Man Utd Board Rumoured To Have Discussed Prospect Of Sacking David Moyes For First Time

Chris Wright

18th, March 2014

11 Comments

By Chris Wright

Soccer - UEFA Champions League - Round of Sixteen - Second Leg - Manchester United v Olympiacos - Manchester United Training Session - AON Training Complex

David Moyes: It never rains…

It would appear that the prospect of Manchester United sacking David Moyes as their manager may have been brought up at boardroom level for the first time following their embarrassing 3-0 home defeat against Liverpool on Sunday.

According to ESPN FC, or rather their United sources, The Glazers, while still being behind Fergie’s heir for the time being, are becoming increasingly “open to the idea of a change of manager” with Moyes’ next three fixtures (the second leg against Olympiakos, a trip to West Ham and the Manchester derby) potentially being “decisive” in their thinking.

This comes on the back of reports and ruminations emanating in the Red Issue fanzine, who claim that Moyes has fallen out with Ryan Giggs after Giggs failed to attend a recent coaches meeting.

Having sent Phil Neville to ask him why he didn’t attend, Giggs then reportedly responded that it was “pointless, as Moyes doesn’t listen”.

An image of a snipped excerpt of the Red Issue article has been doing the rounds this morning and, while fanzines are perhaps not the most reliable source for factual impartiality, the content is definitely scathing…

red-issue-moyes-giggs

Now, we have a fair deal of sympathy for Moyes here on Pies. The guy was cherry-picked by United’s former and still omnipresent overlord to assume command of one of the most successful regimes in football history – only to fail to launch for one reason or another.

A transition of that magnitude was never going to be smooth, and the bouncy castle definitely had a slow puncture, but Moyes is hardly helping himself as the Sword of Fergieles wicks away at the thinning hair on his crown.

He’s rapidly losing the supporters with every submissive defeat and he’s also losing the dressing room if the murmurs are to be believe; looking (and sounding) utterly bewildered by it all, all the while – with many becoming convinced that, despite the new badge on his jacket, he’s still the Everton manager he was perhaps born to be.

Soccer - UEFA Champions League - Round of 16 - Olympiakos v Manchester United - Karaiskakis Stadium

Moyes just isn’t helping himself cast off the lingering suspicions that he is merely too “small time” to take on Sir Alex’s groaning mantle. Even for the pro-Moyes brigade, the evidence is becoming increasingly persuasive at this juncture. It’s just plainly not working.

Once a manager loses the dressing room, all the fight and gumption dissipates. Apathy, resentment and spiteful unwillingness spite can spread through the ranks like a cancer and there’s usually only one outcome – and, let’s face it, Moyes has probably had longer than he deserves given his performance, especially by the standards of today’s short-termist managerial chop-jobs.

It’s certainly a toughy, with many factors to be considered as United seek to regenerate. As far as we’re concerned, the decision to throw out any lingering mis-placed loyalties, can Moyes and try again makes perfect sense at this point – but then again, who’s available out there as a replacement?

Louis van Gaal has been mentioned in passing. Who knows, maybe that could work on a short-term, end-of-the-season, Hiddink-style rescue effort?

Will they? Won’t they? Should they? Shouldn’t they? We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter…

Posted in Man Utd, Managers, Newsnow, Opinion

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11 Comments

  1. SG says:

    If anything, they’ll stick to tradition and appoint someone from within the UK. Neil Lennon is a possibility, though I am not sure how he would work out. He’s going well in Glasgow, but I could do well in Glasgow, to be perfectly honest, given the competition up there!

  2. Deluded Dave Moyes Fan Club says:

    The background noise is getting louder.Make no mistake there is something in this story.It falls in line with what Kevin Sheedy said and what the Dutch coach said.
    It also fits with the laughter going around Spain, Germany and Italy about Moyes and his scouting missions.
    And the crap that he is meticulous in his assessments of players.
    This AH is stalking ,not scouting.Remember he signed Fellaini. So, let’s look at the evidence.The players are looking 50% of what they were.Many of the players are afraid to say,what they think .Moyes has been found out.Charlton is still supporting him,just like he did with O’Farrell.And yes, we were relegated the following season.SAF is grossly embarrassed by his judgement.Giving Moyes another match is hilarious as we would have a chance against the Greek restaurant team, without him.We were beaten.I believe that quite a few of our players are deliberately not playing well, so that Moyes goes.Moyes is out of his depth and the last point is we were destroyed by the SAS of Liverpool.We are now paying 500k a week for DSS up front.Yes Dead Slow & Stop.Moyes has lost the squah.Simply put, HE IS TOAST!….
    He should have been sacked months ago

  3. Bryan says:

    Loses* Not looses. Good read though.

