All managers post Fergie weren't good enough

[Eleven-Eighteen]

The fact you think this doesn't matter is hilarious. Do you think managers are timeless in their coaching abilities? If they're great in 2008, they're automatically great in 2016? Like what are you even talking about? There were various signs prior to us appointing Mourinho that his best days were behind him.

Are you going to blame our board too for his disastrous 3rd season at Chelsea?

Mourinho was no longer a top level manager when we hired him.

As for who would have been good enough, I mean if you want to delude yourself that every manager we hired was good enough and the club just let them down, go ahead.

Mourinho won the PL in 2015. I feel like you're just digging your heels in at this point, so I'll try and not continue this discussion.

And btw you still can't say a name that might've worked. Only that none of the ones we hired did not (obviously) work. Hindsight my friend is a beautiful thing.

 

[padzilla]

We seem to be in a cycle of a new manager joins and gives us a bit of a bounce in their first season, showing glimpses of a possible upturn, then we proceed to recruit terribly in their second summer transfer window - under LVG it was Schweinsteiger, Depay and Schneiderlin, under Mourinho it was Lukaku and Matic - the less said about this season's transfer dealings the better.

We've also seemed to suddenly be signing absolute dross on loan from Weghorst, Ighalo to Reguilon who wouldn't get a start for any of our main rivals, this is a massive vote of no confidence in our reserve and youth players.

It's clear our recruitment is a major problem, if not the biggest problem.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Mourinho won the PL in 2015. I feel like you're just digging your heels in at this point, so I'll try and not continue this discussion.

And btw you still can't say a name that might've worked. Only that none of the ones we hired did not (obviously) work. Hindsight my friend is a beautiful thing.

1 title which followed an awful title defense. Which then saw Leicester win the league that same season. The fact you think Jose was still top level is hilarious. I'm not digging my heels. I laid out why he was no longer a top level manager and you keep responding with 1 prem title during the weakest prem era ever. It ignores his other staggering failures and signs of decline.

Jose in 2013 and Carlo would have been much better than Moyes.

Klopp much better than Van Gaal

I don't think there were any other available options at the time of Jose, but Simeone(if he was to move then) was a much better version of Jose in 2016

Pochettino back then over Ole

 

[Maticmaker]

Do you not think we would have at least won more points in the league if we didn't waste money on terrible players like Fellaini, Anthony, Depay, Rojo, etc. who were all manager's choice based on being friends with them in previous club and nothing to do with influence from owners to sign those players? And all of those players have left/will leave with no value at all.

Ten Hag and van Gaal thought players from Dutch leage were good players for Premierleague and worth spending their entire budget on them. Moyes thought Fellaini was good enough for Manchester United.

I do agree certain players were more of 'managers friends' than properly targeted and sourced players. However, the major problem in many cases seemed to be that, quite often the real targets were not available, or the club senior management were unable to negotiate in a proper time frame /or make realistic offers, and that for example Jose always claimed he was asked to put forward 5 names of players he wanted for a certain role, but he was only allowed to bid for either the 4th or 5th choice.
There was undoubtedly pressure on all managers to get 'a name' who could sell shirts; Woodward was reportedly particularly boastful about how many shirts the big named players he bought would sell. Also many of these 'big names' were at, or nearing, their 'sell by' dates" and in some cases definitely looking for a 'soft place to fall'. With some of these players we did get some value out of for short periods, (Matic for example)but they were never bought with longer term in mind, only to paper-over the cracks, which for a while did work.

Fellaini was the only one who would come to work with Moyes, that's why he was signed. Mata was also brought in somewhat over Moyes head, although he did have more longer term value to the club; Moyes never really knew where to play him, LvG tried to make a right winger out of him and I suspect Mata and Jose just didn't get on.
Both LvG, and in particular ETH, knew what situation he was coming into and so tended to rely on players he already knew. Antony has been a disappointment up to now, but with the others, injuries have plagued their time at the club, including Mount who might yet turn out to be a good player for us, when we decide 'pass and move' are going to be part of our 'play-making' going forward, not just going wide or long punts downfield.

