Its not such a perfect record although there was only one Howard.
Our most successful manager ever, did have an absolutely glorious spell here as a manager but his subsequent spells on his return weren't so happy. It was also a different era when there wasn't a huge financial barrier between us and the likes of City, United or Chelsea, Liverpool too now are far, far wealthier, even Arsenal.
Finance like it or not will put limits on our ambitions, and is why perhaps Spurs achievements, although no cups, but just on even being up there so consistently and regularly achieving Champions League on a far smaller budget, more akin to ours, is so meritorious.
Joe Royle won our last trophy but at the same time he very nearly took us down too and was generally a disastrous manager for me.
OGS at Utd has to now be in pole position to take the job permanently but United would still be wise not to leave a definite decision until later.
There are so many points now in Solskjaer's favour that it is looking with every game that he now has be their man.
He's shown adaptability and tactical awareness in both setting them up and the game plan.
He's extremely popular with their fanbase and knows United the club, their traditions and philosophy as regards the playing style and attacking football.
Tactically against Spurs and Friday night against Arsenal he showed excellent awareness of just where to hit the opposition targeting their weakest links, Friday for me was a more complete performance than the Spurs one, the latter really could have won easily but for de Gea.
So it's sensible still for them to wait until far nearer the end of the season when he'll have months and months of solid work and possibly results behind him, but he couldn't have made a better start to the job.
Pochettino for me may still be their way to go if things don't go as well for OGS between now and April/May.
Spurs, as Arsenal did, have and will suffer from the huge burden of financing the building of a very large modern stadium in the capital, the expense and capital that soaks up is immense and has to be managed and spread over a long period.
They are not one of the richest clubs in England to start with, financially speaking they aren't even anything like as big as Arsenal were when they went through it. They have to operate a very strict wage structure and are comparatively low payers even for their top players. Poch has to a large extent performed a minor miracle to keep them anywhere near the top over recent years, its constantly an extraordinarily difficult balancing act.
He hasn't been one to complain overtly about the board, about the spending, about keeping his top players tied to contracts when they know they could get far far more with virtually any move anywhere, or more recently about the crushing injury list and no goalscorers available. Son goes to an Asian cup, its not another burden but an opportunity, the cover and reserve options such as Llorente are desperately poor too, nowhere near replacing like with like. To not bring it up as so many would, to virtually not complain at all, is a club owner's dream.
He has only recently started to offer hints on the lack of transfer activity at Spurs over a period being a drawback on ambition and the need to have a target and budget for it, where do they want to get? He may think his players are about to break ranks, there has been plenty of talk on Erikson, once one goes and contracts come up for renewal, it could lead to others.
He may now feel he's taken the club as far as it can go without strengthening, in other words new stadium or not, no spending will limit future progress.
United may find him far more willing to come than is generally expected, Levy will be difficult but it could be worth it.
Solskjaer right now, after Friday night, is definitely in pole position, but now isn't April or May, if then OGS can point to a lengthier and possibly sustained spell of success in his temporary role the clamour to make it permanent may well become unstoppable, but until then United won't be rushing to close other avenues down just yet.
