Your Expectations Post Fergie

[BusbyMalone]

What was your initial reaction on hearing the news that Fergie was going to step down, and what were your expectations for this club moving forward without the great man.

Being honest, i didn’t expect anything like this (i don’t think many did). I knew the squad needed some reinvestment and some freshening up, but i was still fairly confident. Upon hearing the news that Moyes was taking over i was immediately pessimistic as i never rated the guy. Didn’t like his football, didn’t like his personality and didn't think he was anywhere near good enough for United.

So straight away i was skeptical, but in all seriousness i just thought things would be pretty much be the same. Call it arrogance, call it naivety - whatever. But i just held the mistaken belief that “we’re United, we’ll be fine” I didn’t necessarily think we would win the title in that season (due to Moyes, some of the players, etc.) but i thought we’d be up there. And if not that season, then the season after it would be back to normal.

Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, what were your expectations. Be honest.

 

[e.cantona]

Too big to fail. So much money, can't go wrong. Never outside top four. Liverpool won't win it in 20+ years.

 

[Andy_Cole]

I thought we’d stay elite. Like Madrid, Barca, Bayern. I thought we’d have a plan in place.

 

[tenpoless]

I was prepared for trophyless seasons for 2-3 years due to regeneration, Fergie's players were getting old and needed to be replaced with fresh legs. I expected us to win the league again in 4 years at max, regardless of who the manager might be. And most importantly, I thought the board had a plan as I couldn't see them wasting resources. But They did and feck them, Woody especially, should have been sacked at the same time as Van Gaal.

 

[BusbyMalone]

I thought we’d stay elite. Like Madrid, Barca, Bayern. I thought we’d have a plan in place.

Same. Just thought this institution was too big to feck about like we have. How naive

 

[El Zoido]

It’s about what I expected. I hated the Glazers since they took over, I knew they were useless. It was obvious Moyes was going to be out of his depth, though I didn’t expect him to fail so badly, so quickly. Writing was on the wall from day one.

 

[TRUERED89]

Too big to fail. So much money, can't go wrong. Never outside top four. Liverpool won't win it in 20+ years.

I thought we’d stay elite. Like Madrid, Barca, Bayern. I thought we’d have a plan in place.

This!

 

[Irwin99]

Thought there might be a period of adjustment and like a lot of fans I felt that team he left was overachieving a bit and needed some tweaking but I couldn't foresee it being this bad. I anticipated possibly several years with 3rd and 4th place finishes which would have been acceptable so much as progress was being made and we were moving towards something.

The lack of consistent champions league football hurts a lot. We were there every season for near enough two decades and now

 

[Siorac]

I was hoping we would modernise the club a little bit. Place more emphasis on technique in our football, be more competitive and ambitious in the transfer market. I expected a few rough years - but rough, in my mind, meant something like Arsenal in the early 2010s when they always qualified for the Champions League.

I thought we were too big and too rich to be as bad as we are right now. And I didn't imagine the "rough" period would last this long, without any hope or bright spark.

 

[The Cat]

When Moyes changed the coaching staff I really began to worry.

 

[Neil_Buchanan]

To have Nick Powell and Alexander Buttner as multiple time champions league winners and yet here we are.

 

[Rolledo]

I thought we’d stay elite. Like Madrid, Barca, Bayern. I thought we’d have a plan in place.

Too big to fail. So much money, can't go wrong. Never outside top four. Liverpool won't win it in 20+ years.

Same. Never in a million years did I think we'd end up here seven years down the line. Now I'm struggling to see a way back for us.

 

[Ish]

Too big to fail. So much money, can't go wrong. Never outside top four. Liverpool won't win it in 20+ years.

This.

Was sad to see SAF leave, but we all knew that day would eventually arrive. Had a bit of excitement i.t.o. which manager(s) we'd be getting and never really expected anywhere near this level of incompetence/waste/amateur hour that we've experienced since.

 

[House Mkhitaryan]

Better than this.