I do think a number of managers did rely on getting in players they knew, to bolster their squads, bringing in friends to help out is not unknown in many other areas of competition. As much as anything else it was perhaps because thy could see the higher management at the club had no idea on either a transfer policy, or even why one was necessary.

 

[gerdm07]

We seem to be in a cycle of a new manager joins and gives us a bit of a bounce in their first season, showing glimpses of a possible upturn, then we proceed to recruit terribly in their second summer transfer window - under LVG it was Schweinsteiger, Depay and Schneiderlin, under Mourinho it was Lukaku and Matic - the less said about this season's transfer dealings the better.

We've also seemed to suddenly be signing absolute dross on loan from Weghorst, Ighalo to Reguilon who wouldn't get a start for any of our main rivals, this is a massive vote of no confidence in our reserve and youth players.

It's clear our recruitment is a major problem, if not the biggest problem.

This is spot on. I think in all of those cases the manager had too big a say in recruitment. Hopefully, Ratcliffe is fixing that with his new appointment.

Add Amrabat to the list of poor loans and, from reports, that's all on ETH.

After watching Ars v BM yesterday I couldn't help thinking why didn't we consider Trossard and Jorginho? I guess they were not expensive enough. I also thought that I really miss watching good football. Thanks for the crap football ETH.

ETH Out!

 

[Chumpsbechumps]

Mourinho won the PL in 2015. I feel like you're just digging your heels in at this point, so I'll try and not continue this discussion.

And btw you still can't say a name that might've worked. Only that none of the ones we hired did not (obviously) work. Hindsight my friend is a beautiful thing.

I’ve tapped out. Peoples feelings on managers means subjective emotions override cold logic.

Chelsea spend alot , Roman consistently gets success regardless of manager. Even di matteo and Avram grant can do well there. Boehly comes in, spends an absolute fortune and it falls apart. Is Poch a mid table premier league manager cause 1 billion spent ? But I thought owners “don’t coach the first team” and spending treble what United spend surely should mean they are better ?

City win a league with pelligrini and Mancini. I thought you had to have an unbelievable world class manager to win the league ?

Brendan Rodgers Liverpool are a slippy G moment away from winning the league.

All three of these clubs also seem to be able to replace managers with little fuss, regularly get good value for players and have been able to get decent transfer fees for wages for players sold. All three equally are good at getting rid of players not wanted.

City and Liverpool in particular have transfer policies that see regular value for money signings , good hit rate and seldom are their squads short on multiple positions. It doesn’t take them multiple signings to fill one position.

In the last 11 years United has shown none of the kind of qualities or squad management or cuteness of signings that any of these clubs have done.

But if we just got some manager who nobody can identify, it would all be so much better. They’d automatically know who we need to buy and would somehow mean we would pay less for players. The club would become better at offloading players and creating a balanced squad just from sheer inspiration of the manager. This perfect manager would make us as good as city because they’d prove that a dysfunctional football structure wasn’t really a problem all along…..

 

[Zed 101]

Moyes would have done better given more time, but he is what he is, a mid table manager
Mourinho was past it, his style of football was no longer going to be successful in the Prem, Pep and others had moved it on
Ole, I love Ole, and I loved much of his time as manager, given how poor Ragnick was I wish we had kept him until the end of the season, without the Ronaldo signing he would have done better and might have kept his job longer, but ultimately he would have come a cropper, he just does not have enough to make him a top manager at a top club.
LVG was just dull possession and zero goals, based on results he was hard done to but anyone actually watching the dross his sacking was a blessing, but Moyes, Mourinho and Ole all lost the dressing room, players pretty much abandoned them and downed tools, it is weird to me that ETH still has the players behind him, and the one thing that is keeping him employed

I fully agree that the structure and recruitment under these managers has been a massive factor in their failure, not convinced that LVG would have been much different, but the others would have had much easier rides for sure, Ole in particular but then he has freely admitted to being part of the recruitment process so it is on him.

I do agree that we need the structure and recruitment to be right before any manager is going to succeed, however that does not mean we should not change a failing manager in the mean time

 

[Rista]

And btw you still can't say a name that might've worked. Only that none of the ones we hired did not (obviously) work. Hindsight my friend is a beautiful thing.

