Moyes is gone and I for one am delighted to fcukin bits. Forget the whole "honourable thing to do" bullshit, the guy was not good enough and he had to go. Honestly I wasn't sure if the Glazers were going to fire him but looking back I would be surprised if they had done anything else differently.
First of all the idea that United are different from other clubs when it comes to dealing with managers is completely outdated. People thinking along those line are stuck in a nostalgic ideal world that seized to exist decades ago and United fans have SAF to thank for shielding us from that harsh reality for the past 27 years. Football is a business, a result-based business at that, so deal with it. Take into account the stature of United and the success they have enjoyed for the past twenty-odd years then you see that it is absolutely naive to think that United owed Moyes anything after the way he performed.
Yes SAF was given time but I've said it before and I'll say it again, it was a completely different situation. For one he wasn't taking overCHAMP20NS!. Someone has already mentioned it here, "SAF took over a mid-table team full of alcoholics". Secondly, people are ignoring the pedigree with which SAF came to United with. The man had a decent career as a player and was a proven winner as a manager, can you say the same for Moyes on both accounts? NO! At best Moyes is a good manager that is suited for teams with Premiership mediocrity ambitions, not the kind of ambitions and standards required at United. Moyes will make you stable but he wont get the best out of the team,to prove this point look at what Martinez is doing with Moyes' own players (minus their best player from last season) at Everton. Fine! Give him an extra season and let him bring "his own players", but why would you do that if another coach is proving right now that it's possible to get even more from players that Moyes had and therefore the players he will bring might even perform better under a different manager?
Also don't buy this whole "it was always going to be tough" line we are being fed by the sympathetic British media. Had Moyes been a foreign manager the abuse and scrutiny he would have endured by now would have been nothing short of public execution, just ask AVB.
Just at the tail end of last season the Legend himself had this to say:
"It was important to me to leave an organization in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so," he said. "The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level."
Now we are to believe that the squad is shit? Hell NO! I keep hearing that the team is old and not good enough and all that, but c'mon! Besides Giggs and Rio who else in the current squad can we say that they are too old to perform? And how much of an input have they had this season so that we can say they negatively affected the team? John Terry and Lampard are old how come we haven't heard Mourinho complaining? How about Gerrad? I bet he is 25 eh!? These players are capable of more and they know it just as we know it. Them not performing to standard is that the players fault of is it the manager's? I don't know, but the way I see it is that it's the managers job to inspire confidence in his players and get them to buy into his philosophy. Only conclusion is that Moyes failed in getting them to fight for him. With that being said players are still supposed to put in 100% when they play and shame on them for the times they did not this season, but at the same time they are human beings as well. How many times in our jobs have we felt that our bosses are complete tossers and have no clue in what they are doing? And can all of us say that we still put in 100% in those situations? I bet not many.
This was supposed to be a transition period for the club, a few tweaks here and there, a couple of new players (3-4 max), maybe miss out on the Premiership but keep in pace with rivals, but by mid-season Moyes had people believing that the club needed a complete overhaul. Don't buy that load of crock, not even for a second! No one with a sound mind expected Moyes to win the league, but c'mon! Top-four and a good cup run was definitely not out of his reach and he shat the bed.
From what I'm reading it seems as if the decision was made a long time ago, but they were waiting for it to become mathematically impossible for the team to qualify for the champions league, which apparently would activate a clause in the contract that will limit the compensation package he is to be paid (smart business on the Glazer's part). It seems people within the club including the players knew this, which could explain their indifference during their last performance.
Even SAF has been quite over this whole thing and he was one of the more vocal supporters of Moyes but I bet he knew the conditions required for Moyes to keep his job (top-four finish) and poor guy thought that was easy enough, that's why he stuck his neck out for this guy when he asked the fans to "stand by the manager". And if that's the case, that Moyes had to at least keep the team in the top four, then it makes sense why SAF and Bobby Charlton have not come out and condemned his sacking, but maybe they will. Bottom line is that it seems that as much as we were made to believe that Moyes had the backing of the club the truth was that he had that backing only to a certain degree and he did not meet the expectations needed for that support to continue.
For those fans of other clubs saying United is wrong in doing this, we all know you are saying that because #Moyesin is a way more appealing prospect for your respective clubs than #Moyesout.
As far as who the new manager should be, I have no idea. Klopp seems like the obvious choice but he seems determined to stay in Dortmund. Van Gaal would be good, but he doesn't strike me as a long term solution. Maybe go for Van Gaal for the next few years while the club works on promoting someone from inside the club (maybe Giggs, or G-Nev). But for sure I would prefer for the search to be done before the World Cup, that way the new manager has some time to try and get a few players.
I suppose this is what fans of other clubs are used to and they know how to deal with it. Someone had actually raised the question whether the stability of United is actually what hurt United more than anything else? Because other clubs are used to these quick cycles of managers and thus their players adapt easier to managerial changes than what United players showed. It's definitely and interesting theory.
Sorry if this reads a bit like some "dear-John" type of letter but I haven't posted on here for a few weeks. Enjoy the ride fellow REDS! It's an unprecedented time in our club's history, at-least for those of us that only know of the Ferguson and post-Ferguson era.
Cheers!