  4. Holland 1945 says:

    Not liking the dismissive references to Everton. The Everton manager he was born to be!?

    Everton are steeped in rich history, and success aside have certain standards. Roberto Martinez has brought back a bit of pride — something Moyes, in the second half of his tenure, slowly drained.

    Everton fans were glad to see him go — which the media would have realised if they’d actually, you know, sought to obtain opinions and not just assume that ‘plucky little Everton’ would cry at the departure of their savior, because before the gospel of Moyes we were but a lowly barnacle clutching to the greater vessels of the league.

    Or maybe not. Maybe Everton’s least successful period in their history was actually that of Moyes’ time here, and maybe Everton fans are even more bewildered at Moyes’ appointment at the most successful club in the country. If a lowly, relegated Wigan manager can improve on Moyes, then what hope do United have?

  5. Chris says:

    @Bryan: Quite right. That one slipped through the net. Changed now.

    @Holland 1945: They weren’t intended as “dismissive” references to Everton, nor was I inferring that Moyes did anything other than an astounding job there.

    I was merely trying to convey the fact that the man appears to have reached his ceiling playing the perpetual over-achieving underdogs at a (in relative terms) mid-table club.

  6. syndex says:

    To any listening marketing men for Everton can I please have a WWJD (what would Jagielka do) wristband made. We all know that Man Utd are one or two signing away from greatness, they need to upgrade Rio to Hibbert and get shut of Giggs and replace him with Osman, Rooney he’s pants surely if you bid 10M you can get Anichebe
    With all seriousness
    We stuck over a decade of watching terrible players play terrible football, good players constantly played out of position and youth team players routinely wasted or thrown on the scrap heap. Not to rewrite history by the Moysiah idolatry with hindsight was merely Stockholm syndrome.

  7. Steven Curless says:

    Finding it hard to believe all Fergie graft and structure in place at the club, which was machine like winning formula is being destroyed and eroded by Moyes and his coaches.Mike Phealen would have kept the team competitive with Rene as coach, is it not too late to give these guys a chance? I Know people say Moyes should be given time, look what Sir Alex had when he first took the job:exactly a team of underachievers, to second in his first full season.Imagine what he would have done with a team of champions. I hope Moyes can turn things round, he needs to get us playing with speed and invention again, not slow build up play especially at OT.If we are to judge him next season, my fear is how much more money could he have wasted by then.?

  8. Holland 1945 says:

    @Chris

    I’d argue Stoke would be a more apt example of a mid-table team. Whether you’re talking historically or recently, Everton are at worst a consistent top 7 team and at best, one of the most successful clubs in the history of England, with more time spent in the top flight than any other club.

    Of course the present day Everton are more relevant to this argument, and Moyes definitely improved our current predicament. My main point was that despite the media view of him pre-United still being as positive as ever, Everton fans for the past 3-4 years were fed up of Moyes. His poor subs, stubborn attitude, negative pragmatism and downright lack of balls grated on us all as he consistently squandered the ability of the quality squad he’d (to his credit) assembled.

    Fast forward 9 months and many, if not all, of these problems are rife at United. How a team can look so woeful with Rooney, Mata and Van Persie — 3 of perhaps the top 5 or so players from the last Premier league season — is perplexing. He’s out of his depth all right, but he was out of his depth the second Everton’s ambitions were elevated above ‘don’t get relegated’. He never responded well to pressure (hence us consistently falling at the last hurdle and bottling our key games) and now that pressure has been cranked up a lot further. His days must surely be numbered.

  9. Grant says:

    You’d think a team of professional footballers that have consistently let themselves down defensively this season wouldn’t bristle at the idea of doing defensive drills. FFS Liverpool’s attack has been rampant recently, so you could understand why Moyes would approach the preparation for the game that way. As for Rio being offended at being held to Jags’ standard, he should be man enough to understand that for several years now Jags has been a better defender than Rio. Rio himself has been far below United’s vaunted standard this year, otherwise they wouldn’t be shipping goals for fun at the moment.

  10. Phil says:

    Work on defense for two hours in training – end up conceding 3 penalties and 3 goals. Tells you all you need to know about his managerial abilities. Good riddance, Football Genius.

  11. Fat Nakago says:

    Too bad AVB is no longer available…

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