Looks like David Moyes has “managed” to piss off the right people (everyone including the owner) this time! The club’s owner, The Glazer Family along with the executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, have decided to fire Moyes from his job. He’s getting sacked for making one of the world’s best football clubs look like losers for more than an year now. He has been under speculation ever since he came as “The Chosen One” since he was replacing the most successful coach in English Football history. David Moyes always knew its not going to be easy for him to maintain the legacy of Sir Alex Ferguson. Yet he made the wrong decisions. Again, and again and again.
1. Replaced the backroom staff
This was David Moyes’ first decision at Old Trafford and it was a wrong one. He did not retain any of Sir Ferguson’s backroom staff. By sacking Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen and Eric Steele, he dispensed with respected coaches and replaced them with unproven Everton staff which the players were not so comfortable with.
2. Performance
United has clearly not been performing under Moyes. The club’s mentality has seen a drastic change over the last one year. The club which was famous for attacking the opposition no matter who they were, has been playing a more reserved game. United won the English Premier League in 2013(obviously before Moyes!) but is now standing at the 7th position in the English Premier League. Swansea recorded their first ever win at Old Trafford when they knocked United out of the FA Cup in January. United was also eliminated from the Capital Cup by Sunderland. West Brom’s 2-1 win in September was their first at Old Trafford since 1978. Out of all the matches United played under Moyes, they’ve won 27 out of 51, drawing 9 and losing 15. All this shows complete failure.
3. Treatment of players
A team cannot run without it nurturing its players and so cannot the Coach. The treatment of senior players like Ryan Giggs has raised eyebrows all around. Even after performing well on being selected, Giggs was not given much of a chance to play. Then comes the treatment of another player, Wilfried Zaha. Moyes made another mistake by letting Zaha go to Cardiff even before he got the chance to prove his £12m worth for which he was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson.
4. Marouane Fellaini
At first, United got embarrassed by getting rejected by Christiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. Then Moyes waited till the transfer season almost got over and then he roped in a player that proved successful for him but has been disastrous for United. Was spending £27million on Marouane Fellaini worth it ? Not at all! Moyes waited till the last moments of transfer window to get Fellaini into United, making it look like an act of desperation. The belgian has made only 17 appearances and has failed to score or register an assist in those games.
5. Citing Liverpool as favorites
Seriously, what was that for?! You don’t just call your biggest rival as your favorite before losing 3-0 to them at your home ground. This angered not only United fans but was considered to be a very unnecessarily lame statement by fans all around the world. But this was not the first time Moyes had passed a statement like that, earlier he stated that United were “aspiring to be like City”, which again was uncalled for.
Borussia Dortmund’s Jürgen Klopp, Diego Simeone of Atlético Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain’s Laurent Blanc and the Holland coach, Louis van Gaal will all be discussed as the next potential manager. Also, club legend Ryan Giggs will be in charge temporarily till the next manager is selected. These are troubled times for the one of the best and the biggest football clubs to exist. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Lets hope the departure of David Moyes and the arrival of a new coach proves fruitful for Manchester United.
