Save Dave Moyes

Save Dave Moyes: Why United Chiefs Need to Act Quickly to Avoid a Catastrophe at Old Trafford

As rival supporters gleefully revel in the fallout from Sir Alex Ferguson’s abdication, David Moyes has every right to ask himself the true motivation behind the United stalwarts decision to identify him as his successor.

At the beginning of the season, I predicted that Manchester United would finish outside the top 4.

It’s true, you can ask my brother for proof because he wrote it down in a document entitled ‘Dean Goldstein’s outlandish claims’.

We got into a wicked fight about that one, and I’ve never tired to remind him of it since the fact.

Despite my prophecy, I’m taking no discernible pleasure in United’s sudden plight. Perhaps I’m softening in my old age, I’m almost 19 after all, but I just don’t see where the gratification lies in watching this disorganised squad stumble towards mediocrity.

It’s no real secret that Man United fans have been insufferable in the Premier League era, and why shouldn’t they have been? They’ve seen 13 league titles, a plethora of stars from home and abroad in their famous red kit, and have enjoyed life under a stable, intimidating and successful boss.

Ferguson is perhaps the greatest manager we’ve ever seen, certainly the best since the Premier League was formed, and it says something that he remains despised by every rival supporter base despite his exit from the game.

The question for Moyes and United, however, is whether he has truly hung up his cones and whistle. When he retired, Ferguson revealed a long bucket list that was waiting to be completed; including a visit to the world’s finest vineyards and a trip to our very own Melbourne Cup.

Despite all this, he has taken his seat in the Old Trafford grandstand next to Sir Bobby Charlton at every United home match. He even sits behind Moyes’ own children.

He was not amongst the troupe of famous faces that rolled into Flemington on the first Tuesday of November 2013. The closest Ferguson’s name came to the Melbourne Cup was when Mark Bosnich suggested that his former manager, who was famous for swiftly isolating members of his own squad when he sensed discord, wouldn’t have the stomach to meet him face to face in Australia.

Humourously, despite Ferguson’s questionable treatment of fine players like Jaap Stam, David Beckham and Roy Keane (not to mention now Juventus starlet Paul Pogba), it’s almost universally agreed that Bosnich’s exorcism is one of the few cases that the Scot actually got right.

It’s truly the harshest form of retirement: Leaving the building without turning off the light. Every time the ball rolls into David De Gea’s net, the cameras forgo David Moyes’ inevitable march towards the 4th official and aim instead towards the stand where Ferguson watches on like a hawk.

Chewing, chewing.

Fergie watches on as Chelsea rolls his former charges; he attends away days now too (source:Daily Mail).

At least viewers get to see Sir Bobby’s funny hat, because it’s a scene that the world is seeing with frightening regularity.

Moyes has truly struggled in the lime light. It’s a very poorly kept secret that Jose Mourinho fancied the Manchester United job, but despite this, Ferguson and the board were set on continuing the 28 year legacy with another weathered Scotsman. Mourinho was supposedly seen as too much of a risk, a high maintenance ego with an itchy desire to prove himself the world over.

How cruel that Mourinho has admitted his desire to settle down at Chelsea with his ‘young, beautiful eggs’ – a rather strange reference to his diverse collection of young players (don’t blame yourself if you weren’t aware of their existence – most of them are on loan at Vitesse).

Nobody really listens to Jose Mourinho anymore, and he likes it that way. He speaks in an indiscernible tongue whereby he’s everyones friend, unless you’re one of those who isn’t his friend, and where he doesn’t want to sign a striker in spite of the fact that he clearly wants to sign a striker. ‘Juan Mata is vital’, he pleads every week, ‘how do you not recognise this, what does it matter that he’s on the bench’. ‘I want to sell him, and it’s totally up to me whether I do or don’t, but he’s categorically not for sale’*.

*Quotes may not be real, but they’re pretty close.

Most good people gave up listening long ago, but nobody has ever really doubted his ability to manage a football team. That’s why, despite some very average results in the eyes of an expectant supporter base, the pressure has shifted seamlessly from the now departed AVB of Spurs and straight to Moyes.

Clearly nobody told David that the British press loves nothing more than to hate their own, because he’s conducted himself in a manner that nobody thought was possible in the wake of a humble decade at Everton.

Moyes has faltered clumsily between both the notion that Manchester United remains the biggest club in the world, but also that he is being treated unfairly by a media who are expecting too much from a side that currently sits 7th.

