Red Devil Flip Flops
Jonathan Northcroft writing in The Sunday Times takes the lid off the ugly sacking of the former Manchester United boss, David Moyes.
No one comes out of the business very well, but having given Moyes a six year contract and making it clear he was there for the long haul with a mission to rebuild the team - it seems clear that the Manchester United board behaved with an astonishing lack of integrity at the end.
Football's ugliest sacking: the truth
The Manchester United board continued to re-assure their embattled manager right up until the day the axe fell
By Jonathan Northcroft - The Sunday Times
Moyes had no idea Manchester United were on the verge of sacking him until friends, family and journalists began to phone him on Easter Monday (John Powell)
ONE more humiliation. One last trial. Manchester United knew they were on the point of sacking David Moyes but still made him walk the gauntlet of Goodison Park.
The possibility of the axe had been discussed in United senior circles since February’s miserable defeat at Olympiakos. Swinging it became a probability after excruciating home losses to Liverpool and Manchester City in March. When United were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich on April 9, the blade went into the air.
The natural time to follow through was then. United’s season was effectively over. A fixtures quirk meant there were 11 days until the club’s next match, Everton away: plenty of time to remove the manager, finesse the PR, re-establish calm and give Ryan Giggs — lined up as caretaker from a long way out — the best scope to prepare the team.
And then the human element: going back to Goodison was always going to be Moyes’ worst ordeal as a United boss. Everton supporters, embittered by his departure and United’s clumsy pursuits of Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines last summer, planned a reception.
Everyone knew it. Goodison was the one ground Moyes had avoided on his endless round of United scouting trips, having not been to the stadium since leaving as a hero the previous May. But still, as a condemned man, deep breath and get ready for the stocks, he had to go.
Jeered off the bus. Enduring awkward handshakes with frosty former staff. Facing that walk, into air thick with booing, through the tunnel to the pitch. Manning the away dugout, taking ridicule from the famously caustic denizens whose seats are near the technical areas in the Goodison Road stand.
As Moyes sat during the match, a goon wearing a Grim Reaper costume and waving an imitation scythe stood at his back in the front row: a tacky stunt by a bookmaker. United players ambled through the motions; for Everton, a straightforward win. The experience left Moyes “destroyed”. He would have felt worse had he suspected — even a bit — what was coming. Not once had Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman, communicated to Moyes that results and performances needed to improve. Their many conversations were mostly about transfers and players in the existing squad, and the revamp of football operations behind the scenes, which Moyes had worked so hard at overseeing.
Sir Alex Ferguson, now a United director privy to the club’s thinking, had not warned the successor he chose that his job was under threat. Moyes knew the team needed big improvements but clung, naively — he now knows — to the six-year contract and long-term planning brief he was given upon his appointment.
In any case, on the pitch there had been an upturn: 4-1 and 4-0 Premier League wins against Aston Villa and Newcastle set up brave home and away performances against Bayern and, over the course of a two-legged quarter-final tie, United were 33 minutes away from knocking the holders out.
Six-year contract. Long-term. Rebuilding. These seeming bedrocks helped Moyes regather himself the day after Goodison and, though it was Easter Monday and he was trying to spend some time with Pamela, his wife, in their rural home near Preston, Moyes did a little work on transfers, including the £27m bid United are preparing for Southampton’s Luke Shaw. But in the early afternoon, his phone started ringing; friends, agents, family, journalists, all with the same question: “What is going on?” The daily newspaper specialists who cover United were suddenly reporting, en masse, via Twitter and in their online editions that Moyes was about to be sacked.
There was no briefing as such, just good, old-fashioned, persistent digging by reporters. They managed to elicit from elevated Old Trafford sources a signal that Moyes’ demise was imminent. The previous night, Woodward had done a ring around, putting it to other directors, including Ferguson, that now was the moment for United to sack a manager for the first time in more than 27 years. The directors knew the Glazer family, who own United, were firmly behind a change and when Woodward speaks it is with the Glazers’ voice. Still, that Monday, Moyes knew nothing. Embarrassingly, when the calls and texts rained in, he had to reply that he was in the dark. He expected Woodward to ring to clarify things. Nothing. No word from United except a bland reassurance from a press officer. Finally, around teatime, Moyes rang Woodward himself and in a short conversation was told “some of the directors aren’t happy”.
