United Corner- It Just Wasn't Meant to be for David Moyes (April 25th 2014)
The David Moyes era at Old Trafford was officially brought to a close just ten months after he first walked through the door as Manchester United manager and it seems the over-riding feeling is of joy from the majority of the fans.
That is an understandable reaction considering the fall from grace made by United during the course of the season as they failed to really make a concerted effort to retain the Premier League title they won by eleven points last season.
Even with that in mind, I wasn't one of these 'experts' that had tipped Manchester United to challenge for the League title simply because of the margin they won the League by the year before- it was clear to most match-going Reds that the squad did need some big improvements, but that was the first failure made by the club under Moyes last summer.
While I expected United to slip off the top of the table, the belief at the start of the season was that there would be enough to see the side finish in the top four, so being a position where even that aim is unachievable with four games left to play was never going to be acceptable. However, I still believed that the manager needed to be given a chance and I was always prepared, no matter what happened this season, to give him two full seasons before I made a judgement on him.
There have been mistakes made by Moyes and he almost admitted to some of those with his statement offering the line that he 'is always learning' from the experiences. That was never going to cut it at Manchester United where the manager needed to have more faith in his own ability to do the job and it does make me wonder if Moyes ever really got to grip with what was required.
He wasn't helped last summer with a bumbling approach to the transfer market that would have been better overseen by Alan Partridge- the fact that Ed Woodward has shifted the focus on his own mistakes by using Moyes as a fall guy is embarrassing, particularly with the leak of the sacking on Easter Monday likely to have come from the new Chief Executive in all but name.
Signing Marouane Fellaini was under-whelming considering some of the names that Manchester United were linked with, while the fee was a disaster considering the Belgian midfielder could have been purchased earlier in the window for four million less than eventually agreed with Everton.
David Moyes also made the mistake of being a touch critical of a squad that had won the League the moment he walked into the club with some of the statements made about the standard bound to rub players up the wrong way. That was exasperated by the training methods that hadn't sit well with the squad and it was clear he had lost the support of key players as soon as Rio Ferdinand took to Twitter with 'veiled' digs at the manager.
His backing of Wayne Rooney, which some fans would have agreed with, seems to have been far too over the top where the striker was dictating potential transfer targets and having an increasing influence on Moyes. That was a stark contrast to how Sir Alex Ferguson dismissed Rooney's suggestions to buy Mesut Ozil in 2010 and lost Moyes the command of the dressing room, a big no no when dealing with the egos of a title winning squad that United possess.
The worst aspect of the manager reign was the post-match, pre-match interviews of a manager that seemingly forgot he was managing one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Repeated talk of 'playing well' and being 'unlucky' grated on some fans when it was clear we were not watching the same game, but using words like 'hope' before a home game against Newcastle United had everyone scratching their heads and wondering if Mike Ashley had signed the Bayern Munich starting eleven in the days leading up to the game without anyone noticing.
And any suggestion of Manchester United being an 'underdog' when Liverpool were visiting Old Trafford didn't exactly set the fire burning in a terrible performance on the pitch. Another home loss where Moyes pointed to Manchester City, not United, being the benchmark of the standard required in the Premier League was just bothersome in the meek way United surrendered on the pitch.
The fatal error from Moyes, even accounting for all those above, was the lack of a cohesive playing style that the fans could relate to- I am convinced that he would have been given time if United had been playing a swash-buckling style where they didn't simply run out of ideas the second they fell behind in a match. David Moyes was at his most comfortable when the fans accepted the tactics employed against Bayern Munich to try and contain the reigning European Champions, but those defensive schemes in games against West Brom, Fulham and Stoke City were never going to be good enough.
Buying Juan Mata looked a very good move, but playing him out of position was a travesty and the lack of a clear tactical plan may have been the downfall for the manager. Moyes has been accused of being too cautious and perhaps being in charge of a team like Everton, where finishing in the top seven every season was a success, is more in line with how he wants to approach games.
Manchester United expect to beat the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City... David Moyes just didn't want to lose those matches.
All of this may seem that I am being critical of a manager that I said I would give a chance to for at least a couple of seasons before I made my opinion on him- I still would have given the man another transfer window and evaluated the success in six months time.
