Having a DoF then would have been paramount to keep things moving forward once Fergie retired. Having a DoF wouldn’t have precluded Fergie from being involved it would have taken items off his plate.
So a DoF would be necessary for the long term health beyond Fergie’s reign.
Ferguson would never have accepted that. He would have been out of Old Trafford at once. You just have to read one of his books to understand that. For him it was essential that the manager was dictating everything.
There is no way that he would have accepted to work under a DoF, which is why your argument means that he would have been out of the club.
And its a very big and retrospective ask of the club to go against the traditions that we had until then and the success we still had until Sir Alex quit; when employing the first manager to replace him.
It was quite logical not to change anything up. Especially since it came out of the blue that Gill and Ferguson were leaving at once. We basically just switched Ed for Gill and Moyes for Ferguson and thought that it would work. And tbf, back then it was the logical thing to do. And absolutely no-one was crying for a DoF then.
Remember "The chosen one" banner?
The DoF thing first came up under LvG (who wanted one installed) and its perfectably logical to think that the Glazers and Woodward agreed with it. Its more of an American setup anyways. FSG tried the same with Liverpool and had the same problems with Rodgers not wanting to work with Edwards.
Its also completely logical to assume that our Board of Advisors was not as happy with that plan. Ferguson, Gill and Sir Bobby that is. Its just not the hierarchy they want at United.
That far I dont blame the club for their actions and can kind of appreciate that they tried to be progressive in face of a tradition that is not that easy to break.
My big problem is the decision to appoint Mourinho who obviously didnt want to work under a DoF as much as Ferguson and Rodgers didnt. That the manager controlled everything was why he wanted to come to United to begin with. But that was one part of the price with hiring Mourinho.
So the club took a step back and put the DoF-thing on hold during the Mourinho-reign. IMO it was the wrong thing to do; as was the appointment to begin with for more reasons than this.
Im for a DoF now as well, even if I dont think its going to be this miraculous solution and we will suddenly be able to buy better players cheaper, etc.
But my point is that it also a bit thick to just look at this in retrospect and cry about that the club "should have" done this or that; when a) there is obviously strong powers at the club that dont like that type of organisation and there is if not good at least fair explanations why it has not happened yet, and b) you dont know how that would have turned out anyways, and c) no-one even started to cry about a DoF until results have been starting to fade.