Moyes suggested that if he was going to be fired, the two should meet that evening and quietly, quickly, with civility and without cameras, get things done. Woodward replied that it was Easter, things were difficult, and Moyes would have to wait. He said they would meet at Carrington the next morning.
Moyes would just have to deal with a few more hours of phone calls, news headlines, wondering, speculation, pain.
Moyes tried Ferguson and when, after several calls and texts, he could not get his former patron on the line he knew the game was up. Ferguson subsequently explained he knew a decision had been reached and did not want to have to lie to Moyes on the phone. Moyes appreciated that position, also the sadness at seeing him go that Ferguson expressed — and holds to the belief that he always got support from his predecessor.
Six-year contract. Long-term. Though upset at how things were unfolding, especially the leaks about his demise, Moyes remained fastened to the notion that there might yet be a plan in place for United to ‘do things the right way’. He wondered if the delay was because one of the Glazers was flying in to be present at his dismissal. Yet at 7.40am on Tuesday when Moyes met Woodward, the reaper had come alone.
Woodward said the board had started having “a few doubts” after the 2-0 away defeat by Olympiakos. Moyes pointed out he had actually turned that tie around with a 3-0 win in the home leg and said he would have turned United round generally, given time. Woodward said the team had not been showing enough “spirit and fight” to suggest a revival was going to happen. Moyes noted that if there was one thing he had been associated with as a manager at Everton, it was producing sides with “spirit and fight”. Was, therefore, the lack of it in United down to the manager? It is a question he left Woodward to ponder. Some, of course, have a simple theory on such matters: if players do not give their best, it is really not the poor souls’ fault. It is all down to their gaffer.
Moyes, in fact, did not feel he had “lost the dressing room” at Old Trafford. He accepts some in United’s squad may have been pleased to see him go but he was poised to make substantial changes in the summer — and players on the way out or on the fringes of any team are seldom the fiercest soldiers.
Despite slurs about Moyes’ relationship with the group, a number of players were upset. Wayne Rooney was particularly regretful and called Moyes later on Tuesday to thank him for mending bridges between himself and United. Moyes inherited a Rooney troubled by a feud with Ferguson and ready to leave for Chelsea; now Rooney is United’s top scorer and tied by a five-year contract renewal.
Darren Fletcher was another to give Moyes a message of thanks. Adnan Januzaj was said to have been emotional when Moyes announced his departure to the squad. Giggs went to see Moyes privately and told him he was a good man. The warmest memory Moyes will take, though, is of United’s supporters — perhaps the one group who fully lived up to the image United project keenly of themselves, of being a “special club”. He knows results were disappointing and, given that, he felt, inside Old Trafford and at away grounds, they stayed foursquare behind him and the cause. Late on Friday he texted Andy Mitten, editor of the influential United We Stand fanzine, to say, “Andy. Would you please let it be known how much I appreciated the support I got from the real United fans. They were incredible. I am sorry I couldn’t give them the results they are all used to. Thanks.” The only thing from supporters Moyes could have done without was the Chosen One banner, hung at the Stretford End from the beginning of his reign: he would have preferred to earn rather than be granted such an accolade.
That last game at Goodison will be his coldest memory. Why was he put through it? Woodward — who has a different version of events to those already outlined here — says it was simply because a final, final decision on Moyes was not taken until after that defeat. Others suspect it was to let United’s rulers get their ducks lined up — and their dollars.
The ducks: De Telegraaf, Holland’s biggest newspaper, reported yesterday that United have struck an agreement making Louis van Gaal their next permanent manager and two weeks ago carried allegations of a meeting, two days after United lost in Munich, between Van Gaal, Woodward and one of the Glazers. United vehemently deny both.
