5 costly mistakes by Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement

#2 Allowing Vidic, Ferdinand and Evra to depart at the same time

Allowing Vidic, Ferdinand, and Evra to leave in the same year was a huge mistake by United

When Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge of the club, he always understood the value of old hands mentoring the young. Whether it was Bryan Robson in 1993-95 or even Ole Gunnar Solkjaer in the twilight of his career working with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, the great Scot liked to keep the long-serving servants around at the club and gradually phase them out.

Considering the aforementioned approach that the club was used to for 26 years, it was surprising to see Vidic, Ferdinand, and Evra departing at the same time. With the club going through such a seismic transition, it was a huge error to let all three stalwarts of the United defence depart at the same time at the end of the 2013-14 season. Vidic and Evra had served United for 8 years. Ferdinand was at United from 2002 to 2014.

All three of them deeply understood the ethos of the club. Culture and philosophy are the big words often thrown around by football managers and administrators. United lost three loyal servants at the same time who would have invaluable in transferring the United way and ethos to the coming generations.