Manchester United football director John Murtough insists they never sounded out any managerial candidates when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was in the job.

Murtough insists that United did not speak to any other managers about taking over until Solskjaer departed, out of respect to the club legend.

He told the United fans forum, "Out of respect for Ole, we did not approach other managers before he left.

"Our plan then was to appoint an experienced interim manager and Ralf was our clear first choice."

And Murtough, who started out as a sports scientist at Everton under David Moyes, went on to talk through the timeline of Solskjaer's departure from the heady optimism of the summer to that crushing final defeat by Watford.

He went on: "We were all feeling optimistic at that time about the strong start to the season.

"There were grounds for confidence that we were going to continue building on the progress we saw in the prior two seasons.

"After the promising early-season results, things went off plan. As a club, we felt Ole had earned the right to be given the chance to turn things round, but didn't get a reaction after the international break, and the Watford game made it clear change was needed."