Not disputed is that on the Tuesday before the Everton match Woodward had separate meetings with Giggs and Rio Ferdinand. Both players were there to talk about their plans for next season and it has been suggested that, in at least one of the tete-a-tetes, there was an attempt to explore the topic of Moyes. Woodward categorically denies this.
If true, it would be a bitter irony for Moyes, who set up the summits, wanting to give senior players the chance to clarify their futures well before the summer.
The dollars: Woodward prides himself on his negotiating talent, especially when it comes to contracts and getting United the best deals. Barring miracles, United were not going to qualify for next season’s Champions League but only the Everton defeat made this arithmetically certain. And that had a happy consequence for the Glazers, who have sucked £700m from United to service debt since their takeover in 2005, and talk — through Woodward — of being willing to “throw money” at football problems, but do not always act that way.
Missing the Champions League, for certain, meant Moyes could be given a reduced pay-off and the settlement agreed with United on Friday left him walking away with £3.5m, a year’s basic salary. He might have been entitled to £4.5m were United still contending for the top four.
Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers Association, of which Ferguson and Moyes are committee members, released a statement contrasting Moyes’ “integrity and professionalism” and United’s “rich tradition” with the “unprofessional manner” in which his departure was handled. Shock at United’s behaviour was registered in the European press and top boardrooms elsewhere. “Unsavoury” was the verdict of one of England’s more important football executives. “Sackings aren’t easy but when you sack someone you get them inside the building first and tell them before the world knows it is going to happen.” Another £1m, however, is now available to service United’s debt.
Did money-saving doom him from the start? Another neat fiscal manoeuvre — or happy accident for the Glazers — involved announcing Moyes as Ferguson’s successor last May, but not starting him as manager until July 1. This meant Everton were not entitled to any compensation for a manager they had nurtured for 11 years. It presented, though, immediate difficulties for Moyes.
The first issue he had to address was his backroom staff. Mike Phelan and Eric Steele, two of Ferguson’s trusted assistants, were coming out of contract and Moyes felt he had to make a decision on them, out of fairness, before meeting the pair. He wanted Rene Meulensteen, Ferguson’s chief coach, to stay but because Moyes was still an Everton employee he was unable to go to Carrington, spend proper time getting to know the Dutchman to establish a basis to work together.
Meulensteen — with his own management ambitions — decided to go. Even now, Moyes’ detractors portray him as having “sacked” Meulensteen but he finally admitted this week it had been his decision to quit. “It became evident to me after a few meetings with David Moyes about the upcoming season that he wanted to bring in his own people and do things in his own way, and I felt very strongly that things would change dramatically for myself, so I couldn’t carry on,” Meulensteen said.
The PR from United was all about Moyes being Ferguson’s appointment, an almost sentimental choice, the manager the great man believed was in his own image. This was nice, for the successor, in a way — and Ferguson certainly did his bit by taking to the pitch at Old Trafford and, via a microphone, commanding the faithful: “Your job is now to stand by our new manager.” But there were no great pronouncements from the Glazers and with Woodward starting in David Gill’s old role, also on July 1, no way Moyes’ immediate boss could be held accountable for his actual appointment.
To some observers, this always created “wriggle-room” for the ownership to make a rapid change if things were not felt to be working out. Woodward would contend searching for a new manager, now, is the last thing he needs, with so many transfer deals to progress. These, incidentally, will continue to be worked on, and perhaps even completed, before Moyes’ successor is appointed. Early on in his new job, Woodward spoke of the “all-powerful manager” model United followed, in contrast to clubs who have directors of football: signing players then presenting them to a coach who comes later feels like another breach with Old Trafford’s past.
