Rather than turning to one of Europe's stellar names, club have placed their faith in character, not celebrity.
From 'The People's Club' to the vast arena where one man has ruled as emperor is a journey far greater than the 35 miles between Goodison Park and Old Trafford. However tough David Moyes is - however self-assured - the shock of standing before a jury of 76,000 Manchester United fans and millions more around the world is not one he can prepare for.
To be the overachieving manager of an atmospheric but middle-ranking club comes with an advantage. Most weeks the audience is going to be glad to see you in the dugout. Grateful, even. The majority will look up at you, not down. There is not the weekly trial of proving your credentials to a crowd weaned on football operas.
United might have taken the safe course and appointed a name to placate the masses. A handful of coaches float through Europe with platinum credentials. They are risk-free hires. Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti or Jurgen Klopp would have been pretty much guaranteed to win a trophy or two in a three-year cycle. But United leaned the other way, towards 1986, when they saw in the young Alex Ferguson a manager to build not just a starting XI but a culture.
Some hindsight is at play here. Ferguson had usurped Celtic and Rangers with Aberdeen. The glow from his aura comfortably reached England. Moyes has yet to usurp anybody, unless you count his intermittent finishing-place wins over Liverpool. His biggest victory has been over the maths that say Everton had no business challenging for a Champions League place or holding on to the likes of Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini.
Yet United have stayed true to their faith and instincts, despite being owned by men who direct the club in part by transatlantic conference call.
Thinking revenue flows from new deals with Thai photocopier firms or Madagascan beer companies, the Glazers might have vetoed the thoughts of Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton and consigned the 'Fergie' era to the museum.
Incredibly, the same club who sold the naming rights to their practice ground (the Aon Training Complex) reached not into the showbiz directory for Ferguson's replacement but sixth place in the Premier League to hire a manager who has yet to win a trophy with Everton in 11 years of trying. Not for the first time this season, Gary Neville located the head of the nail by calling it "a victory for sanity in football".
United's fans have been led by the hand through a fantasy world of glinting trophies and star performers. Those who have watched Eric Cantona, Paul Scholes and Cristiano Ronaldo over a 20-year period will not give their grandchildren a moment's peace. Ferguson keeps a letter from one United supporter who wrote to him to demand his money back after one less than superlative performance. Through patience with Moyes and loyalty to the club who laid on these pleasures, the Old Trafford crowd can repay that debt by not jumping on the new man's back if they lose two games from three in October.
Moyes must know he arrives with a slight credibility deficit, by the Fergusonian standard of two Champions League victories and 13 Premier League wins. He will know a Fergie-nostalgic crowd will demand that he entertains them. If Everton tried to dissuade him, it will have been with scare stories about Ferguson pulling his strings from one floor up and the Stretford End turning thumbs down the minute he loses a big match.
United, though, have already thought this through. David Gill's references to "the family" and all the talk of "infrastructure" is designed to show that Moyes can draw on 27 years of work by Ferguson. In that sense the role of Manchester United manager has been downgraded. The "personal fiefdom" that Ferguson said this week had not existed, despite appearances to the contrary, will not be seen again.
An autocratic stance is not an option for Moyes, who cannot hope to wield Ferguson's power with troublemaking players, media organisations or agents.
Instead, the new man is going to have to turn his brain around from stopping the opposition and attacking opportunistically to attacking by nature, in line with a manifesto that runs right back to the Matt Busby years.
United's followers are entitled to wonder whether Moyes can make that change in his head, his spirit; but the best minds at the club believe he can and will. Mourinho's regular sucking up to United might have been rewarded with a call from the Glazers. But under pressure, one suspects, from the men who guard United's real soul (ie not the commercial one), they opted for a man who sees the world as they do.
The best thank-you present Old Trafford could give to Ferguson, then, is to get behind Moyes.
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