Former Manchester United manager David Moyes claimed in a British newspaper interview published on Sunday that he should have been given more time by the club.
Moyes was sacked by United in April after just 10 months in the role. His successor, Louis van Gaal, took charge of his first Premier League game on Saturday, when United lost 2-1 at home to Swansea City.
United slumped alarmingly under Moyes, eventually finishing the season in seventh place, but he feels he could have proven himself a worthy replacement for Alex Ferguson if the club had shown more patience.
“It was a step into the unknown and, looking back now, it was near enough the impossible job,” Moyes told the Mail on Sunday.
“I was devastated to lose the job because it was something I felt I could make a real success of. We knew it was going to take time to make the necessary changes. It was going to take time to evolve.
“But we were in the process of making other important changes. In the end, I don’t feel I was given time to succeed or fail.”
Moyes admitted that he had been hurt by the nature of his dismissal on April 22, which was widely announced in the British media before the Scot received official confirmation from the club.
“In the end it was difficult for my family, the way we discovered – via the media – that I’d lost my job,” he said.
“We have always tried to do things the correct way. I know it comes with the territory, and I know if you lose matches you risk being sacked. But how it affected my family made it hard.”
Moyes’s chances of success at Old Trafford were undermined by the fact that he and incoming chief executive Ed Woodward missed out on a number of targets in the transfer window prior to last season.
The 51-year-old, who is looking for a new job, confirmed that United had shown interest in Cesc Fabregas, Gareth Bale and former player Cristiano Ronaldo, only to miss out on all three.
“It’s been well documented that we wanted Fabregas, Bale and Ronaldo,” Moyes said.
“There was talk of Ronaldo when I first arrived. We were close to getting a couple of major names.
“I’m not getting in a blame game here, but things just didn’t materialise. I had taken over from the most successful manager in history.
“The chief executive had taken over from one of the most renowned administrators in the game (David Gill). So it was a new job for two people.”
Albo
Guest
I think Moyes was a bit stiff ! He came into the Man U operation at the end of a great team era, with many key personnel who were now coming to their end of careers and / or suffering serious injuries to boot ( eg Giggs, Vidic, Scholes, Fletcher, Ferdinand) and a bunch of expected future star players that were not performing with any consistency ( eg Cleverley, Nani,, Young, Fellaini, Smalling, Rafael, Anderson ). They had a real problem with their defence last season, with an aging and injured central defence, fullbacks that had at least one major mistake in them per game, and a goalkeeper who refuses to come of his line creating more confusion for the defence. And looking at the first game of this season, absolutely nothing has improved here. Swansea had just two (2) attacking raids the whole game and scored twice from defensive errors ( What is Ashley Young doing at fullback ???) As for the ManU attack , just like last year, there were plenty of wing attacking raids, with just the same amount of poor crosses, leaving them with little chance of scoring. They were missing Carrick, Van Persie, Valencia and Shaw, but still had a team of stars who again failed to inspire. As far as I was concerned , they should have cleared out the whole roster last season, apart from Rooney, Van Persie, Carrick, Valencia, Januzaj & Mata and rebuilt the team starting from the goalkeeper through to strikers. It seems that they have at least started to look at sorting out their defensive issues with the buying of Luke Shaw and young Blackett looks like he may develop into a serious central defender. But seems they have a lot of work to do to become the mighty ManU again !
Ian
Guest
Moyes took the brunt of the fall for players not performing to their multi million dollar contracts. Team was a bit dated. Not an expert in all things EPL, but following SAF was always going to be a poisoned chalice if he didn't get top 4 last season. even top 4 may not have have been good enough. we'll see what happens this season if ManU drop the new guy when they don't win a trophy or make top 4.
Johnno
Guest
Moyes may or may not of been up to the Man U job long term we'll never know. But a few things, maybe Man U buckled under media pressure. Maybe though senior players would of had some input and maybe weren't happy with Moyes, or maybe he wasn't given enough time. When Fergie started out, he was struggling there and it took time. But times have changed, if Fergie were around today and got a big job like Man U as Moyes did, he would of been sacked earlier. Back then in the 80's when Fergie took over media scrutiny was 100 times less than today. Also beyond Fergie when he resigned, the whole Man U management i read is a bit out of date, and needs modernising there doing it now. Other mistake Man U made, was allowing Fergie to have such influence on picking his successor and also the general influence he had in the rookie coach's year, since Fergie left. A bit of mistake that. But sport history is littered with teams, who after a colossal figure resigns or massive success, the immediate post-era replacements and new brigade and new team are on hiding to nothing. Chicago Bulls when Jordan retired, Magic Johnson retireing, Maradonna leaving Napoli,France soccer post Zidane and the golden generation post socceroos, it goes on and on. I remember the endless when Graham Arnold took over Hiddink at the Asia Cup 2007, the endless rants from Foz and Les, Hiddink wouldn't do that was ad-nauseam. You saw it on SBS with all the golden generation commentating on the 2014 World Cup, the endless we wouldn't do that,and the undermining of the team. Moyes couldn't win, the shadow of Ferguson was too big. Van Gaal 2 seasons on now from Ferguson, Fergies influence at Man U has gone.