I think Fergie would have left the season before if we had won the league then instead of fecking up at the end. He could see the writing was on the wall with 2 teams now able to spend big on players and the leeches wouldnt back him the same.
10 years ago today David Moyes was announced as manager
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) look forward to a new life under Ruben Amorim. What system will we be playing? What players will impress? and how will it all go? We also say goodbye to Ruud Van Nistelrooy and review United's 3-0 win at home against Leicester City.
Guardiola and Klopp were being discussed. Ancelotti was also mentioned but somehow felt like an uninspired choice.
Then this. We still don’t know how long it will take us to recover.
Then this. We still don’t know how long it will take us to recover.
In all honesty I wasn't impressed by the decision, not even surprised but never expected such a fiasco to unfold at our club. I mean I never watched Moyes closely but I had a good impression about him, being able to keep Everton at a decent level for such a long time it must of meant something.
I was so saddened by SAF's decision to retire that, no matter the name of the new manager, I still couldn't be happy.
I thought we were too big of a club to let Moyes fail but in reality it was SAF who was too big of a manager to let us fail.
I was so saddened by SAF's decision to retire that, no matter the name of the new manager, I still couldn't be happy.
I thought we were too big of a club to let Moyes fail but in reality it was SAF who was too big of a manager to let us fail.
No that's on the 22nd of April.
I thought it would be a disaster and it was, in between at least until around February I'd forced myself into thinking he could come good.
Looking back we were a laughing stock for appointing him, every opposition fan was pissing themselves laughing at our hubris that we could replace Alex Ferguson with David Fecking Moyes. There was some serious delusion around the club back then, the 6 year contract, the banner, the Fergie get behind the manager speech. Hard to believe that for all the talk for years of the club having a succession plan it amounted to allowing SAF to pick his own successor and Moyes being his first choice.
Looking back we were a laughing stock for appointing him, every opposition fan was pissing themselves laughing at our hubris that we could replace Alex Ferguson with David Fecking Moyes. There was some serious delusion around the club back then, the 6 year contract, the banner, the Fergie get behind the manager speech. Hard to believe that for all the talk for years of the club having a succession plan it amounted to allowing SAF to pick his own successor and Moyes being his first choice.
It wasn't even his blatant lack of competences that was the most frustrating thing about his tenure here, and not even his extreme arrogance and how smug he was though it was very bad. It was all the people who wanted to keep him and were convinced that giving manager a lot of time was the solution, and that any manager would come good if they were given enough time and money. That was just mind-blowing.
What a nightmare of a manager. The amount of damage he managed to do to us in his short tenure here is staggering. We never truly recovered in my opinion.
It’s Woodward and the Glazers that did the damage over those 10 years though…
The Moyes appointment was utterly ridiculous and negligent and obviously pathetic and idiotic from the get go, but it was one stupid decision that if reversed swiftly and then followed by a couple of even passable decisions with a good infrastructure in place, Utd would’ve been fine.
Likewise, the vast money spent over the last 10 years - if spent with a structure like, say, Brighton’s or even a Brentford or Palace, Utd would now be a terrifying force in World football.
That’s what really did the damage, and that’s all Woodward and the Glazers - all of it.
How they’ve not been chased out of the club is as sad as it is baffling.
Moyes was never an elite manager, and I never even viewed him as a Utd manager, as with Ole tbh.
It’s like I never viewed Maguire as a Utd captain.
But it’s not Moyes’ doing, he coulda been sacked after 6 months, and then the situation easily fixed.
Some of the moments from that season were beyond belief, I remember it coming out that he showed rio and vidic a video of jagielka to watch to improve their defending 
We were knocked of the CL in the group stages that year so I don't think he would've been happy going out like that even if we had won the league. He wanted another crack at the CL.
His career at Everton was already on the way down. I might have been a bit more confident in his ability a few years earlier when Everton actually played some decent stuff.
The sad thing is I still don't think we've improved much in our football operations since that time. 10 years on and the powers that be will still make stupid decisions that harm us as a football club.
I still remember the scouse supporters in work going around saying "please be Moyes, please be Moyes" over and over again the day Sir Alex announced his retirement.
Mourinho was in the frame too. Some very good managers turned down the opportunity to manage Manchester United. That's reason to wonder right there.
The man who, single handedly, destroyed SAF's legacy in the space of 5 months (I'm saying he started in July and by November, he'd destroyed SAF's legacy).
"Nearly Man" fails to live upto his reputation...a dark day for the club and a sign of the penny pinching maladministration that has dogged us for the last decade.