Last summer’s transfer window, when a manager was in place, was frustrating, however. A flawed pursuit of Cesc Fabregas left United nowhere. Woodward tried to gazump Real Madrid on Gareth Bale but, despite offering more than the £85m he moved for, it proved too late. Interest in Cristiano Ronaldo also came to nothing. Moyes cautioned against Woodward pursuing a complicated strategy to snare Baines and Fellaini in a double-transfer — it ended merely with United getting Fellaini but paying £4m more than the Belgian’s expired £23.5m get-out clause. Deadline day, when efforts to sign Ander Herrera and Fabio Coentrao fell through, was frantic and hollow.
Both Moyes and Woodward feel the other one was responsible for the poor window. Moyes was not helped by the failure of Fellaini, hampered by injuries and, perhaps, a shy nature, to live up to the status of being United’s only significant signing. Ferguson did bequeath Moyes a £15m signing but, even now, Wilfried Zaha, on loan and used mostly as a substitute by relegation-fighting Cardiff, has yet to establish himself in the Premier League.
A horrible fixture list — Chelsea at home, Liverpool and Manchester City away — in his first five games made building early momentum difficult. Robin van Persie, the difference in so many games the previous season, when United won the title, was in and out of the team through injury. There was a home defeat to West Brom but nevertheless results picked up — until successive home defeats, in early December, to Newcastle and Everton, rocked confidence. In both, United had reasonable possession but played too slowly and were hit in second-half counterattacks. Moyes’ Everton had always been so resilient but, with the core of the 2012-13 title-winners nearly all older than 30, a frustrated Moyes told confidants: “I just can’t get any energy into this team.”
Some players would say training, involving longer sessions and more fitness work, did not help. Moyes would point out his Everton nearly always got stronger throughout a season, often finishing like a train. Moyes’ championing of Rooney, and the renewal of the striker’s contract, in a complex deal that could net him £300,000 a week (but guarantees a lot less) is alleged to have caused some players resentment. It is not known if Ferguson was overjoyed. However, in a season where so few players have produced their expected output, Rooney has scored 17 times and was in good form before a toe injury. If Moyes backed him, it is because Rooney reciprocated on the pitch.
Did other players? Moyes changed his line-up 51 times in 51 games and a fault may have been too much faith in that six-year contract. Moyes was forever trying combinations out, looking for indicators he could take into the summer and apply to the “rebuild”. Perhaps he made too clear, too early, to some players that they would not be part of the future, making it difficult when, because of injuries, he suddenly had to call on them again. Even in the Everton game he was not prioritising immediate results: he chose Nani, for whom he would have listened to offers, to put him in the shop window before the summer.
Giggs, in his pre-match press conference for Norwich, said he had already discovered the manager’s office at Carrington can seem lonely. Revamped after Ferguson left it is an austere place, cloistered in a corner of the building with oak panels, no big windows out on to the training pitch like Moyes had at Everton’s Finch Farm complex and the feel of a discreet hotel suite, not a football hub.
It is unlikely Moyes will miss the vibe. Taking a break in Miami this weekend, he is looking forward to his next chapter: clubs both in England and Europe have been in contact to register interest but he also has thoughts of taking a sabbatical for a year. As an inveterate student of coaching, he has a notion to travel to South America and spend several months looking at coaching methods and how clubs operate in Argentina and Brazil.
Giggs has pledged to return United to a traditional way of playing: wingers, midfielders ahead of the ball, pace, attack. Moyes would have liked that too but felt the squad needed younger, and in some areas much better, players to make it possible. His legacy will be the number of high-quality scouts, analysts and systems men he brought with him, like John Murtough, the Premier League’s former head of elite performance.
Having traversed Europe and personally scouted more than 20 players United might target this summer, he has shaped the list Woodward is working on, which includes Shaw, William Carvalho, Marco Reus and Toni Kroos. The next boss might inherit more than Zaha.
What kind of dressing room will they take over? The anti-Moyes spin of recent days suggests it must be managed carefully. Several United players employ publicists. There are stars of foreign national teams, with ardent presses in their own countries behind them.