A lot of people seem to be saying this but how does it change anything? Obviously we're using the hindsight. That doesn't detract from the actual point. It's irrelevant if certain posters thought it was a good appointment at the time. It is even irrelevant if there was no better option out there.

It will never cease to amaze me that of all fanbases in the world, it is United fans debating whether a manager makes a big difference or not.

 

[Velvet Revolver]

1 title which followed an awful title defense. Which then saw Leicester win the league that same season. The fact you think Jose was still top level is hilarious. I'm not digging my heels. I laid out why he was no longer a top level manager and you keep responding with 1 prem title during the weakest prem era ever. It ignores his other staggering failures and signs of decline.

Jose in 2013 and Carlo would have been much better than Moyes.

Klopp much better than Van Gaal

I don't think there were any other available options at the time of Jose, but Simeone(if he was to move then) was a much better version of Jose in 2016

Pochettino back then over Ole

If and buts are wonderful things. I am sure with that crazy disneyland management in place, none of these managers you listed would be successful. But Hey Ho

 

[fergiewherearethou]

This is spot on. I think in all of those cases the manager had too big a say in recruitment. Hopefully, Ratcliffe is fixing that with his new appointment.

Add Amrabat to the list of poor loans and, from reports, that's all on ETH.

After watching Ars v BM yesterday I couldn't help thinking why didn't we consider Trossard and Jorginho? I guess they were not expensive enough. I also thought that I really miss watching good football. Thanks for the crap football ETH.

ETH Out!

I also think that our previous managers were given the freedom to choose their players and all of them failed miserably. You can count only a few players that were decent/good from the tens of transfers that we've made post Fergie.
It is really unbelievable how our board allowed that and most importantly how our board managed to make such bad manager appointments.
Basically, every single season from the last 10, we were from 10 points to 30 points behind the title winners, which is abysmal.

Looking at Arsenal last night I wonder how and when did Arteta build such a strong team...they only had Rice as an expensive transfer.

 

[Todd]

Mourinho and LVG were certainly good enough, they'd both had success everywhere else they'd been.

Our squad building hasn't been acceptable since SAF left. A decade of poor decisions in the market and our academy simply not producing the world class talent that it used to do.

If Pep or Ancelotti had been in charge at some point in the past decade they wouldn't have had success either.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Mourinho and LVG were certainly good enough, they'd both had success everywhere else they'd been.

Our squad building hasn't been acceptable since SAF left. A decade of poor decisions in the market and our academy simply not producing the world class talent that it used to do.

If Pep or Ancelotti had been in charge at some point in the past decade they wouldn't have had success either.

And (relatively) non since... So maybe they were already living off past glories at the time we appointed them?

 

[Rista]

And (relatively) non since... So maybe they were already living off past glories at the time we appointed them?

LVG was certainly way past it and no other big club would have gone for him at the time. People literally trying to rewrite history here.

 

[Alex99]

And (relatively) non since... So maybe they were already living off past glories at the time we appointed them?

LvG was easy to identify as past it.

Mourinho was winning the league 12 months before joining us. Obviously he was always going to implode, and we shouldn't have hired him simply on those grounds, but at the time he was still very much in the top bracket of managers.

 

[Borninthe80ts]

I think I’m simplistic in thinking that you can’t really know how good someone will be really until there given a chance.

We covered all spectrums in trying to replace Sir Alex, from someone he picked himself, ie in old school authoritarian in Moyes. We tried to experienced, winning managers in Van Gaal and Mourihno and that failed too. We gave up and coming managers a chance and that hasn’t worked out either.

The main issue in this for me then is the lack of overall strategy and culture. Ferguson controlled so many aspects of the club that anyone replacing him in the same type of role without help was fighting an uphill battle for me.

We finally seem to be getting this structure in place that can help provide the tools the manager needs without much distraction from the coaching aspects of his role.

 

[thisisnottaken1]

Apart from Moyes, I was happy with the appointments of all of our managers at the time. I was excited about LvG, Mourinho, Solskjær, Rangnick, and EtH. At the time, they seemed like good appointments, but looking back they were all bad.

