Newspaper reports say that Ferguson told an audience of 300 people at a charity lunch in Manchester that he found it "upsetting the way it came out."
Moyes was sacked on Tuesday after only 10 months with United currently seventh in the league and out of the running for a Champions League slot next season.
However, the news of his impending departure was widely reported the previous day with United waiting 16 hours before confirming his sacking, prompting LMA chief executive Richard Bevan to blast the behaviour of the club.
"The LMA is very disappointed with the nature of David's departure from Manchester United and to read extensive reports in the press, confirming David's sacking, before David himself had been spoken to officially by the club," he said.
The newspapers reporting Ferguson's dismay (The Times and the Daily Mail) supply no further quotes from the lunch he attended but Moyes' unsuccessful tenure is a personal failure for the legendary boss who hand-picked his successor.
It is believed that Ferguson, who last year urged fans to get behind the new man, had supported the decision to sack Moyes and will play a role in the appointment of the next manager, although the Sun argues that Ferguson tried until the last to save Moyes.
Either way, Moyes personally thanked Ferguson for the opportunity to manage United in his farewell statement.
"I remain proud to have led the team to the quarter-finals of this year's Champions League and I remain grateful to Sir Alex Ferguson for believing in my ability and giving me the chance to manage Manchester United," he said.
Sure Fergie will be upset about the Moyes sacking but we suspect it will be as much because it is a bruise to his personal ego than for any other reason. Ferguson does not suffer fools gladly, he has always been a Machiavellian and that is why he was such a good manager. He got rid of Ince, he got rid of Van Nistelrooy, he got rid of Keane and he probably okayed the Moyes sacking too. The end justifies the means, and no matter how it came out, dismissing Moyes was the right call.
Ferguson will get a say in picking the next manager and just because he got the Moyes call so drastically wrong, does not mean he should not be listened too. It won't be a simple case of going for whoever Fergie says should get it this time though. United need a strong manager with a track record of winning things, who isn't going to be influenced by those upstairs. Louis van Gaal – currently the odds on favourite for the job – appears to tick those boxes.
United would be advised to speak to Van Gaal soon though – he begins the Netherlands World Cup training camp on May 7 in Hoenderloo with the best of the Dutch league players plus some from the country's Under-21 side. The senior players then join on May 17. Van Gaal's mind will be fully focused on the World Cup by then and the Dutch FA won't take too kindly to interference. If Van Gaal is indeed the man for United, expect developments very soon. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph have said Juventus manager Antonio Conte has emerged as a 'dark horse' for the job.
WHAT THE MEDIA ARE SAYING
Matt Dickinson, Rory Smith (The Times): United are convinced that the gulf between them and the Barclays Premier League elite is not nearly as vast as it has appeared this season. The belief remains that three high-calibre signings, as well as a top-class manager, would be enough to bridge the gap. Woodward is determined to complete those signings, ideally before the World Cup, and the club retain hopes of signing Luke Shaw, of Southampton, Cesc Fàbregas, from Barcelona, and Edinson Cavani, the Paris Saint- Germain forward. That increases the urgency in their hunt for a manager, with Van Gaal busy from May 7 with Holland’s pre-World Cup schedule.
Ian Herbert (The Independent): United are engaged in another pressurised search to restructure the team, top to bottom, because the legacy handed on by Ferguson simply was not good. The player-recruitment systems were little less than shambolic. There was none of the five-year advance planning, with due diligence done on emerging talents from all corners of the world, which you will now find at the touch of a button at Chelsea and City – prime practitioners of the acquisition business who analyse the market to death. The manager who took over from Ferguson was always going to struggle with that side of the inheritance. Moyes found himself handed what became known as "the black box" – a loose, unfathomable system of agreements and communications between Ferguson and his scouts. United began equipping Moyes with modernity but they have only just begun.
Sean Bones (Vice-chairman of the Manchester United Supporters Trust): It's a PR shambles. Manchester United's history shows they deal with things with class and dignity but that has not been the case here. The story leaked before David Moyes has been spoken to, and that's not the Manchester United way. There was no dignity or class in the way they went about it.
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