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LONDON. – Sir Alex Ferguson (pictured right) has revealed that David Moyes, the man chosen as his managerial successor at Manchester United, was sixth on a list of ideal replacements headed by Pep Guardiola and four others, who were all “unavailable” at the time.

Ferguson also said he worked with just four world-class players at Manchester United – and Wayne Rooney, Roy Keane and David Beckham were not among them.

The Scot nominated Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes as the quartet who were at the very highest level, as he also omitted Ruud van Nistelrooy, Peter Schmeichel, Rio Ferdinand and Carlos Tevez from his select list.

Ferguson preferred Cantona, the catalyst when United won the league title for the first time in 26 years in 1993, and Ronaldo, who scored 42 goals in their Champions League-winning campaign in 2008.

Giggs became the most decorated player in the history of English club football under Ferguson, winning 13 Premier League titles and two Champions Leagues, and making 941 of his record 963 appearances during the Scot’s time in charge.

Fellow one-club man Scholes played 718 times under Ferguson, who told the BBC’s Football Focus: “They made the difference and the evidence is there. When we brought him [Cantona] in we won the league that season – it was his mere presence and his ability to make and score goals.

“The younger breed like Ryan and Scholes were just fantastic players and the thing about those two was longevity. Are there players who have played right through the whole of the Premier League and performed at the level they have? There are none, absolutely none.

In his new book “Leading”, United’s longest-serving manager outlines the selection process behind Moyes’ ill-fated appointment at Old Trafford, which lasted less than a year after he replaced the retired Ferguson in 2013.

“I asked Pep to phone me before he accepted an offer from another club but he didn’t and wound up joining Bayern Munich in July 2013,” Ferguson wrote.

“When we started the process of looking for my replacement, we established that several very desirable candidates were unavailable.

“It became apparent that Jose Mourinho had given his word to Roman Abramovich that he would return to Chelsea, and that Carlo Ancelotti would succeed him at Real Madrid.

“We also knew that Jurgen Klopp was happy at Borussia Dortmund and would be signing a new contract. Meantime, Louis van Gaal had undertaken to lead the Dutch attempt to win the 2014 World Cup,” he added.

Moyes was sacked after 10 months at United but Ferguson defended his fellow Scot’s record prior to joining the club.

“We chose David Moyes. He had been consistent in his job at Everton, had a good spell there – 11 years and showed appetite.

“Unfortunately, somehow it didn’t work out for David. The process was perfect. It was a good process,” Ferguson said.

Instead, the former United manager reserved his criticism for Moyes’ decision to overhaul his backroom staff after taking charge.

“I’m sure there are things that David would do differently if he had the opportunity to relive his time at Old Trafford,” Ferguson said.

“Such as keeping Mick Phelan (Ferguson’s assistant), who would have been the invaluable guide to the many layers of the club that Ryan Giggs is to Louis van Gaal today.

“There is no point suddenly changing routines that players are comfortable with. It is counter-productive, saps morale and immediately provokes players to question the new man’s motives,” he added.

Ferguson joked on Monday that Anthony Martial’s explosive start to life in English football proved the club were right to break the bank for him.

United reportedly paid an initial fee of £36 million to Monaco for the 19-year-old French striker, which it is thought could rise to £58 million.

United manager Louis van Gaal said the price was “ridiculous”, but with Martial having netted three times in his first two league games – including a fine debut goal against Liverpool – Ferguson feels he is proving his worth.

Asked at an event to promote his new book, “Leading”, Ferguson, who retired in 2013, was asked if the fee United had paid for Martial was ridiculous and replied: “Not at the moment it’s not!”

Ferguson has also revealed that he refused to allow Rooney to be paid more than him during a contract stand-off with the striker in 2010.

Rooney vowed to leave United after accusing the club of a lack of ambition, only to perform a sudden U-turn and sign a new five-year deal reportedly worth £180 000 a week.

But that was less than United initially offered him, with Ferguson revealing in his new book, “that he told United’s owners the Glazer family and then-chief executive David Gill he “did not think it fair that Rooney should earn twice what I made”.

“It was simple. We just agreed that no player should be paid more than me,” Ferguson said.

Rooney fell out with Ferguson prior to the Scot’s retirement in 2013, but was appointed United captain by current manager Louis van Gaal last year.

Ferguson says that Everton pulled out all the stops to prevent Rooney joining United in 2004, including an emotional phone-call from the player’s mother.

“After we gave them our final offer, (Everton manager Bill) Kenwright got Rooney’s mother on the phone and she told me, ‘you are not going to steal my boy’,” writes Ferguson, who is now a United director.

Other revelations in the book include the disclosure that Ferguson considered a move for wayward Italy striker Mario Balotelli in 2010, only to be dissuaded by his contacts in Italy.

“In 2010, I briefly flirted with the idea of signing Mario Balotelli, the talented but controversial Italian striker,” Ferguson says.

“I did my homework on him, speaking to a few Italian contacts, but the feedback I got confirmed it was too big a risk.”

Balotelli subsequently joined Manchester City from Inter Milan, returning to Italy for a second spell at AC Milan this year following a disappointing season with Liverpool.

Ferguson hits out at Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy’s handling of Dimitar Berbatov’s move to United in 2008, describing the experience as “more painful than my hip replacement”.

He also has choice words for Mino Raiola, the agent of French midfielder Paul Pogba, who left United for Juventus in 2012 and has since become one of the world’s most coveted players.

“There are one or two football agents I simply do not like and Mino Raiola, Paul Pogba’s agent, is one of them,” he said.

“I distrusted him from the moment I met him.”

The 73-year-old Scot defends the quality of the squad that his successor David Moyes inherited in 2013, saying criticism of United’s players made it sound like “I had left 11 corpses on the steps of a funeral”.

He also echoes a recent comment from Van Gaal by backing Ryan Giggs, United’s current assistant manager, to enjoy a successful managerial career.

“Ryan Giggs is eventually going to be a great manager,” Ferguson writes. “He has intelligence, presence and knowledge.”