 

[Josep Dowling]

I think Mourinho could have done even better but the board wouldn't back him. Glazers fault!

Not sure I agree. I know in his final season we only signed Fred and Dalot but he had spent a fortune the previous 2 summers, plus the disaster Sanchez signing in January. I don’t think he was helped by Zlatan injuring his cruciate, otherwise we may not have signed Lukaku for £90m.

That final summer though, Jose did he usual and threw a tantrum when he wasn’t given funds.

 

[Josep Dowling]

I’ve tapped out. Peoples feelings on managers means subjective emotions override cold logic.

Chelsea spend alot , Roman consistently gets success regardless of manager. Even di matteo and Avram grant can do well there. Boehly comes in, spends an absolute fortune and it falls apart. Is Poch a mid table premier league manager cause 1 billion spent ? But I thought owners “don’t coach the first team” and spending treble what United spend surely should mean they are better ?

City win a league with pelligrini and Mancini. I thought you had to have an unbelievable world class manager to win the league ?

Brendan Rodgers Liverpool are a slippy G moment away from winning the league.

All three of these clubs also seem to be able to replace managers with little fuss, regularly get good value for players and have been able to get decent transfer fees for wages for players sold. All three equally are good at getting rid of players not wanted.

City and Liverpool in particular have transfer policies that see regular value for money signings , good hit rate and seldom are their squads short on multiple positions. It doesn’t take them multiple signings to fill one position.

In the last 11 years United has shown none of the kind of qualities or squad management or cuteness of signings that any of these clubs have done.

But if we just got some manager who nobody can identify, it would all be so much better. They’d automatically know who we need to buy and would somehow mean we would pay less for players. The club would become better at offloading players and creating a balanced squad just from sheer inspiration of the manager. This perfect manager would make us as good as city because they’d prove that a dysfunctional football structure wasn’t really a problem all along…..

There are so many aspects that drives the success of transfers, and usually the final piece of the jigsaw is having a decent manager that’s know how to implement the players signed. City, Arsenal and Liverpool currently all have this. Poch is a good manager but he has been given way too many players to build a successful squad in a short space of time. If we judge Ten Hag on transfer targets alone he should be sacked. Whilst he shouldn’t be steering United for transfer targets any manager has influence. Antony was an incredibly bad signing even at £40-50m. He’s shown he’s not good enough for the Premier League. The only player I rate is Martinez but he’s spent 1 and half years on sidelines now so that looks a dud signing as well.

 

[Eleven-Eighteen]

A lot of people seem to be saying this but how does it change anything? Obviously we're using the hindsight. That doesn't detract from the actual point. It's irrelevant if certain posters thought it was a good appointment at the time. It is even irrelevant if there was no better option out there.

It will never cease to amaze me that of all fanbases in the world, it is United fans debating whether a manager makes a big difference or not.

I can't speak to the United fanbase as a whole, just to my own opinions. All i'm saying is this - of course the manager makes a difference, but United are yet another example that a manager can't come in and change the fortunes of a club by himself. He may coach and manage the team, but if he's forced to buy/ sell certain players OR not given a little bit extra $$ leeway with a someone else OR if the recruiting team is dogshit OR etc. etc. then it's very hard for that manager to perform up to their own standards.

Would we have had more success with Klopp, Pep, Ancelotti - almost certainly yes. Would we have made them look more shiite than they currently look - also almost certainly yes.

 

[golden_blunder]

I find it weird the opposite way personally, put Pep or Klopp in charge and i still believe we'd be where we are, i dont believe 1 person (ie the coach/manager) is at fault for our poor performances over the past 10 years and the issues are much deeper.

Not sure about Pep, he’d need more money but for sure Klopp would get more of a tune out of them

 

[golden_blunder]

It does also come down to pressure though and unrealistic ambitions.

I am still absolutely convinced that OGS and Jose were on the right lines in their first 24-months at the club.

Both put decent foundations in-place and had us finishing second and then both made the same kind of ill-thought out signings that have haunted the post-SAF era.

Imagine OGS' final season, for example. Instead of Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho, we spent that £110m on Rice / Haaland (or similar...doesn't have to be those two specifically)...could all have been so different.

