At the end of the day, every year we feel we owe it to this football team and this community to do a good honest assessment of our franchise. If at any point, we feel that change is in our best interest, we feel we have to make that change. You can’t let decisions you made a year ago affect a decision today.”
Joel Glazer said that after firing Jon Gruden as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gruden had previously masterminded the only Super Bowl triumph in the Bucs’ existence, the youngest coach ever to win American football’s glittering prize.
The Glazers had awarded him a three-year contract extension but sacked him only 12 months later after a winning 9-7 season when the team just missed the play-offs. They have hired and fired two more head coaches in the four years since.
The point is to remind us that just because Manchester United stood for so long by Sir Alex Ferguson, and constantly cite stability, and gave David Moyes a six-year contract, nothing should blind us to the willingness of the Glazers to pull the trigger on a coach when they have lost the faith. Different continents, different sports but that mantra from Joel Glazer remains the same on both sides of the Pond. They seemed sure about Moyes 12 months ago but entrust him now with a £150 million rebuild? The Scotsman does not have a Superbowl to put on the table.
Of course the Glazers are twitching, having sat with all the club’s biggest sponsors at Old Trafford on Sunday and watched a failing team taken apart, bereft of confidence.
Twelve months ago, they were persuaded that Moyes represented the United way for the rest of the decade. To them, and pretty much everyone else, it seemed that the worst that could happen was a slump to fourth. How naive such assumptions look now.
That worried look on the face of Ed Woodward, the vice-chairman, when the cameras cut to him on Sunday afternoon did not just reflect his alarm at the spanking being administered by Liverpool. It surely told of a deeper worry that if this is not working, if United lose to Olympiacos tomorrow, if the fans turn nasty, if the Glazers cut Moyes adrift, what the hell does he do next?
He can hope that Moyes can turn things around, but it would be negligent if Woodward was not weighing up his next move and the list of potential successors. Sadly for him, that process is not a rest from the daily headaches. Last time United went through these discussions, they were so relaxed they could turn up their nose at José Mourinho out of pure idealism. They did not want him, and they could not lure Pep Guardiola. Carlo Ancelotti, the only other coach still in club football with two Champions League wins, might have been available but he also had the option of Real Madrid. Now all three are happily, and successfully, employed elsewhere. United were so sure of Moyes that they did not bother with a job interview. Mourinho once presented a PowerPoint display of his strategy to Roman Abramovich. Brendan Rodgers gave the Liverpool owners a 180-page dossier on his methods, his vision.
Ferguson rang Moyes on May 2, summoned him from a shopping trip with his wife (he was replacing a watch strap, if you must know) and told an astonished Glaswegian that he was the new United manager.
“He took me in, took me up the stairs, made me a cup of tea and came out with it,” Moyes said. “It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
We might imagine that, whenever it starts, the search for the next United manager will involve rather more formality.
It will be a longer, tougher search, of necessity given that the big three seem out of reach. And while Ryan Giggs is the obvious interim if Moyes was to depart sooner rather than later, United do not need a rookie. There are few genuine contenders from within the Premier League. Rodgers? Liverpool should be tying him into the sort of deal that once ensured that Chelsea had to pay €15 million (now about £12.5 million) for André Villas-Boas.
Roberto Martínez? It is not hard imagining him heading up a Champions League club one day, but would United return to Everton so soon after Moyes?
Looking abroad, Jürgen Klopp’s work with Borussia Dortmund has shown a clear, aggressive identity plus strong powers of motivation. Yet if Mourinho was too much trouble, what do United make of a coach who was sent off for the eighth time at the weekend?
Diego Simeone’s star is soaring at Atlético Madrid but after seven changes of job in nine years, could United be sure he can oversee such a huge rebuild?
Joachim Löw has signed a contract extension with Germany until 2016. Louis van Gaal falls out with everybody. Antonio Conte? Frank de Boer? Luciano Spalletti? The up and coming Vincenzo Montella at Fiorentina? The more names they consider, the more confused they might get.
And we are getting ahead of ourselves even thinking about candidates when United should first be working out a structure. Are we talking a coach or a manager? Would United embrace a director of football?
With so much to resolve, the truth is that any move would feel precarious. The certainties have all gone at Old Trafford, where the champions are heading to their worst finishing position for 24 years. Anything the Glazers do comes with risk and they cannot even be sure who to rely on. Could they trust Ferguson’s input again?
If the experiences of the Bucs show that the Glazers are not scared of sacking coaches, events in Florida also highlight a poor track record in finding replacements. Only last December after the Glazers had ousted the coach and general manager of the Bucs , an article in the Tampa Bay Times began with the plaintive question: “Can we fire the owners, too?”
Tom Jones, a columnist, wrote: “If you want to get to the heart of why the Bucs have turned into a swamp of little hope, start with the Glazers. This is now two straight coaching hires they’ve completely bungled.” So the good news for those United fans who have given up on Moyes is that the Glazers will not be afraid to sack him if it gets much worse. The bad news is that they will probably botch the transition.
Reassuring, it ain’t.
