would be into them at half-time. 'This is not us,' I would say. Playing with speed never hindered our results. It was our way: energy and determination in the last third of the pitch."
Ferguson also questioned Moyes' decision to clear out the backroom staff at United, such as Ferguson's long-time assistant Mike Phelan, and bring in his own people.
"Maybe David felt that at such a massive club he had to be sure that all corners were covered in terms of his support system. I felt that network was already there, with plenty of great people already in important slots," he added.
Ferguson also defends the quality of the squad he left behind, and the general infrastructure at the club.
"Antiquated was a bizarre description of the structure I left behind at Manchester United. Have you seen our new training ground?" he writes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article