See Jose with the likes of Alexis Sanchez. Rushing. Making poor decisions because of the pressure to challenge City.

And to think that ole wanted rice and Haaland. The lad could still have been in the managers chair right now possibly with a few trophies to show for it

 

[The White Pele]

The biggest fumble post-Fergie was not securing either Guardiola or Klopp who were both very much on the market in the years immediately following Sir Alex’s exit. To make things worse, those two went on to manage our closest rivals and therefore rules out any chance of them managing us in the future and we are therefore still scrabbling around trying to find someone that measures up.

The OP is broadly right that the managers we have recruited are not on the same level. LVG and Mourinho you could argue were on that level earlier in their careers but on the decline. Moyes and Ole lacked the experience and are yet to go on to greater things. Ten Hag was seen as one who was destined for that level but the jury is very much out.

It is not solely the manager though. I do think the structural issues, which are now hopefully being addressed, are the biggest factor in our decline.

A proper football hierarchy I believe would have secured someone like Guardiola or Klopp to succeed Ferguson and carry on our success. Ferguson’s exit should be held as an example of one the single biggest failures in succession planning in any major organisation.

 

[Maticmaker]

The biggest fumble post-Fergie was not securing either Guardiola or Klopp who were both very much on the market in the years immediately following Sir Alex’s exit. To make things worse, those two went on to manage our closest rivals and therefore rules out any chance of them managing us in the future and we are therefore still scrabbling around trying to find someone that measures up.

This spot on, but you have to consider that neither Pep or Klopp would have come to/or fancied managing United immediately after a legend like SAF was had just left, and also a large section of the clubs fans were in open revolt against the owners. Further more both men knew that at their respective clubs they almost could not fail, City was already gaining ground and Liverpool were desperate for a PL title.
It was a super-smart move by both men, which has been confirmed since.

 

[Lentwood]

And to think that ole wanted rice and Haaland. The lad could still have been in the managers chair right now possibly with a few trophies to show for it

I recall at the time people accused us of being Brexit FC and favouring British players....I bet I could find hundreds of posts from people deriding the club for the Rice link, whilst the wonderkid they signed on FIFA from the Chinese 3rd division was going unnoticed

 

[RedRocket9908]

David Moyes was shafted by this club and probably wishes he had have stayed at Everton, he inherited an ageing squad which Fergie had neglected in his last few seasons with no replacements signed for Gary Neville or the ageing players like Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, and Vidic in place and wasnt given any of the players he asked for to rebuild it.

Van Gaal was passed it and although he was allowed to sign a good few players he tried to play a style of Football that just didnt work in tbe Premier League and resulted in loads of awful 0-0 draws.

Jose was also perhaps passed his time but was still successful with a couple of cups and a 2nd place, he may have been more successful if he had have been properly backed in the transfer market.

Ole had us going in the right direction with the 3rd and 2nd place finishes but shafted himself when he decided to change his tactics to accomodate Ronaldo which slowed everyting down and didnt change it back when it clearly wasnt working and saw us suffer embarrasing heavy defeats to Leicester, Liverpool, and Watford.

ETH has been a disaster in honesty, he has alienated players, misused pre-season, over-trained the players resulting in ridiculous numbers if injuries, and made us probably the most embarrasing Man Utd team ever after spending over £400m.

 

[lex talionis]

I know of no one who seriously argues that any of the post-Ferguson managers was the right man for that job at that time. ETH comes the closest but from what we've seen this season it's pretty clear he's lost the players.

 

[RedRocket9908]

I know of no one who seriously argues that any of the post-Ferguson managers was the right man for that job at that time. ETH comes the closest but from what we've seen this season it's pretty clear he's lost the players.

The question is who was a better option than Jose at the time he was appointed when Liverpool had already appointed Klopp and City had already appointed Pep?

 

[BorisManUtd]

The biggest fumble post-Fergie was not securing either Guardiola or Klopp who were both very much on the market in the years immediately following Sir Alex’s exit. To make things worse, those two went on to manage our closest rivals and therefore rules out any chance of them managing us in the future and we are therefore still scrabbling around trying to find someone that measures up.

