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The Manchester United legend feels the departure of his old boss – Sir Alex Ferguson – has left a huge gap that Moyes is struggling to fill.

As he fights for his reputation, United are left scrapping for a Champions League spot with a group of players who strolled to the Premier League title last year but who now – Cole believes – need to be freshened up with new blood.

United under Moyes have already shelled out ￡37.1m for Juan Mata from Chelsea and￡27.5m to Everton for Marouane Fellaini.

But more quality is needed and names in the frame for Old Trafford include ￡55m PSG hitman Edinson Cavani, ￡40m-rated Porto centre-half Eliaquim Mangala, ￡30m Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke and Borussia Dortmund schemer Ilkay Gundogan, rated at ￡25m.

Also being watched are Schalke 04 playmaker Julian Draxler, rated at ￡37m and Bayern Munich star Toni Kroos, who is valued at ￡25m.

Cole said: “When you have a situation where Manchester City are prepared to spend FIFTY MILLION POUNDS on two centre-halves – then you have to consider the possibility that they may go out and spend ￡200m this summer. Chelsea, very easily, could spend another ￡100m.

“Bear in mind, United have just forked out￡37million on an attack-minded midfielder and need more players. So in order to catch up, they are going to have to go big, match City’s spending and even if they do, you still don’t know if they will win next season’s title.

“It is hard to accept but the simple fact of the matter is that there are better teams than Manchester United right now and that’s why they are so low in the table.”

Another inescapable fact is that Moyes is trapped in the shadow of his predecessor’s glorious past.

And Cole – who scored 93 goals in 195 games under Ferguson - reckons even Jose Mourinho would have struggled to replace his old boss.

He said: “When you go to Manchester United – and this could have happened to anybody, even Mourinho – the dynamics change.

“You are expected to win matches week in, week out and are expected to be challenging for all the major competitions.

“Now that the side are not even challenging, people are looking at the players and saying, firstly, ‘Right it’s got to be the team that is at fault’.

“But I don’t buy that because it is the same team that won the league by 11 points last season.

“I have heard others say that Alex Ferguson left the team in a bad state and I disagree.

“You know they have quality but when you lose Paul Scholes’ creativity and when Ryan Giggs gets a year older you have to bring in creative players.

“At United, I played in an era when we were very attack-minded. If the opposition scored one, we’d score two.

“Looking at it now, we don’t attack the way we used to. We play a different way now. And the manager is clearly missed. He was the King. With him gone, teams have more confidence coming to Old Trafford.”

Yet across town, Manchester City also changed manager during the off-season and have improved as a result.

Cole said: “Manuel Pellegrini has taken the shackles off. If you look at City, player for player, they’ve got the best squad.

“Pellegrini has told them, ‘I play a certain brand of football, I’m attack-minded and I want my attacking players to score goals’.

“And they have. To get over 100 goals by January is extraordinary and it is down to his philosophy.

“City, believe me, are good enough to win the Champions League. United, though, are struggling to qualify for it.”

Meanwhile, Nemanja Vidic would have stayed at Manchester United had Sir Alex Ferguson still been the boss.

That’s according to ex-United defender Paul Parker, who reckonsthe Serbian star would have extended his deal rather than quit in the summer.

Skipper Vidic, 32, stunned boss Moyes when he announced he would not renew his contract.

And former England ace Parker, who made 146 appearances for United, said Vidic’s departure will be a bitter blow for the club.

He said: “Vidic will be missed.

“He’d have stayed, had Sir Alex Ferguson still been there.”