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.