Roy Keane issued a withering critique of the present state of Manchester United yesterday, querying how well Ed Woodward, the club’s executive vice-chairman, is performing in his role, suggesting that Phil Jones needs to “toughen up” and claiming there was no reason to afford Rio Ferdinand the chance to bid Old Trafford farewell in person when he can “say goodbye on Twitter”.

Only Louis van Gaal, the Holland head coach who is firm favourite to take charge of United after the World Cup, escaped Keane’s scathing assessment, with the Irishman describing the 62-year-old as “a good choice” to succeed David Moyes.

Other than that, though, Keane was in typically firebrand mode, stating his belief that Moyes should have been given more time to build a