I dont understand why everyone keeps blaming moyes for the decade worth of failure. Moyes was just the tip of the iceberg. The catastrophe started happening when Woodward decided to throw money on average players, without having any vision of the kind of football we needed to play. He even hired managers with polar opposite footballing philosophies.
Moyes only got a couple of signings in where both of them arguably performed better compared to the dross we signed in the following seasons.
Moyes only got a couple of signings in where both of them arguably performed better compared to the dross we signed in the following seasons.
I was willing to support him but it was an uninspiring choice. I think we all thought winning was in the fabric of the club and he could just continue what was already laid out for him, leaning on experienced club figures to help him. What i hadn't reasoned for was him clearing out the entire backroom staff and being a stubborn prick who was determined to do it all his own way.
He singlehandedly destroyed the mentality and makeup of the club, turned us into a laughing stock, and we have been fighting an uphill battle to recover ever since.
He singlehandedly destroyed the mentality and makeup of the club, turned us into a laughing stock, and we have been fighting an uphill battle to recover ever since.
He was more than uninspiring. Nothing he had done suggested he was capable of managing Utd, never won a trophy and played dour, defensive football. The fact that the Glazers allowed Fergie to choose his successor was indicative of the shambolic mamangement and lack of structure at the club. Its all these factors that made our decline inevitable
It's a simple line of thinking and people like simple.
Its obviously bollocks he was shit and the wrong manager but he didn't do severe lasting damage that has lasted a decade. As a club we just failed to transition from the old guard to a new team and he wasn't here long enough to be blamed for that.
We’ve been crap since.
Can you explain how? Because I feel that the damage was done by Woodward when he wasted a billion pounds and failed to setup a footballing structure. How did Moyes, in his 8 months tenure with only a couple signings damaged Utd that they couldn't recover from even after a decade? Is it Moyes' fault that we have players like Maguire, Fred and McTominay playing for us.. in 2023?
Moyes had an almost impossible job. But he was (and is) clearly a good enough manager to get top 4 with a bunch of CL level players.
The bigger issue was Fergie leaving so much emotional baggage in the dressing room. It's like asking a kid to start loving their new step-dad after their biological father has left. The hole SAF left was too big and the players didn't know how to cope. They needed another father figure more than a football manager, which is something we've only been able to learn with with hindsight. I'm sure Klopp or Guardiola would have done better in the long run, but 2013/14 was always destined to be a disappointment.
But the biggest issue for club has been Woodward. He messed up every transfer window and his signings/contract extensions/transfer policy killed the club. What should have only been a single season of transition turned into a decade long slump. I honestly think that a lot of the things we blame Moyes for should be directed at Woodward.
The bigger issue was Fergie leaving so much emotional baggage in the dressing room. It's like asking a kid to start loving their new step-dad after their biological father has left. The hole SAF left was too big and the players didn't know how to cope. They needed another father figure more than a football manager, which is something we've only been able to learn with with hindsight. I'm sure Klopp or Guardiola would have done better in the long run, but 2013/14 was always destined to be a disappointment.
But the biggest issue for club has been Woodward. He messed up every transfer window and his signings/contract extensions/transfer policy killed the club. What should have only been a single season of transition turned into a decade long slump. I honestly think that a lot of the things we blame Moyes for should be directed at Woodward.
Exactly. Its pathetic to blame him for our incompetence over the years.
| Sean Dyche | 30 Jan, 2023 | Present |
| Frank Lampard | 31 Jan, 2022 | 23 Jan, 2023 |
| Duncan Ferguson | 18 Jan, 2022 | 31 Jan, 2022 |
| Rafael Benitez | 30 Jun, 2021 | 16 Jan, 2022 |
| Carlo Ancelotti | 23 Dec, 2019 | 01 Jun, 2021 |
| Duncan Ferguson | 05 Dec, 2019 | 23 Dec, 2019 |
| Marco Silva | 31 May, 2018 | 05 Dec, 2019 |
| Sam Allardyce | 30 Nov, 2017 | 16 May, 2018 |
| David Unsworth | 23 Oct, 2017 | 30 Nov, 2017 |
| Ronald Koeman | 14 Jun, 2016 | 23 Oct, 2017 |
| Joe Royle | 12 May, 2016 | 14 Jun, 2016 |
| David Unsworth | 12 May, 2016 | 14 Jun, 2016 |
| Roberto Martinez | 05 Jun, 2013 | 12 May, 2016 |
| David Moyes | 15 Mar, 2002 | 05 Jun, 2013 |
| Erik ten Hag | 01 Jul, 2022 | Present |
| Ralf Rangnick | 03 Dec, 2021 | 31 May, 2022 |
| Michael Carrick | 21 Nov, 2021 | 03 Dec, 2021 |
| Ole Gunnar Solskjaer | 19 Dec, 2018 | 21 Nov, 2021 |
| Jose Mourinho | 27 May, 2016 | 18 Dec, 2018 |
| Louis van Gaal | 19 May, 2014 | 23 May, 2016 |
| Ryan Giggs | 22 Apr, 2014 | 19 May, 2014 |
| David Moyes | 19 May, 2013 | 22 Apr, 2014 |
It's been a wild ride for us both since.
