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I’ve been trying my absolute best to stand by Moyes, to stand by his managerial ability and choices. I have tried really, really hard to bite my tongue, and get behind the so-called chosen one.
But you can only bite so hard, until your tongue becomes dislodged into oblivion. You can only back and believe in someone who gives nothing to believe in for so long.
The 2013-2014 season has been nightmarishly average. I don’t mind the table position, nor the amount of losses, home or away, I don’t even mind the fact that the only thing we have to show for ourselves this season, is a community shield plate. Cause ya know, United have given me enough to smile about for the last fifteen years.
But its the matter that we have self destructed, the manner in which we bow down to our opposition in defeat which has really riled me up more than ever.
The life and soul of this club has been sucked right out of us.
That United way, that ‘never say die’ mentality that we imposed to crawl our way into the elite field of football clubs, has diminished within seven months into the season.
When you put that glorious red shirt on, when that devilish crest covers your beating heart, you don’t ever leave the field knowing that you haven’t put your absolute all into the club’s cause.
This season, barely anyone bar Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and David Dgea can walk off the field with their heads held high.
Because it’s been sub standard, how do you so quickly just become the complete shadow of your former selves?
That’s not to say that the players are entirely at fault, they can only do what they have been coached.
The whole system at United is just going through a shambolic rot. Now when David Moyes was appointed as Sir Alex’s predecessor, I was left in a state of shock.
The club’s PR came out with the cliche lines that Moyes and Ferguson were from the same cloth and so on, but the only thing that ties these two together is their country of birth.
Their situations are entirely different. When Sir Alex came to United he was a winner, he knew how to win and he knew how to manage a winning side.
He came to United from Aberdeen having broken the old firm dominance to win three league titles.
He had taken his Aberdeen minnows and slice Madrid apart to claim the European Cup Winners’ Cup. When he came to United he had barely any money to work with, and a team that were battling the relegation zone.
David Moyes, on the other hand, has really under achieved.
Yes, he did wonders for Everton over the last decade, he put together some great Evertonian sides, but they continued to underachieve year after year.
He isn’t a winner of any silverware, he hadn’t grasped the understanding of playing in Europe among the elite, nor had he ever had access to such a deep transfer kitty.
His appointment as United’s next manager all seemed like a funky science experiment. And now seven months later, the team that won the league by eleven points last season has fallen to become a mid-table also ran.
And that is putting it politely.
For all the failures, win, lose or draw, our home and away fans sung for Moyes at every single game.
No matter how horrific the result or the performances were, they didn’t stop singing.
Defeats to big sides like City or Liverpool, or with humiliating results at home against West Brom, Newcastle and Swansea, the fans were still on side. The fans this season have displayed a lot more passion and heart than anyone on the field at Manchester United has this season.
Over the last couple of weeks I have began picking moments that led to this downfall, the moment it all went wrong for David Moyes. And my mind keeps going back to the that July/August period of 2013 prior to the new season.
David Gill departed United at the end of the 2012-2013 season, and left us with a numpty who had little experience running a football club.
That transfer period was disastrous. The board and the owners didn’t get financially and professionally behind Moyes in the way that was needed.
The constant failed dealings with Fabregas, Herrera, Alcantara, and many others was an absolute embarrassment to the club.
Going public before anything was concrete, not offering enough dough for some, while splashing 30 million quid on others, it was just a dark transitional period for the club.
I have to say, had David Gill still been the CEO at United, their current situation would’ve probably been less severe.
In my opinion that was the spark that enabled this rubbish of a season to unfold.
Then comes the inconsistency.
There have been so many false dawns for this club this season.
Little victories over Arsenal or Olympiakos or West Ham have been labeled as ones to reinvigorate our campaign. But they have not.
Our big game mentality is gone, our fear factor is gone, our ability to comeback from 2-0/1-0 scorelines is gone.
Our ability to play a decent game of football is gone.
But when I finally was able to swallow my pride and criticise David Moyes was after our horrendous 2-2 draw with Fullham at Craven cottage. This came after a run of horrendous defeats to Swansea, Spurs, Stoke and Sunderland.
Opposition fans won’t believe it, but even in the decade or so among all the silverware, United fans have endured low points.
The cup final losses, the final-second title defeats, the heavy defeats against our rivals, and that 4-1 thrashing from Middlesbrough that saw us lose our captain Roy Keane, were all sour moments.
But that darn draw against Fulham was crushing.
That side were offering nothing, yet we were absolute pansies against them.
At half time fans were either furious, in a state of panic or laughing because they were simply dumbstruck. .
Nobody could even begin to contemplate about how we had spent 45 minutes going wide and hitting in pointless crosses only for the Fulham defence to head it away or the ball to go nowhere near a player.
And for them to come out for another 45 minutes and do the exact same thing was crushing.
That was bad, but what was just soul crushing were Moyes post-match comments.
He stated, “I just keep doing the job because I know that we’re doing the right job. We’ll do the same things, we’ll make sure things are right – prepare the players well and things will change I have no doubt.”
Keep doing the same things, that resulted in nothing positive for 90 minutes and even had the bottom-placed side in the league wondering when United’s performance would improve.
It doesn’t take a tactical genius to realise that things do need to change. They needed to change during those ninety minutes, let alone for the rest of the season.
Since that god awful night, there have been other soul crushing blows, but what else do you expect from a team being managed by a coach who has a mid-table mindset.
And whenever the next crushing defeat comes along, Moyes always has to mutter the same excuses “bad luck”, “we will try harder” and “we tried”.
Someone pass me the pitchfork….
Look I don’t dislike the guy, I dislike what he is doing to my football club.
I really hope I am proven wrong, but if we are to move forward this team has to be revolutionised and that needs funds and that needs new faces.
Yet I am absolute terrified at the thought of Moyes dealing with all those three things.
Did I mention he spent 30 million quid on Marouane Fellani?
And I will leave you with this.
United have fallen that far down that the following quote, that no one could ever imaging a United manager muttering, was muttered; “‘I think we’ve played a very good side and it’s the sort of standard and level we need to try and aspire to get ourselves to at this moment in time.”
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