Why Man Utd are still suffering from Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement

Just after 9am on May 8 2013 marked the end of an era at Manchester United.

Sir Alex Ferguson announced he was retiring as manager after 26 years in charge at the club having led United to their 20th league title taking his trophy haul to an impressive 38 trophies.

13 league titles, two Champions League's, five FA Cups and four League Cups Ferguson won it all and in doing so became the greatest manager the game has ever seen.

As the decade comes to a close MEN Sport looks back on the last 10 years which included the last three years of Ferguson's time in charge at Old Trafford.

The last three years of Ferguson's reign played out in a similar fashion to his previous 23. Two Premier League titles sandwiched either side of the last day heartbreak of the 2011/12 season where United missed out on goal difference to Manchester City thanks to that Sergio Aguero injury time winner.

The start of this decade followed a similar pattern of the 20 years that had proceeded it, with United challenging every year for the title. After that first Premier League title in 1992/93 season the glory years followed and continued into the start of this decade. Having missed out to Chelsea by a point in 2009/10 season United were champions again in 2010/11.

But while Ferguson was still overseeing glory at United the foundations to the situation they currently find themselves in were starting to form. The squad which had served Ferguson so well in the 90s and early 2000s was aging, Cristiano Ronaldo had left in 2009 and United hadn't replaced their star man.

Bebe, Chris Smalling and Chicharito all arrived in the summer of 2010 hardly names that would inspire United for years and years of future success. Only Smalling remains at the club and even he is currently on loan as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn't see him fitting into his plans.

Luckily at that stage United were not at a point where a massive revamp was needed with the likes of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov all at the club and, after getting to the top of the table at the end of November, they didn't relinquish their spot and won their 19th league title. A big moment in the club's history as they finally surpassed Liverpool as the most successful league side.

With history secured Ferguson showed no signs of retiring or slowing down. Overtaking Liverpool to be the most successful team in England wasn't enough, he wanted to keep going.

Heartbreak at Wembley came at the end of the 2010/11 season when United were well beaten by Pep Guardiola's Barcelona side in the final game of the campaign. A forewarning of what was to come in the league once the Spaniard took over at the Etihad.

United pride themselves of striking the right balance of trusting in academy talent and signing the best talent and the core of Ferguson's team in 2011/12 was still good enough to compete at the top.

Scholes, Michael Carrick, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney. All top internationals who blended with squad players and the mastermind that was Ferguson managed to fight for the title again only to lose out to City on goal difference.

And still Ferguson kept going.

After the pain of missing out so closely to one of their most bitter rivals United knew they had to do something to get back to the top and the inspired signing of Robin van Persie from Arsenal was what led United to their 20th league title in Ferguson's final year in charge. The Dutch international was the catalyst and provided the crowning moment for Ferguson's final moments in charge.

The Scot walked out at Old Trafford to Frank Sinatra's My Way at his final home game while supporters wiped away the tears in the stand. He had done it his way and that was going to be the problem from for the post-Ferguson United.

"It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so," Ferguson said as he retired.

"The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long-term future of the club remains a bright one."

He had brought players in but the last few transfer windows hadn't been enough to build for the future, the strength in depth wasn't there and in came David Moyes - a man out of his depth.

But it wasn't just a case of the squad not being good enough it was the fact that the club had waved goodbye to their greatest manager. A man capable of getting the best out of his players and who arguably overachieved in his final few years with the squad he had.

The last three years provided Ferguson and the supporters some of their greatest memories, finally knocking Liverpool off their perch, and what's happened in the years that followed have shown just how great a manager the Scot really was.