As a manager. Compared to our other managers. Woodward did a lot more damage of course.
But from a pure manager perspective he was a nightmare. The whole Fellaini debacle, vetoen actually world class players. Him having us playing caveman football. We went from a football institution to a laughing stock.
There is an element of truth to it. Forget the individual players, who was signing them etc. Our biggest problem is that the team is nervous and susceptible to pressure, on the pitch and off it. We lack confidence as a club. It's a rot that is hard to undo once it sets in, and it all started with Moyes. Everybody has always wanted to see us fail but we were impenetrable. Moyes showed we had weakness and the media, opposition fans and even opposition players have been after us ever since.
I don't disagree with any of that but that's a lot of unfair blame to put on any one manager. We were always going to get a bad manager at some point rather than managers who give us decades of success. Other clubs bounce back, we didn't we compounded our failures.
He is symbolic of our decline I just don't think he caused it beyond his own tenure.
It's far harder to come from a position of weakness than from a position of strength, and he is the one who put us there. We have made many poor decisions since then but all those decisions have been made that much more difficult and damaging because of the road he put us on.
So how come Real Madrid who were terrible under Benitez or Bayern under Kovac able to bounce back? How did Chelsea win a title under Conte having finished 10th the previous year?
There are examples of clubs sorting their shit out in a swift manner. Utd couldn't because of the knobheads running it. You dont have to put everything on Moyes and lay excuses for the bullshitery that happened post his tenure.
P.S. I am not defending Moyes but blaming everything on him is just plainly wrong.
The Moyes decision shows how the club was making (and continues to do so at upper management level - ETH excluded IMO) decision based on this weird notion that the club success is self-sustaining by virtue of our notoriety, like keep signing the big celebrities or on-brand (he's a Scotsman like the last one and the other one that was really successful too a good while back) and everything will be okay, when the reality is that success is the product of more mundane processes like keeping abreast of modern tactical trends, actually signing players on the basis of whether they can fit the tactical plan AND have the bottle and winning mentality to play for the club etc...
I'd forgotten he was appointed the next day, for some reason I thought it was 4-5 days after. I remember being slightly disappointed we didn't get someone more high-profile but was prepared to give him a chance. I think it was Swansea we scored 4 against in the first league game, went downhill from that point!
In hindsight, whoever took over was going to struggle. To go for someone completely unproven at the top level was just completely wrong and he made it even more difficult straight away by getting rid of the staff. Don't dislike the guy, he just wasn't good enough and clearly underestimated the step-up from Everton.
In hindsight, whoever took over was going to struggle. To go for someone completely unproven at the top level was just completely wrong and he made it even more difficult straight away by getting rid of the staff. Don't dislike the guy, he just wasn't good enough and clearly underestimated the step-up from Everton.
Very appropriate description, he was indeed the one who pierced the hull and started the sinking of the ship.
Historical evidence suggests otherwise.
If the club had had a fit for purpose football structure, then Moyes would have been just an eight month aberration, a question in a pub quiz, before the club returned to winning ways. Other clubs make bad appointments without going into long-term decline and it’s not as though he squandered the entire war chest.
Exactly.
His only two signings were Fellaini and Mata, both of whom were regulars under supposedly superior managers LvG and Mourinho.
Also, I just want to reiterate that it wasn't Moyes doing the spending. None of our managers post-Fergie ever saw the inside of a negotiating room. That was all on Woodward.
Those are clubs that have been set up so that managers can slot in and out easily with far less control over off pitch affairs.
We weren't. We had a different structure that worked just as well, and Moyes ripped it up. Yes we have been shit at putting in a new structure but it's his fault we wrecked what we had.
The crazy thing is that Fergie talked multiple times (and wrote in that goddamn awful book) how we have studies the history of our club and we won’t feck up like we did after Busby left.
We fecked up as much again and it seems that our plan was give it to a shit manager and then make random decisions after that.
Sentimentality won out over reason I think.
It seemed to me that United had a very short list of succession candidates, got rejected by all of them, had no plausible Plan B and so ended up having to talk up the steady Eddie Everton manager on the basis he also came from Glasgow.