So back in 2013, the dreaded news we knew would come one day came. Sir Alex announcing retirement…and for real this time and Sir Bobby Robson wasn’t around to make him U-turn again.
From memory, I don’t remember too many people being enamoured by David Moyes being his replacement (especially with all the other names we could have had), but I think the general consensus was to wait and find out with some trepidation. His last home match against Swansea involves that speech and I’ve wondered whether that event has caused certain behaviours in the Utd fanbase to bubble to the surface in the following years.
You can debate whether SAF actually made this speech as a massive shout-out to the incoming Moyes, or whether SAF underestimates his own abilities and thought just because he had time, means anyone can have time and do as well as he had.
In the following years, it feels like that speech has been taken chapter and verse by a portion of our fanbase and when LVG and Jose weren‘t looking too great, there was divisions over them staying or going, with people citing SAFs speech or SAFs unique situation of needing a few years before looking truly good, and now with OGS in the hot seat, it really has ramped up in fan divisions due to the OGS connection to SAF and Utd. Something that Moyes, LVG and Jose never had.
Currently we’re seeing arguments for OGS staying in that SAF needed time and therefore we should OGS that same time and he’s been improving league finishes every year, and then on the other side there’s people saying OGS is not good enough, comparisons to SAF should not be made and just because it worked for SAF doesn’t mean it’ll work for everyone… and I feel like all this division can be partly traced from that one speech. People appear to have taken that speech very seriously because of who said it, and they’ll take his word for it and apply on every manager.
So has that moment in history caused a rift in the fanbase? You can say we have staunch ‘top reds‘ that will blindly follow a manager all the way no matter how well they’re doing because the GOAT of managers told them to back them no matter what… You could argue that we have spoilt fans needing instant gratification and then in the middle you’ve probably got the majority who are conflicted between those positions.
From memory, I don’t remember too many people being enamoured by David Moyes being his replacement (especially with all the other names we could have had), but I think the general consensus was to wait and find out with some trepidation. His last home match against Swansea involves that speech and I’ve wondered whether that event has caused certain behaviours in the Utd fanbase to bubble to the surface in the following years.
You can debate whether SAF actually made this speech as a massive shout-out to the incoming Moyes, or whether SAF underestimates his own abilities and thought just because he had time, means anyone can have time and do as well as he had.
In the following years, it feels like that speech has been taken chapter and verse by a portion of our fanbase and when LVG and Jose weren‘t looking too great, there was divisions over them staying or going, with people citing SAFs speech or SAFs unique situation of needing a few years before looking truly good, and now with OGS in the hot seat, it really has ramped up in fan divisions due to the OGS connection to SAF and Utd. Something that Moyes, LVG and Jose never had.
Currently we’re seeing arguments for OGS staying in that SAF needed time and therefore we should OGS that same time and he’s been improving league finishes every year, and then on the other side there’s people saying OGS is not good enough, comparisons to SAF should not be made and just because it worked for SAF doesn’t mean it’ll work for everyone… and I feel like all this division can be partly traced from that one speech. People appear to have taken that speech very seriously because of who said it, and they’ll take his word for it and apply on every manager.
So has that moment in history caused a rift in the fanbase? You can say we have staunch ‘top reds‘ that will blindly follow a manager all the way no matter how well they’re doing because the GOAT of managers told them to back them no matter what… You could argue that we have spoilt fans needing instant gratification and then in the middle you’ve probably got the majority who are conflicted between those positions.