City were luring Pep since 2012 or so, bringing in staff he worked with at Barca and laying the foundation for him. But Klopp or Ancelotti could've happened in 2015. But van Gaal had decent first season and also decent start to 15/16, before it went wrong in December. So the timing was never right.

 

[The White Pele]

City were luring Pep since 2012 or so, bringing in staff he worked with at Barca and laying the foundation for him. But Klopp or Ancelotti could've happened in 2015. But van Gaal had decent first season and also decent start to 15/16, before it went wrong in December. So the timing was never right.

We could have been doing the same in terms of laying foundations for a different set up but the owners lacked the foresight

 

[Alex99]

We could have been doing the same in terms of laying foundations for a different set up but the owners lacked the foresight

You mean it wasn't a good idea to have no succession plan when your manager, who has already heavily considered retirement before, is in his 70s and on a rolling year-to-year contract?

 

[BorisManUtd]

We could have been doing the same in terms of laying foundations for a different set up but the owners lacked the foresight

Of course. I'd say 2009 as a year was also significant. We sold Ronaldo and Tevez, bought Owen and Obertan. Then next couple of years weren't much better in terms of transfers either,, we won titles thanks to Fergie + players like Rooney, RvP, Carrick. So transfer dealings of those late Fergie years also show lack of long-term planning at club.

 

[RedStarUnited]

I think Mourinho could have done even better but the board wouldn't back him. Glazers fault!

Wouldnt back him? In his first season we broke the world transfer record, and then paid about the same again a year later for Lukaku. We were paying Alexis Sanchez a ridiculous salary, a signing that we did not need as we had Martial
And Rashford already fighting for that same
Position.

 

[Gordon's Hill]

Wouldnt back him? In his first season we broke the world transfer record, and then paid about the same again a year later for Lukaku. We were paying Alexis Sanchez a ridiculous salary, a signing that we did not need as we had Martial
And Rashford already fighting for that same
Position.

Agreed, Mou was a horrible, toxic manager who should never have been appointed. Charlton was right on that front. He spends huge amounts on big names and aging players and delivers pretty utilitarian football. He also cant compete with the more recent high presses and Pep always had his number. If he had been allowed to spend more he would have left us with even more dead wood to shift.

 

[Rista]

David Moyes was shafted by this club and probably wishes he had have stayed at Everton, he inherited an ageing squad which Fergie had neglected in his last few seasons with no replacements signed for Gary Neville or the ageing players like Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, and Vidic in place and wasnt given any of the players he asked for to rebuild it.

Van Gaal was passed it and although he was allowed to sign a good few players he tried to play a style of Football that just didnt work in tbe Premier League and resulted in loads of awful 0-0 draws.

Jose was also perhaps passed his time but was still successful with a couple of cups and a 2nd place, he may have been more successful if he had have been properly backed in the transfer market.

Ole had us going in the right direction with the 3rd and 2nd place finishes but shafted himself when he decided to change his tactics to accomodate Ronaldo which slowed everyting down and didnt change it back when it clearly wasnt working and saw us suffer embarrasing heavy defeats to Leicester, Liverpool, and Watford.

ETH has been a disaster in honesty, he has alienated players, misused pre-season, over-trained the players resulting in ridiculous numbers if injuries, and made us probably the most embarrasing Man Utd team ever after spending over £400m.

Aged squad or not, saying that Moyes was "shafted" by the club by inheriting a squad of champions and leading them to 7th place is just ridiculous. That he couldn't win the league or challenge for the title is fair enough but let's be real here. He was wildly out of his depth. His big money signing was Fellaini and we're thinking whether things would have been better with more of his signings. If anything we're lucky that he wasn't in charge of the big rebuild or we would have ended with the likes of Jagielka in the team.

 

[Alex99]

David Moyes was shafted by this club and probably wishes he had have stayed at Everton, he inherited an ageing squad which Fergie had neglected in his last few seasons with no replacements signed for Gary Neville or the ageing players like Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand, and Vidic in place and wasnt given any of the players he asked for to rebuild it.

