Thursday 9 October 2014 16:37, UK
Sir Alex Ferguson says Louis van Gaal has done the right thing by stamping his own identity on Manchester United's squad.
Van Gaal spent an estimated £150m on six big-name signings this summer, breaking the English transfer record for £59.7m Angel di Maria in the process.
Home-grown talents Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley were moved on to help make room for the new arrivals, while Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra all departed as Ferguson's last title-winning squad was dismantled.
Ferguson's immediate successor David Moyes invited direct comparisons with his fellow Scot by working with that same squad - plus Marouane Fellaini and later Juan Mata - a fate less likely to befall van Gaal now.
And Ferguson, speaking as part of an MUTV documentary seen by the Daily Telegraph, has backed van Gaal's new broom approach in his first significant assessment of the Dutchman's regime.
He said: "Louis van Gaal has made a lot of changes and, thinking about that, actually maybe he's doing the right thing to clear the decks and build his own team.
"He's got the experience and the coaching ability to do that. The way he's approached it, I think, has been brilliant."
