Darren Fletcher takes Man United reins with Sir Alex Ferguson’s blessing

The first call Darren Fletcher made was, perhaps, the one he was always likely to make. It is probably the kind of conversation Sir Alex Ferguson has had five times over the last dozen years. First Ryan Giggs, then Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, then Michael Carrick, then Ruud van Nistelrooy, now Fletcher, each asking if they should take the reins Ferguson held for 26 years and 1,500 games.

Ferguson said yes, which was just as well. To go by Fletcher’s answer, United may have needed another interim head coach if he had replied otherwise. But in times of strife, United have shown a tendency to turn to their own. And they, in turn, look to Ferguson for guidance.

“I wanted to speak to him first,” said Fletcher, who signed for United at 15 and made 312 appearances under Ferguson. “And, ultimately, to get his blessing. I think he deserves that respect. I wanted to run it by him, what he thought, and he was supportive. And he echoed my thoughts, which I've always said: when you're an employee of the club, it's your job to do your best for Manchester United. And it's amazing when he says something that I try and live and believe every day. So it was comforting for me for him to say that.”

It will be, Fletcher said, “beyond his wildest dreams” to take charge of United at Burnley on Wednesday. While he claimed he had not thought about getting the manager’s job, there is the chance he could be in interim charge for the rest of the season, though Carrick and Solskjaer are also under consideration. If Ferguson’s proteges have not always proved wonderful managers, they have at least been successful caretaker managers. United tend to get a short-term lift from one of their own.

In such times, an understanding of the club, a fondness from the fanbase and an ability to connect with Ferguson’s values can stand them in good stead. Their image of the club can be unchanging from the glory days. What will his brand of football be? “Hopefully it looks like a Manchester United team,” he said. And if he was not committing to a back four, it is a system he used with United’s Under-18s. “It is a formation I have been used to playing for a long time,” he said. Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 could depart with him.

Fletcher can represent something of a constant, a man whose association with United has been interrupted for only five of the last 30 years. He has been trainee, midfielder, vice-captain, Under-16, Under-18 and first-team coach, technical director and father to two who are in the first-team squad; he wants to speak to Amorim, in part to thank him for giving his son Jack his debut.

His other son, Tyler, could be a future United player, perhaps at Turf Moor, but the army of ex-United players both shape and critique the club. Fletcher has brought back Jonny Evans to assist him; Carrick and Solskjaer may be rivals for the interim gig, or part of a coaching staff that draws on the past. Each is a reminder of more successful times.

The current team are compared unfavourably with their predecessors. Fletcher argued they are at a disadvantage compared to them. “What I look back on is, and I'm very lucky, we had Sir Alex, we had Roy Keane, we had the experience players of around us who protected us and helped us and fundamentally that’s not the case anymore,” he said.

If the current group are more exposed, he has sought out Matheus Cunha, Benjamin Sesko and Senne Lammens, the summer signings and the players he knew least, for conversations. For the newcomers, this can be a culture shock. “Manchester United is the biggest club in the world so that’s scrutiny, expectation, standard. It’s there and it’s something that you have to learn to deal with.”

Some of that scrutiny comes from Fletcher’s former teammates. Amorim’s final press conference brought a complaint about listening to the criticisms from Gary Neville. Fletcher, it transpires, will tune in to the Old Trafford old boys on television, radio and podcasts. It makes him nostalgic. And, he said, he has no issue with their comments.

“You can’t ask them to go easier, because they're passionate guys, and I think they have a right to their opinion,” he said. “They’re really good, they’re engaging, they’re good to listen to. I enjoy listening to them. In the years of listening to them in the dressing room, I used to sit and listen to them and take it all in.”

A winner of five Premier Leagues knows his generation have any advantage in an argument with the class of 2026. “It’s difficult to deal with outside noise because those players have won everything,” he admitted. “It’s hard to criticise them back because they’ve got their medals on the table, so it’s really, really difficult. But again, that’s what it is being a Manchester United player. Get your head around it, learn how you’re going to deal with it and embrace the challenge.”

More than most, Fletcher understands what it is to be a United player; or what it was when they won more, anyway. He said: “People want to win football games, people want to be entertained, people have a standard of what Manchester United is and what Manchester United expects.” Those expectations, of course, were forged by Ferguson.