Then there is the “Class of 92”, who need nobody’s help to get their views across given their status and platforms in the media. They were the soul of Manchester United once and, with one of their number, Giggs, in charge, may have a brief window in which to show they can be the soul of Manchester United renewed.
Soul? One player was going to put out a supportive tweet when Moyes was sacked but checked with his entourage and thought, nah. He pressed delete.
ONE more humiliation. One last trial. Manchester United knew they were on the point of sacking David Moyes but still made him walk the gauntlet of Goodison Park.
The possibility of the axe had been discussed in United senior circles since February’s miserable defeat at Olympiakos. Swinging it became a probability after excruciating home losses to Liverpool and Manchester City in March. When United were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich on April 9, the blade went into the air.
The natural time to follow through was then. United’s season was effectively over. A fixtures quirk meant there were 11 days until the club’s next match, Everton away: plenty of time to remove the manager, finesse the PR, re-establish calm and give Ryan Giggs — lined up as caretaker from a long way out — the best scope to prepare the team.
And then the human element: going back to Goodison was always going to be Moyes’ worst ordeal as a United boss. Everton supporters, embittered by his departure and United’s clumsy pursuits of Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines last summer, planned a reception.
Everyone knew it. Goodison was the one ground Moyes had avoided on his endless round of United scouting trips, having not been to the stadium since leaving as a hero the previous May. But still, as a condemned man, deep breath and get ready for the stocks, he had to go.
Jeered off the bus. Enduring awkward handshakes with frosty former staff. Facing that walk, into air thick with booing, through the tunnel to the pitch. Manning the away dugout, taking ridicule from the famously caustic denizens whose seats are near the technical areas in the Goodison Road stand.
As Moyes sat during the match, a goon wearing a Grim Reaper costume and waving an imitation scythe stood at his back in the front row: a tacky stunt by a bookmaker. United players ambled through the motions; for Everton, a straightforward win. The experience left Moyes “destroyed”. He would have felt worse had he suspected — even a bit — what was coming. Not once had Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman, communicated to Moyes that results and performances needed to improve. Their many conversations were mostly about transfers and players in the existing squad, and the revamp of football operations behind the scenes, which Moyes had worked so hard at overseeing.
Sir Alex Ferguson, now a United director privy to the club’s thinking, had not warned the successor he chose that his job was under threat. Moyes knew the team needed big improvements but clung, naively — he now knows — to the six-year contract and long-term planning brief he was given upon his appointment.
In any case, on the pitch there had been an upturn: 4-1 and 4-0 Premier League wins against Aston Villa and Newcastle set up brave home and away performances against Bayern and, over the course of a two-legged quarter-final tie, United were 33 minutes away from knocking the holders out.
Six-year contract. Long-term. Rebuilding. These seeming bedrocks helped Moyes regather himself the day after Goodison and, though it was Easter Monday and he was trying to spend some time with Pamela, his wife, in their rural home near Preston, Moyes did a little work on transfers, including the £27m bid United are preparing for Southampton’s Luke Shaw. But in the early afternoon, his phone started ringing; friends, agents, family, journalists, all with the same question: “What is going on?” The daily newspaper specialists who cover United were suddenly reporting, en masse, via Twitter and in their online editions that Moyes was about to be sacked.
There was no briefing as such, just good, old-fashioned, persistent digging by reporters. They managed to elicit from elevated Old Trafford sources a signal that Moyes’ demise was imminent. The previous night, Woodward had done a ring around, putting it to other directors, including Ferguson, that now was the moment for United to sack a manager for the first time in more than 27 years. The directors knew the Glazer family, who own United, were firmly behind a change and when Woodward speaks it is with the Glazers’ voice. Still, that Monday, Moyes knew nothing. Embarrassingly, when the calls and texts rained in, he had to reply that he was in the dark. He expected Woodward to ring to clarify things. Nothing. No word from United except a bland reassurance from a press officer. Finally, around teatime, Moyes rang Woodward himself and in a short conversation was told “some of the directors aren’t happy”.
