Man Utd should ignore public pressure and stand by David Moyes.
Sacking him now, or even when his first miserable season has finally ended would be a mistake – and set a dangerous precedent for the future.
To cave in now to those baying for the manager’s blood would undermine everything that the club have stood for over the past quarter of a century.
It would undermine the values installed into the club by Sir Alex Ferguson and the stewards of the boardroom who ensured Manchester United were different to ‘other’ British clubs.
Now is the time for nerve, for loyalty and for belief in giving their man – the ‘Chosen One’ – the time and space he requires to build the next generation of greats at Old Trafford.
Has this season been good enough? Absolutely not. The performance of Manchester United under Moyes has been a disaster so far and of course the manager, the man at the top, will take the blame. But it is the performance of Manchester United, not just Moyes that has failed.
Sure he leads the ship, it is his team selection and down to him to inspire and lead but given what he was left at his disposal what did United really expect?
Has Moyes made mistakes, could he have done things different. Of course he could. He knows that. Had he known what he knows now I’ve no doubt he could have arrived at Old Trafford and started swinging the axe like some crazed manic butchering many of the so-called ‘stars’ that have let him down so badly this season.
However, imagine what sort of a reaction that would have achieved?
Mission Impossible
Moyes first season was always going to be a Mission Impossible. Do nothing and achieve success and it would have been thanks to the legacy left by Ferguson. Change everything and achieve failure and he would be a meddler? Do nothing and achieve nothing and he appears to be clueless?
It goes without saying the failure to do nothing in the summer transfer window – other than the eventual signing of Marouane Fellaini – was a disastrous start and probably set the tone for the season.
Sir Alex Ferguson was a master in the transfer market. He made up his mind who he wanted and the deal was done. No messing. In and out.
Ferguson had terrific backing from Martin Edwards, Peter Kenyon and then David Gill. As a team they identified their targets and wrapped them up – or walked away if they were messed about. United made it clear they were in charge.
Not that all Fergie’s signings were master strokes however. In fact, far from it. There were some absolute clangers but the point was Fergie was decisive. Both with players coming in and going out. Even if he made a mistake – whilst he would never admit it – those players didn’t last long.
Clean Slate
It is perhaps a mark of the man that Moyes gave everyone at Old Trafford a clean slate, a chance to show him what they could and couldn’t do and it is only this honesty, this fairness if you like that has ultimately hurt him as a large number of ‘star’ names have coasted their way through the season.
Has he lost the dressing room? I’m not sure he ever had it?
Even the most die-hard United fan – and for the record I am not a United fan though I have spent 12 years covering the club professionally as a football writer for The Mirror and the News of the World – has to admit that the squad he inherited was beyond repair.
Some of those players have truly given their all for United over the years and time has simply caught up with them, as injury or aching limbs leave them unable to hit the heights of previous season.
The majority though have simply not dug deep enough for the club, their manager, or themselves. That is the real scandal of this current crisis.
Brick Walls
During the years I have covered United I can not remember seeing a player who didn’t appear to be prepared to run through brick walls for the club?
I think of Pallister, Bruce, Keane, Van Nistelrooy, Phil and Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dennis Irwin and of course a certain Eric Cantona.
Beckham and Gary Neville are a terrific example of what is wrong with the current United side. Forget the myth that surrounds Beckham and think of his work rate. Those that were fortunate enough to watch United week-in, week-out, will recall the thousands of overlapping runs Beckham and Gary Neville would put in up and down the United flank.
Whether they had the ball, whether they received the ball or not they never stopped working, backing each other up, constantly probing and stretching teams wide whilst Irwin and Giggs, or Patrice Evra and Giggs did the same on the left.
Wherever you looked across the pitch during United’s glory years under Ferguson you witnessed players that would give their absolutely everything for the club, for their teammates, for the supporters and for the manager.
Honest Endeavour
During the past two seasons I look across the United pitch and other than Rooney, who tries to do everything, Phil Jones and the ever reliable Ryan Giggs I struggle to see that same honest endeavour.
I don’t particularly want to signal players out and yet I watch the likes of Antonio Valencia and Nani, Fellani and even Ashley Young (and I can’t believe I’ve written that) and I just don’t see players that are giving the manager, their teammates, the supporters everything they have?
United fans have always appreciated effort. There have been players at United over the years who, without being too unkind, probably weren’t technically good enough and yet the fact that they would give it their all, they would burst blood vessels for the club, endeared them to the club’s supporters.
United fans will give their undying support to those that are giving their all for the club.
When I think of effort I think of John O’Shea, Wes Brown, Diego Forlan, Japp Stam, even the likes of Phil Bardsley and Quinton Fortune. They worked their socks off for the club.
And then of course there are those working behind the scenes. There are people within the hallowed Old Trafford walls that should have done more to support their manager. He been left isolated too many times this season with the club opting to sit behind a wall of silence rather than defend their leader.
The Ferguson era is over. He was a law under himself and certainly had the measure of the media but times have changed and to give the new man a fair chance the club have to support him.
