I was thinking this morning about which coach would likely take over from Sir Alex when he finally hangs up his coaching uniform at Man Utd. To my mind there are probably two options at the moment, the first in Mark Hughes and the second is Roy Keane.

Hughes has developed a good reputation first at Blackburn and more recently at Man City. He has shown himself to be a good manager of talented players and someone who can get average players to over perform.

Keane is a little newer to the coaching scene but in two years at Sunderland has shown that he brings the same leadership to coaching as he did to captaining Utd for a number of years. He has shown a calmness in coaching that has surprised some reporters.

The intangibles for each:

Mark Hughes is now at the rival Manchester club City - and they are owned by the Abu Dhabi group. Money will not be an issue to the new owners and they will probably be unwilling to lose their coach to their fiercest rivals. In addition, Hughes may want to build his own Manchester empire at Eastlands.

Keane - I think he is more likely to make the move to Utd because Sunderland would be more willing to let him go with good wishes. It would be a step up and Sunderland cannot compete with Utd.

However there is a third option, what if Utd look outside their alumni group for their next coach - would Mourinho be willing to return to the EPL and compete against Chelsea? Maybe so, if he wins in Italy for a few years he will likely look for another challenge,

So what do you think?

Hughes or Keane to replace Sir Al or someone else like Jose?