Sir Alex Ferguson has identified one key area incoming boss Erik ten Hag needs to address if he is to have any chance of bringing success back to Manchester United.
United have yet to win or even challenge for the Premier League title since Ferguson s tepped down as manager in 2013 with the last of his 13 championship triumphs in his decorated spell at Old Trafford.
Ten Hag is United's fifth permanent boss since Ferguson vacated the hot seat, with the club having won one FA Cup, one League Cup and one Europa League in the nine years since then.
Former Ajax boss Ten Hag has already begun the process of overhauling the squad he has inherited, identifying players he must keep, those he must offload and targets he wants to sign. But ex-United midfielder Quinton Fortune revealed an issue of huge importance pinpointed by Ferguson in recent weeks that ten Hag must resolve early on in his tenure.
Fortune said: "I was very fortunate to listen to the boss [Sir Alex Ferguson] at Carrington a few weeks ago and he mentioned a simple thing like the team spirit we had when we ate together at the canteen It's something very simple, that a lot of people miss out on, but that created that bond - not just in the players - but everyone in the staff at Carrington.
"It played an important part of a successful club to create the team spirit, because we have amazing individuals, as you can see, but we're not always playing as a team. We want players to want to come to Carrington and put on a red jersey. We know the talent is there. The style of football, which I'm sure he'll implement, needs time and to bring in the right characters, but create a team that is going to play for each other, play for the club and enjoy it. We need players to go out there with a smile on their face and, when you do that, everything else follows."
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United's players have lacked anything resembling team spirit and a collective purpose in recent weeks, as their push for a Champions League place fell apart, leaving them in danger of falling into the Europa Conference League next season. Fortune said Ten Hag must address the issue of team spirit, with the former Ajax boss inheriting a fractured, divided dressing-room, with players pursuing personal agendas to the cost of the squad.
"Play with courage and play with enjoyment,” Fortune told United's official website. “That's what we were told before games by Sir Alex - go and enjoy it. Really? Sixty to seventy thousand people and go and enjoy it? But that is what we did and every day in training was very hard.
"It was a competitive environment but an enjoyable environment. We had a great team spirit that won us trophies. When you go out into every single game, you know your teammates have got your back. It's very important to have that.”