Moyes suggested that if he was going to be fired, the two should meet that evening and quietly, quickly, with civility and without cameras, get things done. Woodward replied that it was Easter, things were difficult, and Moyes would have to wait. He said they would meet at Carrington the next morning.
Moyes would just have to deal with a few more hours of phone calls, news headlines, wondering, speculation, pain.
Moyes tried Ferguson and when, after several calls and texts, he could not get his former patron on the line he knew the game was up. Ferguson subsequently explained he knew a decision had been reached and did not want to have to lie to Moyes on the phone. Moyes appreciated that position, also the sadness at seeing him go that Ferguson expressed — and holds to the belief that he always got support from his predecessor.
Six-year contract. Long-term. Though upset at how things were unfolding, especially the leaks about his demise, Moyes remained fastened to the notion that there might yet be a plan in place for United to ‘do things the right way’. He wondered if the delay was because one of the Glazers was flying in to be present at his dismissal. Yet at 7.40am on Tuesday when Moyes met Woodward, the reaper had come alone.
Woodward said the board had started having “a few doubts” after the 2-0 away defeat by Olympiakos. Moyes pointed out he had actually turned that tie around with a 3-0 win in the home leg and said he would have turned United round generally, given time. Woodward said the team had not been showing enough “spirit and fight” to suggest a revival was going to happen. Moyes noted that if there was one thing he had been associated with as a manager at Everton, it was producing sides with “spirit and fight”. Was, therefore, the lack of it in United down to the manager? It is a question he left Woodward to ponder. Some, of course, have a simple theory on such matters: if players do not give their best, it is really not the poor souls’ fault. It is all down to their gaffer.
Moyes, in fact, did not feel he had “lost the dressing room” at Old Trafford. He accepts some in United’s squad may have been pleased to see him go but he was poised to make substantial changes in the summer — and players on the way out or on the fringes of any team are seldom the fiercest soldiers.
Despite slurs about Moyes’ relationship with the group, a number of players were upset. Wayne Rooney was particularly regretful and called Moyes later on Tuesday to thank him for mending bridges between himself and United. Moyes inherited a Rooney troubled by a feud with Ferguson and ready to leave for Chelsea; now Rooney is United’s top scorer and tied by a five-year contract renewal.
Darren Fletcher was another to give Moyes a message of thanks. Adnan Januzaj was said to have been emotional when Moyes announced his departure to the squad. Giggs went to see Moyes privately and told him he was a good man. The warmest memory Moyes will take, though, is of United’s supporters — perhaps the one group who fully lived up to the image United project keenly of themselves, of being a “special club”. He knows results were disappointing and, given that, he felt, inside Old Trafford and at away grounds, they stayed foursquare behind him and the cause. Late on Friday he texted Andy Mitten, editor of the influential United We Stand fanzine, to say, “Andy. Would you please let it be known how much I appreciated the support I got from the real United fans. They were incredible. I am sorry I couldn’t give them the results they are all used to. Thanks.” The only thing from supporters Moyes could have done without was the Chosen One banner, hung at the Stretford End from the beginning of his reign: he would have preferred to earn rather than be granted such an accolade.
That last game at Goodison will be his coldest memory. Why was he put through it? Woodward — who has a different version of events to those already outlined here — says it was simply because a final, final decision on Moyes was not taken until after that defeat. Others suspect it was to let United’s rulers get their ducks lined up — and their dollars.
The ducks: De Telegraaf, Holland’s biggest newspaper, reported yesterday that United have struck an agreement making Louis van Gaal their next permanent manager and two weeks ago carried allegations of a meeting, two days after United lost in Munich, between Van Gaal, Woodward and one of the Glazers. United vehemently deny both.
Not disputed is that on the Tuesday before the Everton match Woodward had separate meetings with Giggs and Rio Ferdinand. Both players were there to talk about their plans for next season and it has been suggested that, in at least one of the tete-a-tetes, there was an attempt to explore the topic of Moyes. Woodward categorically denies this.
