Man Utd's leaked Jose Mourinho shortlist highlights Ed Woodward's biggest issue

For the fifth time in just eight years, Manchester United are on the lookout for a new permanent manager.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson hung up his hairdryer in 2013, a who's who including some of the biggest names in coaching have tried, and failed to replicate his feats.

First there was David Moyes, handpicked by Sir Alex and branded 'the Chosen One', but he lasted less than a season before Ed Woodward dropped the axe.

After being burned by going down the road of a 'team builder', Old Trafford officials went for tried and tested, serial winner Louis van Gaal.

He lifted an FA Cup, but after two years the Dutchman was ousted, never really taken to by the Manchester United faithful.

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And then it was the 'can't go wrong' option. Jose Mourinho, successful at every club he had ever been with, winning league titles with Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and then Chelsea again.

The Special One returning to the scene of one of his most famous victories felt like a match in heaven. A manager with the skills to bring United back to the top table and the personality and aura to deal with the attached pressure.

What the outsiders didn't know at the time was that the Portuguese was a shadow of the coach that dominated European football for a decade.

Gone were the tactical innovations which deceived his rivals for years, replaced by an increasingly spiky persona that helped alienate an underperforming dressing room.

With two trophies, Mourinho has been the most successful coach post-Ferguson, but by the time he was dismissed in 2018 a huge cloud hung over the Theatre of Dreams.

That sacking came on December 18, 2018, almost exactly three years to the date his successor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer suffered the same fate.

As they were on that occasion, United are on the lookout for an interim boss, a man to navigate the Red Devils through increasingly choppy waters.

But a glance at the names that were on the shortlist to replace Mourinho shows the muddled thinking that remains pertinent behind the scenes of England's most successful club.

Back in 2018, according to Mail Sport United were eyeing Gareth Southgate, Zinedine Zidane, Mauricio Pochettino and Diego Simeone.

Three years on and the new shortlist has more than a slight resemblance to whatever was written down back then.

And therein lies the biggest issue with Ed Woodward's entire tenure in the Manchester United boardroom.

Succession is seemingly something he thinks is resigned to Sky Atlantic on a Monday night. No plans. No vision and no clue.

Take the examples of Zidane and Pochettino, both hugely talented coaches, but polar opposites in terms of how they have gone about their business.

The team builder failed, the proven winner failed, the Special One failed and now that the arm-around-the-shoulder option has failed, United and Woodward are out of ideas, rehashing failed plots from a previous managerial search.

United may get this appointment right, but at this juncture it feels it would be in spite of the decision makers in place, rather than because of.