 

[BusbyMalone]

I always remember that first game under Moyes, too. 4-1 win over Swansea. I thought "yeah, this is going to be fine!"

 

[RedDevilRoshi]

Same. Never in a million years did I think we'd end up here seven years down the line. Now I'm struggling to see a way back for us.

Agree

I personally thought we would have 2-3 seasons of trying to readjust after almost two decades of sustained success but never did I envisage we would fall this far behind Europe’s elite in 7 seasons.

The way things are just now, I would love to be proven wrong, but I just cannot see us getting back to the top for quite some time. The club is completely rotten to the core and the board don’t look as if they give a f***

 

[fps]

I thought Moyes was a weird choice and the first summer of transfer business made me really concerned as the only players discussed were very well known ones.

 

[Amerifan]

Given our money and prominence, I thought only gross mismanagement could see us leaving the top 4. Huh.

 

[Ikon]

I thought we’d stay elite. Like Madrid, Barca, Bayern. I thought we’d have a plan in place.

Horrified that Moyes became a reality, as I was certain that would be a disaster, but I thought in the grand scheme, it's just a bump in the road, Moyes would soon get the boot, we'd appoint a top class manager, and a new bright and exciting chapter would be written....?!?!
FFS, the reality has been one awful decision following another awful decision, compounded by another awful decision.
Every department of the club seems to have switched off since SAF & Gill left, it's been an absolute shambles.

 

[Jibbs]

My expectation was one of Mourinho, Pep or Ancelotti will take over from Sir Alex, As one by one they all choose other clubs, I thought may be Carlos Queiroz or Rene Meulensteen will take over. David Moyes as soon as he was announced, I had a feeling, will be a disaster.

 

[Heardy]

I knew there’s be a drop in quality/period of transition, but I still thought we’d be competitive.

I didn’t expect to see us fall as far as we have. We are in danger of undoing all of Fergies work and unless drastic changes are made, it’ll take a generation to recover!

We offer no prestige to players nowadays, only money - that attracts over the hill / mercenary players rather than the young hungry elite.

I’d love to have a conversation with Fergie behind closed doors and hear his opinion on things - it must be 50% blood curdling rage and 50% soul crushing heartbreak!

 

[Bring back the Doc]

What was your initial reaction on hearing the news that Fergie was going to step down, and what were your expectations for this club moving forward without the great man.

Being honest, i didn’t expect anything like this (i don’t think many did). I knew the squad needed some reinvestment and some freshening up, but i was still fairly confident. Upon hearing the news that Moyes was taking over i was immediately pessimistic as i never rated the guy. Didn’t like his football, didn’t like his personality and didn't think he was anywhere near good enough for United.

So straight away i was skeptical, but in all seriousness i just thought things would be pretty much be the same. Call it arrogance, call it naivety - whatever. But i just held the mistaken belief that “we’re United, we’ll be fine” I didn’t necessarily think we would win the title in that season (due to Moyes, some of the players, etc.) but i thought we’d be up there. And if not that season, then the season after it would be back to normal.

Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, what were your expectations. Be honest.

Well it was clear we were running on empty when SAF retired! His was a one man show unlikely to be repeated. He won his last title with an aged squad with the addition of an ageing RVP to score goals against poor opposition in the PL. A major rebuild of squad, methods, science, coaching, recruitment and management was needed in response. To do that properly required a great Chief Exec and a detailed plan supported by the necessary funding. The only thing we did well was throw money at the problem in a disorganised and wasteful manner without a plan. It can be seen that it takes 3 years to rebuild and become successful eg City, Wolves, Liverpool. We haven’t begun the rebuilding process yet and will continue to struggle. We are expecting too much of OGS and the youngsters. This is not about being lucky with a couple of signings or appointing a better manager it is about wholesale change from top to bottom.

