I completely disagree with your reading of Jose, Brwned.
In my opinion, there's absolutely no need for him to risk his perfect record and reputation in the United job. He'll have nowhere to go but down, he'll still have the monumental presence of Ferguson all over the club's mentality and payers, he'll be left with a squad which even the most diehard fan has to say is stocked with overperforming players, and he'll have little money to spend compared to his fortunes at Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Madrid. In addition to this, he'll have the Glazers to deal with as owners, and he's very outspoken.
I'm not saying that he'll come to City after Madrid as I think our owner and board has got the man they always planned to appoint in Mancini, but there is no attraction to United apart from this idea of massiveness to nick one of your own terms.
The best possible thing that United could do, is keep Phelan as number two and pass it over either Quieroz or Meulensteen. Both people who know the regimes, know the players, are well respected and successful coaches, and are "United men". The fans would accept either of these as Ferguson's hand picked replacement, neither would rock the boat but both would bring their own brand of football. It's an open secret that the 4-3-3 that you played with Ronaldo and Tevez was pretty much hounded onto Ferguson by Quieroz, and this to a man who very rarely takes the advice of others, so he must certainly respect him. The Bebe deal should also show that he respects him enough to buy a player without watching him for the first time in his managerial career, perhaps this is a precursor to Ferguson stepping aside as Madrid were sniffing around him.
United fans had a bit of a pop at him a few seasons back as he was (completely incorrectly) blamed for the 4-5-1 formation which was more defensive than you're used to, and he had a bit of a pop at Roy Keane, but times a great healer.
Meulensteen would bring a far more traditional flavour to the football as his coaching background is in similar leagues to England such as Holland, Scandinavia and the Middle East, and their football is rather similar to ours with a focus on workrate and pace. Also, after starting out as the lowly "Technical Skill Development Manager" or some other low down youth development role, he has steadily progressed through the ranks to become an essential part of United (with a brief foray to Brondby). Not bad for a man who has already won the Middle Eastern equivalent of the Champions League. He's also Dutch (which actually matters, name the last top Malian manager you saw), he has a good rapport with the fans, the board and the players. After working inside United on and off for a decade or so, at every level of the club, he'd be perfect to carry on the successes of Ferguson whilst still being tactically aware enough to change things around when needed.
Solskjaer is an obvious choice, but along with Bruce, Hughes, Robson and Cantona, he'd be picked on emotion rather than talent; none of them are good enough to be managing one of the biggest clubs in the world. Winning the Reserve League with a team of first team squad players doesn't qualify you to manage Madrid, United or Milan. Barca got very lucky in Guardiola and the idea has failed to replicate across many other clubs last season, notably Milan with Leonardo.
Mourinho at United after Ferguson would be Clough at Leeds all over again and there's absolutely no need for him to come there from your point of view, or from his point of view. People who seem to want him are playing Football Manager but with managers. Just as some believe that signing Messi will solve all of a football team's problems with no thought onto how he would fair at Stoke or wherever the fans' clubs are, United fans are looking at big names instead of the right names.
