By Jamie Jackson/The Guardian
The David Moyes (pictured right) mantra since being sacked as Manchester United manager exactly 12 months is that he was not allowed time to succeed.
The Scot maintains any chance to discover if he could do the job was thwarted when Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, tore up his six-year contract on April 22 of last season, 10 months into his tenure. Yet in doing so Woodward—and the Glazers—were effectively saying to Moyes’s plea for more time: “How soon is now?”
The prescient answer might actually have come two months earlier. Because, by the time the trigger was finally pulled, Moyes’s United were in seventh place on 57 points from 34 games, 13 points from a Champions League berth.
The harsh truth is that the alarm bells had been clanging since a dismal spring night in Athens. On February 25, 2014, Moyes’s side lost a Champions League last-16 opening leg 2-0 to Olympiakos in what was the poorest display from a United outfit of recent memory. This was the moment Moyes was terminally damaged in the eyes of the executive.
The cold analysis is that in transfer strategy, media relations, man-management, playing style and, of course, results, Moyes was not quite good enough.
This is no shame, especially as the Scot was following a phenomenon called Sir Alex Ferguson and his 26 success-soaked years.
The 11 seasons at Everton and the current rebuild of his career at Real Sociedad indicate Moyes is no bad manager. The Scot also convinced Wayne Rooney he could be content again at United: a legacy all fans can be grateful for. Yet from the outset it always appeared close to an impossible task to replace Ferguson—something Moyes later acknowledged.
The Scot’s challenge was also made greater once David Gill, the highly experienced chief executive, decided to step away ahead of Ferguson’s own retirement. Gill was replaced by Woodward, who is a supreme businessman but who was then a novice in the area that impacts any manager’s hopes: the transfer market.
The summer of 2014 duly proved a farcical window. For differing reasons Cesc Fabregas, Thiago Alcantara, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Leighton Baines, Luka Modric and Ander Herrera all failed to arrive.
By September 1, Moyes had added only Marouane Fellaini for £27.5m, which was £4.5m more than his buyout clause. This was embarrassing for Woodward, as the chief dealmaker, but more for Moyes.
As the man just departed from Everton for United he knew the precise terms of Fellaini’s contract and could be expected to use this information to leverage the best deal.
Moyes also did nothing to help himself by complaining about United’s opening five league fixtures. These were Swansea City (away), Chelsea (home), Liverpool (away), Crystal Palace (away), and Manchester City (away).
The new manager made the odd claim that the old manager (Ferguson) had “told me those sort of things happened. I hope it’s not because Manchester United won the league quite comfortably last year (that) the fixtures have been made much more difficult.”
If this was a supposed rallying cry to his new squad, an attempt at the us-and-them siege mentality Ferguson harnessed so well, it failed.
Moyes might have mentioned the next league outing during this moan, too. Because after West Bromwich Albion departed Old Trafford on September 28, only seven points had been claimed from the first six games and United were in 12th place.
The Baggies had recorded a first victory at the stadium since 1978, and Moyes was already fielding questions about why last season’s champions were struggling.
Moyes’s puzzling decisions continued in his deployment of Fellaini. In the 4-1 hiding handed to United in the derby at the Etihad Stadium six days before he was a holding midfielder, alongside Michael Carrick.
Fellaini is a nightmare for opposing teams when played as an attacking midfielder, in a quasi-No. 10 role.
But a pattern of fielding the Belgian out of position was established. Again, as his manager for five years at Goodison Park, Moyes should have known how to use Fellaini.
A similar charge of buying Juan Mata—in the January window—and being unable to exploit the Spaniard’s rich talent can be levelled. Despite the fee of £37.1m, then a club record, the playmaker became peripheral almost instantly under his new manager.
The contrasting fortunes of Mata and Fellaini this season under Louis van Gaal illustrate that Moyes was correct to bring them to Old Trafford but not the right manager for either.
Under the Dutchman, Mata is again the classy operator with an eye for goal, and Fellaini the terroriser of defences.
Downward was the underlying trajectory of the Moyes’s campaign. The sense was of a gradual slide.
He enjoyed two “purple patches”. From October 23 to December 1, United were unbeaten in 12 matches. Four of seven league games were won, two of four Champions League matches were drawn, and there was a League Cup victory. The team ended this run in eighth position, on 22 points—after 13 matches—two behind fourth-placed Liverpool.
Next, though, came the step backwards that stained the season. Consecutive 1-0 defeats, to Everton, before jubilant Toffees fans inside Old Trafford, and at Newcastle United. Boom now followed bust again. The next six outings were all victories: Shaktar Donestk (at home, 1-0), Aston Villa (3-0, away), Stoke City (away in the League Cup, 2-0), West Ham United (home, 3-1), Hull City (away, 3-2), and Norwich City (away, 1-0).
These results ensured United were in the last 16 of the Champions League and the League Cup semi-finals.
And having been ninth on the morning of the trip to Villa, when United left Carrow Road on 28 December they had risen to sixth place, again two points from fourth. This was as good as it got.
Away from the field the wheels had already began to loosen. Danny Welbeck became disillusioned before Christmas when Moyes claimed to have told the striker: “You need to be out there every day finishing, even if it’s 15 minutes at the end.”
This was on the eve of the League Cup win over Stoke. Afterwards Welbeck said: “I have been doing that ever since I have been at United.”
By early January senior players were also questioning Moyes’s credentials and the Scot had effectively become a dead man walking.
By the time Moyes was removed in April, four matches were left and any prospect of the Champions League qualification that would save his position had been over for a month or so.
At the weekend Moyes discussed his role in the transformation of Rooney—the Liverpudlian is the captain and the club totem once more.
Yet there is another gift he gave United and for which all supporters can be thankful. Moyes had the courage to be the man who followed the man.
Even Van Gaal might have failed if he had stepped into Ferguson’s shoes.