 

[BusbyMalone]

My expectation was one of Mourinho, Pep or Ancelotti will take over from Sir Alex, As one by one they all choose other clubs, I thought may be Carlos Queiroz or Rene Meulensteen will take over. David Moyes as soon as he was announced, I had a feeling, will be a disaster.

I was convinced we were going to get Pep. I just remember reading at the time about how much he admired the club and there were some rumours that he would take over eventually.

Then we got Moyes.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Scriblerus]

Initially I thought there would be a rocky but relatively transitional patch. But what made me really worried was the dumping of continuity and inside knowledge when the coaching staff were ditched. Bloody awful idea in itself, and an indication that Moyes was not confident about being directly compared to Ferguson by those around him. Then the Fellaini debacle….

 

[Josh 76]

Moyes was a disaster. I even think Fergie thought that Moyes would just carry on his good work by just sitting in the dug out. What Fergie didn't realise was how great he actually was.

I was pissed off with Moyes, but thought as soon as he is sacked, everything will be ok.

When we got LVG , I thought he's ok and at least we have got rid of Moyes. Then when he started signing 'World class ' players.....It felt exciting. But that didn't last too long and the boring football was just too much to take.

But again I wasn't too worried as we still had one hope....Mourhino. The day that was announced with Pogba, Miky, Bailey, Matic and Zlatan , I really thought it was our time after a couple of years blip. Great manager, great players and the start we made was amazing. 2 trophies in first year and it was time to really push....

But then again it started going wrong. And that was the first time I really felt this Club is finished. Right from the board to manager to the players. All a shambles .

So when you look back since Fergie left , it's not been a full depressing 7 years. There have been some great moments , trophies and beating the Scousers. But now I'm really really worried for 2 reasons.
1. We need at least another 5 players to challenge again. This will take time and by time I mean 3 or so years to get a system and consistency.

2. The Scousers are so far ahead as a club that it will need them to feck it up rather than us catch them.

God help all of us !

 

[MTF]

I thought we'd still be pretty good. Might struggle to win the league the next couple of years, but thought top 4 was certain. Champion's League always harder to have expectations, but thought we'd still get out of the groups.

I basically thought our players were good enough for that level coming out of 2013. Sure they were getting old and we needed to start phasing in younger talent. But we still had RvP, Vidic, Evra, DDG, Kagawa, Nani, Valencia, Carrick. Basically the same guys who'd kept us at that level the years before. I didn't think the decline could be so quick.

I also didn't expect us to step so far back after Mourinho's first 2 seasons.

 

[U-N-I-T-E-D]

I expected top 4 without question and to win the league every few seasons with City, Chelsea and Arsenal doing the same

 

[Alex99]

Under Moyes I didn't really expect us to do anything, and with Spurs looking strong I thought there was an outside chance we'd fall out of the top 4 in 2013/14. Longer term I thought we'd be alright. Not hitting the heights we were, but with our money and the squad he inherited, I expected even Moyes to manage consistent CL qualification.

I wasn't expecting anywhere near the dominance we had under Fergie, but I thought we'd have won at least one more league title by now.

 

[Judas]

Never in my worst nightmares did I think by now we'd still be this shit. I expect a bit of a rocky time, but never leaving the top 4, and still challenge for all major honours most seasons.

 

[Steerpike]

What was your initial reaction on hearing the news that Fergie was going to step down, and what were your expectations for this club moving forward without the great man.

Being honest, i didn’t expect anything like this (i don’t think many did). I knew the squad needed some reinvestment and some freshening up, but i was still fairly confident. Upon hearing the news that Moyes was taking over i was immediately pessimistic as i never rated the guy. Didn’t like his football, didn’t like his personality and didn't think he was anywhere near good enough for United.

So straight away i was skeptical, but in all seriousness i just thought things would be pretty much be the same. Call it arrogance, call it naivety - whatever. But i just held the mistaken belief that “we’re United, we’ll be fine” I didn’t necessarily think we would win the title in that season (due to Moyes, some of the players, etc.) but i thought we’d be up there. And if not that season, then the season after it would be back to normal.

Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Anyway, what were your expectations. Be honest.

I was worried about the combination of Fergie leaving and the Glazers being the owners. It was already clear, before Fergie stood down, that the squad required a major overhaul. Unfortunately winning the title in his final year may have masked how urgent that need was.

Unlike you, I was positive about Moyes' appointment, but I became worried by an early interview: he said something about being fortunate to inherit a title winning squad, and at that point I became concerned that he was too much in awe of the players, and wouldn't have the bottle to carry through the required transformation.

I thought that City would overtake us, and that the realistic limit to our ambitions for the next 4-5 years would be Champions League qualification. I have been shocked by just how incompetently the rebuilding of the squad has been carried out, and by the time wasted under the 3 managers post-Fergie. At the point Mourinho was sacked, I actually felt nothing had been achieved, and that Ole would have been better off inheriting the squad that Fergie left rather than the one he actually inherited.

The six years post-Fergie were pretty much wasted, and I hadn't expected that to be the case.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Too big to fail. So much money, can't go wrong. Never outside top four. Liverpool won't win it in 20+ years.

This.

 

[MikeUpNorth]

Losing Fergie was devastating. But simultaneously losing our long-term CEO, coaching staff and most of our experienced players was cataclysmic. In what way were we even the same club at that point? Everything changed overnight.

Being run by a bunch of morons doesn't help much either.

 

[golden_blunder]

I was still secretly hoping that fergie would come back after Moyes disaster

 

[chromepaxos]

I wasn't too worried when Fergie announced he was leaving but the news quickly became torrent of shite.

First it came out Gill was leaving at the same time. Then that Moyes wasn't going to start work until the end of July which meant there was no time for anything to be done before the season started. Then when he fired the coaching staff my heart fell like a rock. And then the transfer window and Fellaini arriving...

Within a month it was obvious that the club was run by idiots, that Moyes was simply too stupid to be any good and that anyone who knew anything had been fired. It's amazing what can happen when there is simply nobody with real intelligence involved.

 

[rpitchfo]

Thought we would be fine. I’d have to look at my old posts but I think I was very much give the bloke a chance when it came to moyes. Very quickly moved to the moyes out camp.

 

[Red Dreams]

Was hoping against hope it would be Mourinho after Fergie and there would be a smooth transition.
The failure not to give Mourinho the job has brought us to this.
He got damaged somehow with that second Chelsea stint.

Honestly I have given up any hope we will be back unless we are taken over by the Saudis, which would mean the club is dead anyway.

 

[Handré1990]

I thought I had to adjust my expectations to not expecting to win the league every year, which I surely did under SAF. Never in my worst nightmares did I expect this!

 

[VeevaVee]

That we'd go down to 4th/5th for a few years, but that behind the scenes we're obviously best in class and we'd challenge again within 5 years, being somewhere between 1st and 3rd. Turns out we're not only poorly run, like a lot of big companies are, but also got left behind. Fergie leaving happened at a time when football really transitioned.

 

[BusbyMalone]

That we'd go down to 4th/5th for a few years, but that behind the scenes we're obviously best in class and we'd challenge again within 5 years, being somewhere between 1st and 3rd. Turns out we're not only poorly run, like a lot of big companies are, but also got left behind. Fergie leaving happened at a time when football really transitioned.

Another disheartening thing to learn during our decline is how far we're behind in other aspects. During the Fergie era you were just ignorant to that sort of stuff (well i was anyway) because we were so successful on the field. But i just assumed we were miles in front in regards to sports science, training facilities, medical teams, etc.

Turns out, we're definitely not.

 

[Ronaldo's ego]

Top four during transition phase, progressive improvements leading to being title contenders within four years. The way the club has been handled from top to bottom since Sir Alex’s retirement is nothing short of shocking and grossly incompetent. I wonder how the great man feels seeing everything he built being torn to shreds in front of his eyes.