To be fair to the embattled Scotsman, Sir Alex left him with less of a squad than a ragtag group of footballers with no identity. Despite last seasons title heroics, which owed to the currently injured Robin Van Persie, this group of players look bereft of passion, direction and pride. They’re anything but Manchester ‘United’, right now.

In years gone by, players in the ilk Wes Brown, Park Ji Sung and John O’Shea were back up squad members. Starters on the bench at best who were fiercely loyal to their manager thanks to their massive, and probably undeserved, medal cabinets. Could a player like Brown have possibly won 5 Premier League, 2 FA cup and 2 Champions League medals without Ferguson’s often controversial backing? In another world, he would have been grafting away at an ordinary club, and he knew that, hence his desire to throw his weight behind his boss whenever it was called upon.

Ferguson, a man who was nearly sacked after an initially dicey start to life in the United dugout, understood what so few managers seem to grasp in the 21st century. Loyalty to the less gifted members of your squad will lead to an equally faithful group of players, always helpful when the boardroom and media begin to question your managerial credentials. Quite simply, a King who is kind to the underclass will be a prosperous ruler.

Moyes doesn’t enjoy this luxury, because Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia, Tom Cleverley and Chris Smalling are playing every week when they really don’t deserve to be. Not that he hasn’t brought it upon himself in a manner, benchwarmers Wilfried Zaha, Alex Büttner and Fabio can’t wait to leave the club and have no loyalty towards their manager.

To his credit, it must be said, Moyes has managed to put past feuds with his once Everton proidgy Wayne Rooney behind him and help the England star find his finest form. Despite an outstanding Premier League goalscoring record, one can’t help but hark back to a time when a fresh faced Rooney took to Goodison Park, and later the arenas of Portugal in EURO 2004, as a 16 year old with the world at his feet.

However, his consistent bouts of petulance, a famous goalscoring drought in his early 20’s, and a less-than-stellar off-field record, have left Rooney an excellent United player rather than England’s hero-successor to Alan Shearer.

Despite even this, Moyes’ embarrassing handling of the transfer market has been another factor in United’s decline. Whilst much of the will they, won’t they rhetoric is owing to the spectacularly poor performance of new chief Edward Woodward, Moyes has never seemed clear about the type of player he wants since he arrived at Old Trafford.

The expensive panic-buy of his former charge Marouanne Fellaini has failed to pay dividends, and a number of global superstars have reportedly rejected a chance to talk to United about a move.

Moyes’ attendance at Juventus’ match against Cagliari last weekend is a neat representation of United’s woes in the last two windows. Does he really believe that Arturo Vidal will leave Antonio Conte’s Italian champions, and runaway leaders this season, for his United side? If I were Vidal, I’m not sure whether i’d laugh or cry at the suggestion of abandoning my duties of linking up with a back 4 marshalled by Giorgio Chiellini in favour of one led by Jones or Smalling.

Even worse for him is that his formerly loyal Everton fans, now enjoying watching a rocking Roberto Martinez led side, have begin to wonder what all the fuss was really about in his 12 years at Goodison.

It’s time that Moyes was honest about where United really stands in world football. Rather than chasing Vidal, Pogba, Ilkay Gundogan or Mata, he needs to refocus his attentions on players like summer target Ander Herrera of Atheltic Bilbao.

Despite only enjoying a reasonable reputation at this stage of his career, Herrera would be well worth a £30m outlay because he’s young, technically excellent, and hungry to prove himself. What better challenge than helping an ailing United return to the top?

Bilbao is naturally reluctant to sell, but surely they would find it very difficult to turn down Woodward and Moyes if the pair finally quit postulating and actually turned up with a cheque in hand?

When club icon Sir Matt Busby finally left his post as Man United manager in 1969, he retained both an office at the training ground and an audience with the board. Legend has it that United staff and players knew when he was in the building due to the heavy, distinctive smoke that billowed from his clay pipe. His successor, Wilf McGuiness, lasted just 18 months before his predecessor returned to the dugout.

It’s public knowledge that Sir Alex Ferguson has an ego, so wouldn’t it be neat if his successor failed and 75,000 fans in need of a saviour were tided over by their ‘reluctant’ hero. If he was to return from the blackness, it’s an almost foregone conclusion that the momentum he would generate in the red half of Manchester would see a revitalised playing group charge back into the Champions League spots.

He’s out there, after all, and he’s not far away.

Chewing, chewing.