He was his choice though.If you're talking about Fergie picking Moyes, he wasn't his 1st choice.
As a matter of interest, who was 1st?
He was his choice though.If you're talking about Fergie picking Moyes, he wasn't his 1st choice.
Nail, meet hammer.The club was completely stretched for cash flow in his final seasons.
This is the entire reason why we are where we are.
Failure to invest from 2009-14.
Oh absolutely still agree with this. Been a shambles from the top down since.I agree with most of that but it’s now six years on and it should have been possible to rebuild since 2013. Klopp inherited an average squad, lost their star player and has transformed it into a team heading for 90+ points and possibly a league title. We have been in a cycle of replacing (or supplementing) mediocre players with more expensive mediocre players.
But he was already very old. I can’t imagine he was planning to stay much longer, irrespective of his wife’s bereavement. I think he tried to leave a good base for his successor but, mostly due to lack of funds and partially due to losing his touch in transfers, he left behind a mix of great players on their laat legs, mediocrities and unfulfilled potential.Your last sentence is exactly what I'm saying.
His sudden retirement was completely unplanned, hence the aging squad and poor forward planning. Had he planned for his exit, I'm sure he'd have done so properly.
I agree. In 2009 we were the 2nd best team in the world when Ronaldo and Tevez were here. Then we lost Ronaldo and Tevez and replaced one of the best players of all time and a world class forward with Valencia and Owen on a free. It diminished our stature and state of ambition immediately. All the while missing out on players like Robben, Sneidjer, Aguero, Silva and Hazard. Replacing world class or quality player with make do average players and being stingy in the transfer market.I didn't like the way we sold Ronaldo and bought no one in with a long term future to atleast reach the levels of Rooney.
In my opinion the moment Ronaldo left us without an adequate replacement - it made our club look smaller to the world; even though we continued to win titles at home due to SAF's brilliance.
Pep. I think he also talked to Klopp and Ancelotti, maybe others. Moyes was a conservative choice, when the better managers weren't available. Someone who would steady the ship. A safe pair of hands.He was his choice though.
As a matter of interest, who was 1st?
Can anyone actually document this? Curious as I've never heard of any first hand sources myself documenting this, so to me its weird to accept this as truth without a good amount of credible sources.Moyes was Ferguson's choice though.
As a matter of interest, who was 1st?
Moyes himself:Can anyone actually document this? Curious as I've never heard of any first hand sources myself documenting this, so to me its weird to accept this as truth without a good amount of credible sources.
I don't like this argument. Ferguson left us the league champions, a team who had won the title by 11 points, which was also 3 points more than the following year's champions. We had an average age of 24, with both experienced winners and young talents in every position. All we needed was a couple of players, a midfielder and maybe a centre back to strengthen the spine of the team and ensure future success.Not much.
Fergie can be blamed for the team he left for Moyes but that's about it. 6-7 years later and we are still using players from his last season, it's simply our fault we were unable to make a rebuild.
Cheers. Never saw those quotes before now, but feck me what a way to end up as Man Utd managerMoyes himself:
“Sir Alex gave me a call and asked me to come to his house. I was expecting him to say, ‘I’m going to take one of your players’ or something else,” he said in July. “I went in and the first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m retiring.’ I said, ‘When?’ because he was never retiring, and he said, ‘Next week!’ His next words were, ‘You’re the next Manchester United manager.’ I didn’t get the chance to say yes or no. As you can imagine, the blood drained from my face. I was shocked.”
Doesn't mean he was first choice thoughMoyes himself:
“Sir Alex gave me a call and asked me to come to his house. I was expecting him to say, ‘I’m going to take one of your players’ or something else,” he said in July. “I went in and the first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m retiring.’ I said, ‘When?’ because he was never retiring, and he said, ‘Next week!’ His next words were, ‘You’re the next Manchester United manager.’ I didn’t get the chance to say yes or no. As you can imagine, the blood drained from my face. I was shocked.”
There has been a fair bit of revisionism since 2013. Pep was always going to City. That was probably the worst-kept secret in football. Woodward buggered up any chance of getting Klopp when he tried to sell him Disneyland.
So Manchester United, the reigning champions and biggest club in the country couldn't convince anyone bar David Moyes to manage us? Apparently, Mourinho was flabbergasted when news of it was made public and he said "he's never won anything." As for him being committed to return to Chelsea at the time, that's nonsense. Jose would have jumped at the chance to come here in 2013.Doesn't mean he was first choice though
Whenever I heard it it felt to me he didn’t even want it. Like he knew it wouldn’t work out well and maybe that’s why it didn’tCheers. Never saw those quotes before now, but feck me what a way to end up as Man Utd manager
"It became apparent that Jose Mourinho had given his word to Roman Abramovich that he would return to Chelsea, and that Carlo Ancelotti would succeed him at Real Madrid. We also knew that Juergen Klopp was happy at Borussia Dortmund and would be signing a new contract. Meantime, Louis van Gaal had undertaken to lead the Dutch attempt to win the 2014 World Cup."Mourinho had already commited to Chelsea had he not?