If true, it would be a bitter irony for Moyes, who set up the summits, wanting to give senior players the chance to clarify their futures well before the summer.
The dollars: Woodward prides himself on his negotiating talent, especially when it comes to contracts and getting United the best deals. Barring miracles, United were not going to qualify for next season’s Champions League but only the Everton defeat made this arithmetically certain. And that had a happy consequence for the Glazers, who have sucked £700m from United to service debt since their takeover in 2005, and talk — through Woodward — of being willing to “throw money” at football problems, but do not always act that way.
Missing the Champions League, for certain, meant Moyes could be given a reduced pay-off and the settlement agreed with United on Friday left him walking away with £3.5m, a year’s basic salary. He might have been entitled to £4.5m were United still contending for the top four.
Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers Association, of which Ferguson and Moyes are committee members, released a statement contrasting Moyes’ “integrity and professionalism” and United’s “rich tradition” with the “unprofessional manner” in which his departure was handled. Shock at United’s behaviour was registered in the European press and top boardrooms elsewhere. “Unsavoury” was the verdict of one of England’s more important football executives. “Sackings aren’t easy but when you sack someone you get them inside the building first and tell them before the world knows it is going to happen.” Another £1m, however, is now available to service United’s debt.
Did money-saving doom him from the start? Another neat fiscal manoeuvre — or happy accident for the Glazers — involved announcing Moyes as Ferguson’s successor last May, but not starting him as manager until July 1. This meant Everton were not entitled to any compensation for a manager they had nurtured for 11 years. It presented, though, immediate difficulties for Moyes.
The first issue he had to address was his backroom staff. Mike Phelan and Eric Steele, two of Ferguson’s trusted assistants, were coming out of contract and Moyes felt he had to make a decision on them, out of fairness, before meeting the pair. He wanted Rene Meulensteen, Ferguson’s chief coach, to stay but because Moyes was still an Everton employee he was unable to go to Carrington, spend proper time getting to know the Dutchman to establish a basis to work together.
Meulensteen — with his own management ambitions — decided to go. Even now, Moyes’ detractors portray him as having “sacked” Meulensteen but he finally admitted this week it had been his decision to quit. “It became evident to me after a few meetings with David Moyes about the upcoming season that he wanted to bring in his own people and do things in his own way, and I felt very strongly that things would change dramatically for myself, so I couldn’t carry on,” Meulensteen said.
The PR from United was all about Moyes being Ferguson’s appointment, an almost sentimental choice, the manager the great man believed was in his own image. This was nice, for the successor, in a way — and Ferguson certainly did his bit by taking to the pitch at Old Trafford and, via a microphone, commanding the faithful: “Your job is now to stand by our new manager.” But there were no great pronouncements from the Glazers and with Woodward starting in David Gill’s old role, also on July 1, no way Moyes’ immediate boss could be held accountable for his actual appointment.
To some observers, this always created “wriggle-room” for the ownership to make a rapid change if things were not felt to be working out. Woodward would contend searching for a new manager, now, is the last thing he needs, with so many transfer deals to progress. These, incidentally, will continue to be worked on, and perhaps even completed, before Moyes’ successor is appointed. Early on in his new job, Woodward spoke of the “all-powerful manager” model United followed, in contrast to clubs who have directors of football: signing players then presenting them to a coach who comes later feels like another breach with Old Trafford’s past.
Last summer’s transfer window, when a manager was in place, was frustrating, however. A flawed pursuit of Cesc Fabregas left United nowhere. Woodward tried to gazump Real Madrid on Gareth Bale but, despite offering more than the £85m he moved for, it proved too late. Interest in Cristiano Ronaldo also came to nothing. Moyes cautioned against Woodward pursuing a complicated strategy to snare Baines and Fellaini in a double-transfer — it ended merely with United getting Fellaini but paying £4m more than the Belgian’s expired £23.5m get-out clause. Deadline day, when efforts to sign Ander Herrera and Fabio Coentrao fell through, was frantic and hollow.