This isn't out of blind-faith or because I want to show off 'Top Red' status, but simply because I believe the job at Manchester United was not going to be one that could be settled into immediately.
Moyes had been identifying the weaknesses in the squad and was being linked with the right players to start making the changes he wished to see. The midfield was quickly seen as the area he wanted to improve, although I do wish he hadn't panicked and bought Fellaini without really considering what he wanted to do with him.
Luke Shaw seems to have been persuaded to join United over his favourite club Chelsea and Moyes apparently had a scouting system in place that had impressed some of the big-wigs at the club.
Manchester United had been getting linked to some of the talent required in the areas they are needed which suggests that Moyes had an idea of what had to be done to change our fortunes on the field, but all the sub-standard performances and losing support in the board room and the dressing room ended any chance of extending his time in charge.
At the end of the day, United have to be comfortable with the manager they are willing to back heavily in the transfer market as I simply don't believe the owners are going to be investing in too many big windows into the club judging by past performance. That means the investment has to be right and the club have to be sure which manager gets the chance to do that.
I respect that, but I don't respect the way the owners and Ed Woodward in particular decided to go about their dispensing of Moyes- for all the mistakes that the manager had made, and for all those who don't believe that he was the right man for the top job, Moyes seems to be a nice enough guy that deserved to be treated with dignity and respect.
Those two elements were the last things afforded to him with the rumours about his demise spreading through Easter Monday and United's denials that they were in the process of removing him at that point is an outright lie. Fanzines like Red Issue and Red News have both been making it clear for weeks that there was a big change in feeling towards Moyes and suggestions that he was going to be leaving definitely came from within the club to the journalists after the loss at Everton.
As despicable and slimy as the likes of Woodward and the Glazers are, the players also should not be afforded the luxury of hiding behind the Moyes dismissal. Despite what they thought of the manager, their lacklustre displays in defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool is just as unforgivable as anything Moyes did and many of them should not be wearing the shirt for United again.
Moyes is certainly not going to be forgiving those players if his statement thanking everyone but noticeably ignoring the players is anything to go by and I don't blame him. For all the tactics and complaints about the way Moyes prepared for games, I have utter disdain for the way some of the players conducted themselves on and off the field.
So where do United go from here? I am not at all convinced with the idea of the 'Class of 92' taking over in a committee role, but that doesn't look a long-term plan with the job being linked to some of the bigger names in football.
Louis Van Gaal looks the obvious choice and while I have never been his biggest fan, the idea of someone with the discipline to come in and shape that squad and a man with the strength of character he has is very appealing. He has plenty of trophies behind his name, but the majority of those have come in the last century and that is the main reason I am not bouncing off the walls in anticipation of his arrival.
Personally I would look to Carlo Ancelotti, although trying to get him out of the Spanish capital might be nigh on impossible if he leads Real Madrid to the Champions League success they have craved for over a decade.
Even if it is Van Gaal, a manager I don't have a lot of time for, he needs to be given the chance to build the squad to his satisfaction and that means not being in this same position in twelve months time. If Manchester United are out of the top four again, the pressure will be on the owners who haven't accounted for the club being out of the European elite for too many years, but Van Gaal, or whoever is allowed to spend the money being spoken about, should be allowed to make the necessary changes that may not produce results for a couple of seasons.
Patience might have to be the key for the supporters, but I have faith they will have that with the match-going Reds who were behind Moyes until the very end. That should make it easier for the new manager, especially if they employ an attacking style that shows signs of the improvement that fans were looking for from the Moyes team selections as each week passed by.
Ten months is not enough time to really have a positive impact on a club and that is sadly going to be David Moyes' legacy at Old Trafford when we look back on his time at the club. There just won't be anything that people will look back on and remember was set in place by Moyes and I do feel sorry for him that he wasn't given a full chance.
He can also take some of the blame for that as he lost the dressing room and the performances highlighted that- it also showed a team that might not be willing to learn under Moyes and that was always going to shorten his time at Old Trafford.
For years it has been said that the Manchester United job would be a great one for the manager following the manager that replaced Sir Alex Ferguson.
The first part of that statement has come true with David Moyes being the victim, but it remains to be seen if the new manager, whoever that is, can really get the team back on track as soon as the fans would like it to be.
