Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has been happy to talk up David Moyes over the past 12 months.

The Everton manager is favourite to succeed Ferguson after his retirement announcement yesterday.

Ferguson has been consulted on his replacement and said last year: "David is a first-class manager."

Then at the start of this year, when asked about a worthy successor Ferguson replied: "Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, David Moyes . . . there's a lot of successful managers out there."