Probably the biggest mistake made by successive managers at Manchester United since the retirement of Sir Alex is the failure to replace leaders at the club.

Paul Scholes retired when David Moyes arrived in 2013. The following summer, Nemanja Vidic left for Inter, Rio Ferdinand departed for QPR, Ryan Giggs retired to become van Gaal’s assistant and Darren Fletcher was sold on to West Brom.

These were all figures who possessed authority and were huge characters in Ferguson’s reign, yet both Moyes and van Gaal failed to recognise the loss.

Part of the reasoning behind that is that they wanted to put their own mark on the club, and letting past United greats leave meant an easier transition.

However, what it left behind was a gaping void where United’s identity as a football club has been lost, to some extent. As Gary Neville recently said, these “guardians” set the standards for other players, and they are missing from the current squad.

If you were not up to scratch in training, the likes of Giggs, Scholes and Ferdinand would let you know that they expected better. Allowing standards to slip inevitably leads to inconsistent form and poor performances; something we have seen too much of at Old Trafford in recent years. Silverware looks like a distant dream for the season ahead but there could be some decent odds available for United to win something and you can use a william hill online offer to get the best value if you are the betting type.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed to get the players to improve their displays almost instantly when he was appointed back in December, but when things started to go awry, there was no leadership group within the squad to ensure standards were maintained. Neville has insisted for some time that certain players must improve their level of performance if the club are to make progress on the field.

Signing a group of leaders isn’t that straightforward, of course. You need scouts and a manager who places a bigger emphasis on judging a player’s character as well as ability. Ferguson was a master at doing this.

You don’t have to look far to see how important having leaders in the squad can be. Liverpool currently have two international captains in their starting eleven, as well as club captain Jordan Henderson.

Manchester City had Vincent Kompany, as well as experienced campaigners like Fernandinho, David Silva and Sergio Aguero who all set the standard for performance levels.

It may not be easy to look at United’s rivals and see how much better they are doing, but it is a clear area where the Red Devils must improve. If the spine of the team has leaders who make sure that other players don’t drop their standards, you can go a long way.

Whether Solskjaer can begin to accumulate these “guardians” during his time in charge, we shall see.