David Moyes struggled to settle at United after joining from Everton last year[GETTY]It will send shudders down their corporate spine when they recall the club went through five managers in 17 years before bridging the gap between the two knights of the realm who made United what they are today.
After Sir Matt Busby retired in 1969 following 24 years at the helm, Wilf McGuinness, Frank O'Farrell, Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson all tried and failed to turn them into champions.
And even when they found the right man in Sir Alex Ferguson in 1986, the board and fans had to remain patient for another seven years before he brought back football's Holy Grail.
Now after 27 years of Ferguson's rule, his recommended successor is on the way out of Old Trafford less than a year after taking charge. They know they cannot afford to get it wrong again.
United expected a year of transition under David Moyes but what they did not anticipate was their worst season for a quarter of a century.
They accepted that it was only a combination of Ferguson's managerial magic, Robin Van Persie's goals and the mess the other challengers were in that helped a far from vintage United squad win the title last season.
Realistically, they did not expect to win it again this season but the minimum target for Moyes was to finish in the top four to maintain the club's proud record of qualifying for the Champions League every year since 1995 and keep the cash rolling in from UEFA's considerable coffers.
But United have never really been close.
Discounting the first few weeks of the season, their highest position was fifth after their victory over Arsenal in November.
Holland boss Louis van Gaal is favourite to take over at Old Trafford [GETTY]Since then they have stayed rooted more or less in seventh where it appears they will finish.
They are 23 points behind champions-elect Liverpool and 13 points adrift of the top four. Not since Blackburn in 1995-96, have the champions made such a mess of their defence of the title.
And the biggest concern is that there has been no discernible signs of improvement in the second half of the season. In fact, it was worse than the first half when Moyes was still getting to know his players.
Now it is understood, the Glazers, United's American owners, have had enough. They do not want to hand a transfer kitty of around £200m to a manager that they, the board, the players and the fans are having increasing doubts about.
It is not just about results and the damning statistics that show United will end up with their lowest position, points tally and goals total in the Premier League era.
Performances, especially at Old Trafford, have been lack-lustre to say.
To fill 75,000 seats at Old Trafford every home game requires top quality football entertainment and too often United have been well below par.
United surprised many people when they did not make a move for serial-winner Jose Mourinho largely because of his confrontational personality. Instead, they accepted Ferguson's recommendation to appoint Moyes and it looked a 'safe hands' choice.
Glaswegian Moyes, 50, is cut from the same cloth as Ferguson and had served a long managerial apprenticeship first at Preston who he guided to promotion and then at Everton, where in his 11 years he turned a team that routinely flirted with relegation to one that regularly finished in the top half of the table despite a limited transfer budget.
Dortmund's Jurgen Klopp could be tempted to try his luck in the Premier League [AP]Although he failed to win a trophy at Everton, he guided them into the Champions League qualifying round in 2005 and into the Europa League on two other occasions. He also established a reputation for a bargain in the transfer market and an ability to get the best out of the players at his disposal
United appeared to accept Moyes needed time to weed out the players who were either past their best or not good enough and stamp his own identity on the squad. Recently he described himself as a "medium-to-long-term -manager.'
But with the prospect of no lucrative Champions League pay days on offer at Old Trafford next season, the Glazers decided if he could not do it in the short-term then they would get someone else.
There have just been too many unwanted 'firsts.'
Newcastle (41 years), West Brom (38 years) and Everton (21 years) have all ended long spells without winning at Old Trafford. Stoke beat them for the first time, home or away, for the first time in 30 years.
United have suffered home and away double defeats to the Mersyide clubs for the first time in their history - not to mention two embarrassing Manchester derby defeats - 4-1 at the Etihad and 3-0 at Old Trafford. And most worrying of all is that United have managed only one win in 12 games against the six teams above them in the League.
His transfer market dealings did not inspire confidence he would spend the huge summer kitty wisely.
Maraoune Fellaini looked a panic buy on deadline day last August, has made no impact and is proving an expensive misfit.
There are no questions about the ability of his second signing, £37.1m club record buy Juan Mata, the only doubts surround whether Moyes could devise a system to get the best out of him.
Now it appears he will not get the chance.
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