Both Moyes and Woodward feel the other one was responsible for the poor window. Moyes was not helped by the failure of Fellaini, hampered by injuries and, perhaps, a shy nature, to live up to the status of being United’s only significant signing. Ferguson did bequeath Moyes a £15m signing but, even now, Wilfried Zaha, on loan and used mostly as a substitute by relegation-fighting Cardiff, has yet to establish himself in the Premier League.
A horrible fixture list — Chelsea at home, Liverpool and Manchester City away — in his first five games made building early momentum difficult. Robin van Persie, the difference in so many games the previous season, when United won the title, was in and out of the team through injury. There was a home defeat to West Brom but nevertheless results picked up — until successive home defeats, in early December, to Newcastle and Everton, rocked confidence. In both, United had reasonable possession but played too slowly and were hit in second-half counterattacks. Moyes’ Everton had always been so resilient but, with the core of the 2012-13 title-winners nearly all older than 30, a frustrated Moyes told confidants: “I just can’t get any energy into this team.”
Some players would say training, involving longer sessions and more fitness work, did not help. Moyes would point out his Everton nearly always got stronger throughout a season, often finishing like a train. Moyes’ championing of Rooney, and the renewal of the striker’s contract, in a complex deal that could net him £300,000 a week (but guarantees a lot less) is alleged to have caused some players resentment. It is not known if Ferguson was overjoyed. However, in a season where so few players have produced their expected output, Rooney has scored 17 times and was in good form before a toe injury. If Moyes backed him, it is because Rooney reciprocated on the pitch.
Did other players? Moyes changed his line-up 51 times in 51 games and a fault may have been too much faith in that six-year contract. Moyes was forever trying combinations out, looking for indicators he could take into the summer and apply to the “rebuild”. Perhaps he made too clear, too early, to some players that they would not be part of the future, making it difficult when, because of injuries, he suddenly had to call on them again. Even in the Everton game he was not prioritising immediate results: he chose Nani, for whom he would have listened to offers, to put him in the shop window before the summer.
Giggs, in his pre-match press conference for Norwich, said he had already discovered the manager’s office at Carrington can seem lonely. Revamped after Ferguson left it is an austere place, cloistered in a corner of the building with oak panels, no big windows out on to the training pitch like Moyes had at Everton’s Finch Farm complex and the feel of a discreet hotel suite, not a football hub.
It is unlikely Moyes will miss the vibe. Taking a break in Miami this weekend, he is looking forward to his next chapter: clubs both in England and Europe have been in contact to register interest but he also has thoughts of taking a sabbatical for a year. As an inveterate student of coaching, he has a notion to travel to South America and spend several months looking at coaching methods and how clubs operate in Argentina and Brazil.
Giggs has pledged to return United to a traditional way of playing: wingers, midfielders ahead of the ball, pace, attack. Moyes would have liked that too but felt the squad needed younger, and in some areas much better, players to make it possible. His legacy will be the number of high-quality scouts, analysts and systems men he brought with him, like John Murtough, the Premier League’s former head of elite performance.
Having traversed Europe and personally scouted more than 20 players United might target this summer, he has shaped the list Woodward is working on, which includes Shaw, William Carvalho, Marco Reus and Toni Kroos. The next boss might inherit more than Zaha.
What kind of dressing room will they take over? The anti-Moyes spin of recent days suggests it must be managed carefully. Several United players employ publicists. There are stars of foreign national teams, with ardent presses in their own countries behind them.
Then there is the “Class of 92”, who need nobody’s help to get their views across given their status and platforms in the media. They were the soul of Manchester United once and, with one of their number, Giggs, in charge, may have a brief window in which to show they can be the soul of Manchester United renewed.
Soul? One player was going to put out a supportive tweet when Moyes was sacked but checked with his entourage and thought, nah. He pressed delete.