It's since been said by SAF himself I'm pretty sure that other managers had been approached but all had new jobs or couldn't leave their current job.
Ancelotti, Pep, Jose.
If Moyes was first choice that's a joke but I doubt (hope) that's not true
Moyes was not first choice. Pep and Klopp were first but the latter wanted a year out and Pep had already committed to BM. Next was LVG but he wanted to see the national team through. So really we went for a manager well down the pecking order.Mourinho had already commited to Chelsea had he not?
It's since been said by SAF himself I'm pretty sure that other managers had been approached but all had new jobs or couldn't leave their current job.
Ancelotti, Pep, Jose.
If Moyes was first choice that's a joke but I doubt (hope) that's not true
I reckon Fergie genuinely believed he was leaving a squad in good hands.Ferguson had won the league with possibly his weakest squad in 2012-13. Vidic, Lindegaard, Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Scholes, Giggs, Young, Fletcher, Carrick, RVP, and Rooney which equates to 12 out of a 33 man squad left behind were 28 or older. 8 of the aforementioned were 1st teamers. Only Rafael, Evans and DDG were 25 or younger.
Whoever took over faced a huge task due to the age of the squad, ability of the squad and the financial clout of Man City and to a lesser extent Chelsea.
700m has been spent since 2013 but poorly. Recruitment and the youth system are the two ways a managers acquires the tools to do the job. The flow of quality players from the YS has been virtually nonexistent.
Some fans really cannot get over Sir Alex. As great as he was, he is now the past and the sooner people get over that, the better.Again this. After 6 years..
One of the best written posts I've seen on the caf in a while. Summarizes it all and fairly.The club was a shambles when he left. We just didn’t know it yet. Ferguson was the glue holding it all together. The Glazers, Gill, Woodward and Ferguson were all complicit in this. Some more than others, of course.
In truth, Ferguson was stuck between a rock and a hard place. We were paying stratospheric interest fees, selling our best players (right when we should have been consolidating our position at the top of Europe) and investing little into the first team. It’s at this point I remind you that we didn’t buy a central midfielders for six years. No value...
Ferguson could either take a paddy and leave or work his magic. He managed the latter, but our football was getting gradually worse - something we all moaned about at the time - and by the time we played Barcelona in the 2011 final, there was a chasm between us.
Ferguson left and it quickly became apparent to us (but not to close observers; they saw this years prior) that the academy was an underfunded joke, no real scouting system was in place apart from the eyes of Martin Ferguson and the administration tasks directed towards the manager were unmanageable for anybody other than Alex Ferguson.
We were a huge club in one man’s little world. Gill conveniently fecked off for more fame and fortune at the same time and arseholes on here seem to love him for it. Woodward this, Woodward that. He’s done more to modernise this club in five years than anybody did between 2005 and 2013. That’s for certain, even in spite of the errors that have been made along the way.
I mean, I can’t stand David Moyes, but it’s well known now that when he first arrived he enquired about the scouting assessments and players reports relating to various targets across the world. Those above looked at him like he was some sort of oddball.
Recommending Moyes, that's it.Fergie’s role in our current plight
Pretty much this.The club was completely stretched for cash flow in his final seasons.
This is the entire reason why we are where we are.
Failure to invest from 2009-14.
Didn’t he advocate Moyes appointment? That’s the only criticism I have of him, that decision we are feeling to this day.SAF left us in a perfect position to continue success...
But he can't pick managers - and shouldn't be doing so.
Exactly.Leave the boss alone. When He retired, He retired. We shouldn't have expected any help from him. Inputs? maybe but not controls. It's the board that were fecking clueless. Huge football club without direction and proper plans.
We were the premiership champions when he left.In hindsight then yeah he should have left a much better team, an undeniable squad of champions ready to walk the next title regardless of who the new manager was. The club should have smoothned the transition by not having gill and Ferguson leave in the same year, hiring directors of football, setting up structure and looking for managers capable of continuing the clubs traditions/momentum. But that's all easy to say with hindsight, none of this is his fault. The club has made a thousand mistakes since fergie left and that's why we are in this position.
Pep was first choice. It's in Fergie's book.He was his choice though.
As a matter of interest, who was 1st?