After the bombshell dropped about Sir Alex retiring, the announcement about Moyes was made pretty quick. I'd describe my view on that as being incredulous but optimistic, even as Sir Alex encouraged us to get behind the new manager after his final home game. Honestly, I couldn't see it working, but I'm an old school fan, so you go to the games and get behind them whatever. I definitely thought that nothing on paper added up and that it was all buoyed up by people wanting it to work. I was also astonished he took it.
In fact, the initial disappointment of hiring Moyes, was then followed by further negativity as coaching staff were cut loose and he brought in his own people. All the while phrases like "steadying the ship" were bandied about. What did that mean? It wasn't an unsteady ship, we'd just won the league! It was a League winning squad, albeit bloated. 3rd negative point was that Moyes only took up the post in July. July! He was announced as the manager of Manchester United and didn't take up the post for 2 months. WTF! When they announced him as having been sacked after "9 months in charge", I pointed out it should have been 12! What sort of hubris was that, to join without a full pre-season! On taking charge it was clear that he wasn't up to the job of pruning the squad (I'll not go into that, as we all know how that's turned out ...). 4th negative was probably that Rooney's time was up, but now under Moyes, that was reversed and things seemed weird. Like it was a time of change, but some things pointlessly stayed the same.
I turned up to the games and got behind the team. Not just me, of course, United fans are loyal and show it. Certainly this was the case on the Stretford End where I sit. Personally though, I knew it wasn't going to work, but hoped I'd be wrong. I reckon 3 or 4 months in and I'd had it, and I'm sure it was a "I can't keep this up any longer" moment. I still sang and got behind the team, as did most, I just stopped thinking with my heart and assuming that the club knew what it was doing.
In terms of posting, I'm not someone who will post a load of stuff, even at that "breaking point" with Moyes. You back the team, I'm not an expert nor can I influence who is appointed so what does it achieve?
I'm pretty sure I posted a fair bit about following Ferguson being more like following Busby than recruiting Ferguson as everyone seemed to be discussing. I often brought up that it had once been said that the club had no succession plan for Ferguson. I always felt that was shocking. If nothing else, what about the business angle? Surely the money men and owners would want that? I'd suggest the sheer hubris of arrogantly assuming United would be OK lead us there.
In terms of following a dynasty we had such a strong precedent in our own history! Clearly then you realise that maybe the decision makers aren't making the right calls.
So basically, big reservations under Moyes, then I've always felt that that appointment really caused problems as it cleared out staff, it didn't trim the squad, it recruited poorly, it increased the pressure on us and most importantly I always felt (& said ) that it put us on the back foot in terms of making big decisions. So the next 2 appointments felt line "on the hoof" appointments, acceptable if you're recruiting a guy to save you from relegation, but not for this. So LvG might have been decent after Ferguson, to "steady the ship", as it was he inherited a bloated squad, even more pressure and an extremely unsteady ship!
If we all accept that a great decision (like recruiting Sir Alex) can yield positive results eventually, the opposite is also true., that recruiting badly can have really toxic affects. Moyes was the wrong man at the wrong time.
After him, they COULD have been the right men at the wrong time, but who knows. Even Mourinho might have worked after Ferguson. After all he'd be doing what he does best which is inherit a winning team. There wouldn't have been such a "thing" about him maybe not staying more than 3 seasons either. "Steady the ship", an FA/League cup, top 4, 2nd place pushing someone close, Champions League run - I don't even think we'd have needed to have won everything, just not slipped so far.
Moyes turned out to be exactly what I suspected he would be, which was totally out of his depth. A man incapable of captaining such a big ship, let alone steadying it. By the time it came to needing to bail water out when we started sinking he was found even more wanting.
Anyone saying Ole is out of his depth, would do well to remember what that really looks like: Moyes in charge of a team that just won the league! Ole in charge of a team that's hopefully hit the bottom and is trying to get back in amongst it is not "out of his depth". We're way off the team we were in 2012/3.