Outrageous
Letting him take the blame for the upheaval of the United coaching staff was outrageous and could have been corrected almost immediately?
The United fans were left to believe Moyes had ripped Ferguson’s coaching team apart and instead installed his own team from Goodison. That’s simply not true. The majority, not all, but the majority of Fergie’s back-room team decided that this was the time to try something new?
Even Ferguson’s dedicated PA the legendary Lynne Laffin, opted to leave United when Fergie retired, preferring to follow Fergie and support his business empire.
So Moyes was left to start from scratch in charge of the one of the world’s largest sporting brands?
Now, before anyone starts to shed a tear for Moyes here let’s be in doubt, I agree entirely he got some of those early decisions wrong but given the options he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t?
United fans – even the most die-hard United fans – will admit that last year they got away it.
Wheels Had Come Off
The absence of a consistent challenger allowed them to sneak past the post but the wheels had come off and too many appeared to have selected cruise control mode.
Moyes is no fool. He has proved himself consistently over the past two decades as being a manager who knows what he wants and he has delivered.
I have been fortunate to work closely with Moyes during his time at Preston and Everton, having first been introduced to him by Ferguson after the Scot told me he wanted to bring him from Preston to United as his number two many years ago.
Moyes is a winner and this season will have hurt him more than anyone could imagine.
I always felt the one thing at Everton that potentially hampered him was his careful approach to transfers. He perhaps pondered for too long and feared making mistakes with other peoples money.
At a club like Everton, when resources were scarce this approach would have been welcome by the club. Slow and steady won the race.
Hindsight
United is an entirely different beast. The funds available are, were, vast, and I think he was over cautious, fearful of making an expensive mistake. With the benefit of hindsight – a wonderful expression – he clearly should have moved quicker.
I could never quite understand why he simply didn’t instruct the Old Trafford board to move to Goodison and wrap up the deal to bring Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka and Fellani ASAP regardless of the cost.
The triple signings would have ensured he had three solid, dependable players that would at least have had his back – and provide consistency when he needed it most – and given the clause in Fellaini’s contract he would have signed for a fraction of the ultimate fee.
The closure of the transfer window ensured his hands were tied this season and with that, the club’s fate was effectively sealed as players played out their final season or seemed content to collect their sizeable wage packet every week.
Fergie may have sucked a little more like out of the squad but that would have been because he had the luxury of having worked with them for a decade or more. Moyes had to find out for himself and the majority of his squad have badly let him down.
Quite where United would be without Wayne Rooney and some excellent performances David de Gea this season does not bear thinking about and those that have leaked their unhappiness to the media may want to look closer to home before they begin bleating to others.
When you think back to the Treble winning era at United I dread to think what it would have been like to have been a player inside the dressing room at half time that wasn’t giving 110% for their teammates.
Forget the manager, the team was packed with leaders, with players who would die for the club. Look over your shoulder and see Keane, Neville, Butt or Irwin. To the other side there is Schmeichel, Giggs, Scholes, Sheringham and Stam. All born leaders.
Total Rebuild
Moyes knows what has to be done, he knows which areas need to be strengthened and I think almost certainly now accept that a total rebuild is required, rather than a tinker around the edges.
I believe United need to look back through their own recent history and remember how they almost moved to remove Ferguson after only four season, holding their nerve only after the FA Cup triumph in 1990.
The club should also stand by their man. They will know which areas he wants to improve on, who he intends to sign and who will be lined up to leave.
Whilst the lack of European football next season is a financial headache for the Glazer family from a footballing perspective it might prove to be a blessing as it gives Moyes a chance to build the bedrock of his United team for the future.
Of course it means there won’t be the stellar signings that United’s noisy neighbours will attract this summer as the lack of Champions League football will count against United.
But it United build a team to win the Premiership it would allow them this time next season to go and find the cherries for the top of the cake, the stellar signings that demand European football.
United fans have enjoyed a tremendous run of success and if they want that again they have to prepare for a complete overhaul of the United set-up. That means time.
Allow Moyes to have a complete summer and then judge him on the squad that kicks-off next season. That will tell us more about his footballing philosophy and his plans for Manchester United.
Tragically I suspect it is too late. My former colleagues in the media are well connected and the Glazer family will of course have concerns – particularly given the financial fall-out from United’s failure to secure Champions League football.
But thus far, the American owners have stayed away from footballing decisions, not allow themselves to get involved with matters they din’t understand whilst other ‘foreign owners’ have meddled and messed and ruined previously well organised clubs.
Chelsea and Manchester City are perhaps different. The managers at both clubs have been provided with an obscene amount of money and effectively given the green light to buy success. Failure is not an option if the manager wishes to remain in place for any length of time.
United have a healthy transfer budget but the Glazer family, as any United fan will tell you all too quickly, are not even close to being a Roman Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan and so that requires a different approach, a long term plan of attack.
Let’s see what Moyes vision is and then judge him? Succumbing to public pressure, to media outlets baying for blood is not the ‘United way’. If they take the easy option and end Moyes’ reign after a single season then United become just like all the rest.