Some people, who shall remain nameless, even if their name is David Moyes, think that Louis van Gaal should be given more time.
Had Moyes himself been given more time, United could well be in the Championship by now which might have made them a less attractive proposition for an arrogant egotist like van Gaal.
Moyes would still have been sacked but United would have somebody other than the Dutch clown in charge, which would probably have been a good thing.
Moyes is currently touring the TV channels in his new found vocation as an ‘expert’. He has been a guest on Clare Balding’s show on BT, he has appeared on BBC to give his views on the FA Cup. Sky has welcomed him to their studios, once for a match and once for ‘Goals on Sunday’ so he could be asked infantile questions by the infantile Ben Shephard.
What is it about Sky which makes them employ smarmy presenters who know absolutely nothing about football, but think they are wonderful?
Anyway, the problem with all this is simple. Moyes isn’t an expert! A few years at Everton making sure they stayed in the top half of the table was followed by a few months at Manchester United where he may have ensured that they didn’t had he stayed longer. He then went to Sociedad in Spain where he learnt how to count to four in Spanish and very little else. Again, he was sacked as a failure. How does this CV qualify him as an expert? If I had the amount of failures on my CV that this guy has on his I would never work again!
Apparently, the United board is split on the next managerial appointment. What does this mean? Well, Joel and Avram Glazer know nothing about football, Ed Woodward knows nothing about football. Richard Arnold has a background in rugby so knows nothing about, guess what? Correct, football. Strangely enough, these will probably be the ones who want Mourinho because they can see reasonably sure-fire and quick success. Similar to the fans, they HAVE to be fed up with van Gaal even though it may not appear so, so Mourinho would be a popular choice.
My guess would be that, on the opposite side of the table, sit Sirs Bobby and Alex. Both steeped in United tradition Mourinho will go against the grain somewhat with these two. I am a little surprised at Ferguson taking this stance as he certainly caused as much, if not more, trouble in his 26 years in the dugout as Mourinho and it is sometimes a trait which will assist a manager to better do his job.
Either way, while all this in-house bickering is going on, van Gaal stumbles from one failure to the next, dragging the United name further and further down and, the longer he is there, the less chance he is giving to any successor to turn things around this season.
Away from the managerial problems at Old Trafford and today is the 58th anniversary of the death of Duncan Edwards, who was fatally injured in the Munich air disaster. He would have gone on to be one of the greatest ever United players and, although only 21 when he died, was well on the way to greatness even at that young age.
I wonder what he would have made of all this. He was a ‘Busby Babe’, so probably would have appreciated Sir Alex Ferguson’s style as well. He was probably also one of the few players who would have flourished under Louis van Gaal because, to him, it didn’t matter too much who the manager was, he was such a naturally gifted player that he could play for anyone.
He would have been bemused by everything else about the modern game. To him it was about enjoyment and entertainment, not money and more money. Sometimes all of us, over a certain age, pine for a return to the good old days of football with mud, ice, rain, hailstorms, honesty, fair play and sportsmanship.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 