DAVID
MOYES: A Scapegoat for Manchester United’s Sudden Fall From Grace….Why Glazers
Are The Root Cause Of United’s Predicaments
The
trending issue in the media spectacle this week has been about the tenure of David
Moyes being brought to an abrupt end by the top hierarchy of Manchester United.
Questions
have been asked about what David Moyes should have done differently or why
David Moyes was always the wrong man to coach Manchester United.
That's
all a cover-up for what's really going on.
Names
like Louis Van Gaal, Diego Simeone, Carlo Ancelotti, etc have been mentioned as
potential successors to the hot-seat but whoever becomes the next “chosen one”
to occupy the Old Trafford managerial desk will have to contend with the manacles
put on the club by its American owners, the Glazer family.
Around
“$1.2 billion”, has been taken out of the club's coffers to service the debt
which arose from the circumstance of the Glazer takeover with, transfer
spending been less than $600m.
Not
insignificant by any means but in that time, United lost and failed to replace
Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. As like-for-like replacements went, Antonio
Valencia and Michael Owen were brought in. That is corner cutting.
Three
of the five most expensive signings in the history of United were made before
the 2005 takeover of the club by the Glazers - Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and
Juan Veron.
Since
then, despite Sir Alex Ferguson's assertions to the contrary, United have been
unable or unwilling to keep up with rivals in the transfer market.
Last
summer, players turned United down in their droves, from Thiago Alcantara to
Ander Herrera to Sami Khedira to Cesc Fabregas. They are for one reason or
another no longer the top draws in the division with Chelsea and Manchester
City paying the best and Arsenal and Liverpool now offering decent wages as well
as competition on the field.
Like
Barca are struggling to find a suitable replacement for the ageing Xavi, United
have also failed to find a suitable replacement for Paul Scholes.
By
the latest estimates, United have the third-highest wage bill in the division
behind Chelsea and Manchester City - the best-paying sports team on the planet.
The
general rule is that the team which pays the most money finishes highest up the
table.
Moyes's
errors are responsible for points, no doubt, but changing the coach is not
going to solve United's difficulties.
Moyes
made errors which in football terms doesn’t speak volumes of his caliber as a
top notch coach.
Some
notable ones were bringing on board new back room staff to replace one that had
played a pivotal role in Ferguson’s success over the years.
That
move in my own opinion had a dent in the confidence in the playing body with
several concerns being raised in the background as to happenings at that
department of the club.
The
likes of Steve Round, Jimmy Lampsden and the rest were of immense help to Moyes
in his Everton days but bringing them on board at a club in the stature of
United was much more of Moyes being over-confident in them.
How
could they manage the egos of top stars like United, How were they able to
monitor the training regimes best suited to the playing body, it meant a new beginning
which most players refused to sign up for such an initiative.
United's
players felt they were working for what they perceived to be inferior trainers.
Failing to tap into the expertise of Paul Scholes didn't win Moyes any favours
either.
Moyes’
admissions that he 'over-trained' Robin van Persie, too, caused angst
especially in light of the Holland forward's injury-disrupted campaign.
Another
questionable act of Moyes was the amount coughed up for Belgian midfielder
Marouane Fellaini.
Being more proactive, United could have signed him for $6
million less had a clause in his contract being activated. What bemused many
was that from day one of his reign at the red devils, Moyes knew of such a
thing.
That
signing raised doubts over his transfer credentials as one who could sign
quality players for a project he himself had started.
But that doesn't make Moyes a bad coach, as even the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson made questionable signings; from Tiago Bebe, Jordi Cryuff, Eric Djemba Djemba, Juan Sebastien Veron, Diego Forlan, Massimo Taibi, David Bellion, Dong Fangzhou, Dimitar Berbatov, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Gabriel Obertan, Kléberson, etc.
It
could also be suggested that another of Moyes’ weaknesses were spending too
much time working on United's defensive shape in training - something which is
said to have exasperated the senior contingent - as well as failing to take
insights from the club's previous coaching regime.
But
on the bright side, Moyes maintained fine form in David de Gea, he achieved
more with Shinji Kagawa than Ferguson did and groomed Adnan Januzaj very well;
there are no guarantees that the Belgian wouldn't have done what Paul Pogba did.
Moyes
also brought on board one of the game’s most talented and technically gifted
midfielders/gamechangers, Juan Manuel Mata and the Scot was gradually becoming
to to do things his own way by eliminating the Ferguson culture.
Undisputedly,
Alex Ferguson was made for Manchester United and especially for the Glazers. He
worked within the financial parameters they set him.
Fergie’s
fine abilities include being able to extract maximum effort and output from his
weakest side in at least a decade.
No
other manager in the world could have done what Ferguson did with this United
squad and that is something that the Glazers themselves foresaw in a 2010 bond
prospectus.
What
Ferguson left in his wake was an already crumbling empire.
He
failed to find quality replacements for an ageing generation of fine players and
top stars who left the club (Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane,
Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand).
The only plus
is finding a suitable replacement for Peter Schmiechel after several struggles in
Edwin van der Sar and eventually getting David de Gea to replace the Dutchman
after his retirement from the game.
Minds
should be cast at the double humiliation suffered to Barcelona in the uefa
champions league in 2009(Rome) and 2011(Wembley).
The
6-1 annihilation at the hands of city rivals Manchester City among others.
Sir
Alex Ferguson covered many of the United cracks by his very presence and these
cracks were permitted to form under the Glazer's watch.
The
Glazers are not benefactors. They do not love United. They are not running the
club to be successful on a sporting level. They want profit. United's New York
Stock Exchange flotation in 2012 earned them around €91m and added plenty more
to the value of United.
Any
potential Red Knight can forget about buying the club. The Glazers would only
sell for a sum in the billions. Even Class of '92 graduate David Beckham would
baulk at that.
So
United are left now in a desperate situation. The academy is malfunctioning.
The
first team is stocked with players in their 30s who are a burden.
Players
like Ferdinand are past their best but no suitable replacements are keeping the
veterans on their toes.
The
Glazer takeover will go down as the single most significant event in the
history of Manchester United.
It
was the moment they surrendered the gains they built up over the course of the
previous 12 years of Ferguson's management - at a time when Chelsea were
strengthening and when City's billions were on their way.
Moods
follow results in football and United are in a vicious cycle. The mood won't
improve unless the results do but the infrastructure is not there now for
United to be a contending team.
The Moyes sacking, typically under the Glazers,
was botched - like his appointment in the first place.
Players
allegedly knew before he did and the news was subsequently leaked to briefed
journalists. He may have been sacked the day after Champions League
qualification was definitively ruled out but there was more to it than that.
It
would have been a tough sell to motivate fans to line up this summer to renew
their season tickets with Moyes in charge. The money continues to flow out of
Manchester United as quickly as it flows in. That seems to be how the Glazers
like it.
THE REAL POINT IS THE GLAZERS UNTIL THEY ARE GONE WILL
CONTINUALLY SCOOP MONEY FROM MANCHESTER UNITED…THAT’S WHAT THEY CAME FOR
ANYWAYS AND WHOEVER PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE TAKE-OVER SHOULD BOW HIS HEAD IN
SHAME…
MOYES MAY HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM BUT NOT THE ROOT CAUSE….NOEL
GLAZER, AVRAM GLAZER AND MALCOM GLAZER ARE….THE EARLIER THEY DEPART THE BETTER
THINGS WILL START BECOMING FOR MANCHESTER UNITED…….
Until then, You can as well join me at FC United of
Manchester and the Red Knights….