Rio: Moyes offers continuity
Rio Ferdinand says he is “delighted” with the appointment of David Moyes as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Manchester United and believes the new man offers continuity of managerial style and an acknowledgement of the club’s well-established history and traditions.
Moyes will officially take up his new post on 1 July on a six-year contract, and he arrives at Old Trafford with the full blessing and backing of Sir Alex, as well as the players.
“We are all delighted,” Ferdinand told MUTV. “I think it was important that the club made a decision quickly and it all got sorted out. I think the club have acted impeccably in that sense. The manager, I’m sure, thought long and hard about his own decision, he made it and then the club acted swiftly and it’s great to see the new manager coming in."
Picking the right man to replace Sir Alex after 26 trophy-laden years at the helm at Old Trafford was always going to be an important decision, but Ferdinand feels that Moyes’ appointment provides continuity.
“Another reason I think it’s a good appointment is that David Moyes will be very, very open and sympathetic to the traditions of the club and he’ll try to continue that and not come in and make changes in terms of the whole characteristics of the club.
“That’s important for a club of this size and important from what’s gone on before. The manager that we’ve got now has implemented a fantastic system, a working system, and we’ve been successful this year and hopefully we can continue that and this guy I’m sure is the right man to do that and take us forward.
“He’s a very honest man it seems, and from what you hear from other players that you speak to and he’s done a fantastic job at his previous club, Everton. They’ve always been a solid team always hard to play against and what he’s always demanded from his players, from what we see, is a great work ethic and I think there are a lot of similarities with the manager that we’ve got at the moment. That’s a big thing that he continues that tradition.”