Moyes had Rafael (and as it turns out, Valencia) who were more than capable right-backs. His appointment was also not too far removed from Fabio starting a CL final against Barcelona. We had Smalling, Jones and Evans, who we (rightly or wrongly) believed to be excellent prospects at centre-back. The midfield was about the only area we'd left weak, but by all accounts we were targeting the likes of Thiago, Fabregas, Ozil and Khedira (I also believe Herrera was very much a target) and ended up with Fellaini because Moyes chose to pursue his own targets.

If we'd managed to sign one marquee midfielder alongside someone like Herrera, we'd have been in very good shape, considering we still had Carrick, Fletcher and Kagawa, while even Cleverley and Anderson weren't considered completely lost causes at that point.

Moyes was let down by too much freedom to do as he pleased, and a properly run club wouldn't have given him that much rope, but it's still ultimately on him that he decided to ignore the advice to keep on the backroom team, instead choosing to replace it with Everton's, and it's on him that he chose to prioritise Fellaini and Baines over our pre-scouted targets.

 

[RedRocket9908]

Moyes had Rafael (and as it turns out, Valencia) who were more than capable right-backs. His appointment was also not too far removed from Fabio starting a CL final against Barcelona. We had Smalling, Jones and Evans, who we (rightly or wrongly) believed to be excellent prospects at centre-back. The midfield was about the only area we'd left weak, but by all accounts we were targeting the likes of Thiago, Fabregas, Ozil and Khedira (I also believe Herrera was very much a target) and ended up with Fellaini because Moyes chose to pursue his own targets.

If we'd managed to sign one marquee midfielder alongside someone like Herrera, we'd have been in very good shape, considering we still had Carrick, Fletcher and Kagawa, while even Cleverley and Anderson weren't considered completely lost causes at that point.

Moyes was let down by too much freedom to do as he pleased, and a properly run club wouldn't have given him that much rope, but it's still ultimately on him that he decided to ignore the advice to keep on the backroom team, instead choosing to replace it with Everton's, and it's on him that he chose to prioritise Fellaini and Baines over our pre-scouted targets.

Moyes did not prioritise Fellaini, he never wanted Fellaini and only signed him as a last resort at the last minute on deadline day after the club failed to land any of the players he did want.

 

[Alex99]

Moyes did not prioritise Fellaini, he never wanted Fellaini and only signed him at the last minute after the club failed to land any of the players he did want.

We were targeting Baines and Fellaini almost from the moment he arrived.

 

[RedRocket9908]

We were targeting Baines and Fellaini almost from the moment he arrived.

We wernt, Fellaini had a release clause that was valid from 1st to 31st of July that we didnt activate as Moyes didnt want him.

 

[Kaos]

The only manager we had that had a chance of being successful (and I define success as either a PL title or CL conquest) is Mourinho, but only if we'd have recruited him to be SAF's direct replacement in 2013. I feel like he would have secured at least one more title before inevitably imploding.

Otherwise the appointments have been an unmitigated disaster which has only illuminated how poor our footballing setup was at the exec level. After the Moyes romantic experiment ended, it was just a dartboard/scatter gun approach to hiring managers, each one fundamentally different to the previous one hoping we strike gold with one of them.

 

[The-Mezzala]

Moyes- Out of his depth, wrong appointment.

LGV- The only manager to actually create a philosophy but lets face it. Some of the most boring football ever seen at OT. LGV was bat shit crazy but hilarious at the same time, I loved his press conferences.


Jose- The best since SAF, but I think we thought we were getting the charismatic bloke that was at Porto and Chelsea. He never looked like he wanted to be here. Him and Pogba falling out killed him. But I am old school and feel the manager should always be backed over player power. Also loved him for bringing Zlatan to us. My favourite player post SAF. Wish we signed him in his mid 20s.


Ole- No matter what happened the guy is a legend and always will be. Again out of his depth and agree with above posts he should only of ever been an Interim Manager. Do think if the board had backed him and got him a DM and Centre back he would of nicked a trophy. That Europa final being the best example

ETH- Periods last season it looked like we had finally found our manager. But since the League Cup win we have been absolutely awful. I think unless you can get an obvious upgrade like De Zerbi or Nagelsman then stick with it. If we get Southgate I think I will give my cousin my season ticket. Can’t understand how he is getting linked.