Posts Tagged ‘David Moyes’

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(“Never mind Wazza, those yanks will soon pick up the scouse lingo!”)

I have not written a piece about Wayne Rooney for a while. This is not because there has been nothing to write about, there always is with him. Whether he is holding the club to ransom, condescendingly telling the fans he has nothing to prove or just plain playing badly, there is always something.

The problem is that it becomes boring after a while and loyal readers get fed up with articles about the same person.

However, it is about time to remind the world of his existence which, unfortunately, still lies with Manchester United. (more…)

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When David Moyes was appointed Manchester United manager to follow in the footsteps of the great Sir Alex Ferguson, everybody at Old Trafford, including the most important people, the fans, were prepared to give him a chance.

He was christened “The Chosen One” because, in a deed which seemed very unlikely, it was said that Fergie had chosen him as his successor. The reason it was unlikely is that a club like Manchester United does not allow one man to make decisions which affect the whole future of the club and it’s employees. (more…)

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Despite a long injury list and a manager who has only been with the club for three weeks, Sunderland were rather unfortunate not to take a point from the Etihad. It isn’t that they really deserved anything from the game, it’s just that City hardly ran away with it.

Whilst it is true that City were also without players as new signings Leroy SanĂ© and Ilkay Gundogan were both injured, it is also true to say that City have never missed these two players before, so shouldn’t do so now. They were bought to add something to the team not take something away when they don’t play! They were also without Vincent Kompany, as usual, and Nicolas Otamendi, so John Stones made his debut alongside new centre back Aleksander Kolarov. (more…)

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(Ed struggles to convince Mino Raiola that his scarf wasn’t part of the Pogba deal!)

David Gill is a tall man who casts a very large shadow. For the last three years, if you looked very closely underneath this shadow, you would have seen a little man from Chelmsford called Ed Woodward.

Although he had long left his role as CEO at United, the fact that Gill had managed to carry out his functions with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of proficiency, meant that he was always going to be a hard act to follow. (more…)

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So it has finally happened. The transfer saga of the Summer has reached it’s conclusion and Paul Pogba has returned to the club he left four years ago after being told he had to wait for his chance in the first team.

Typically, being a teenager, he thought he knew best and that Sir Alex Ferguson was wrong in his decision. He proceeded to run down his contract and eventually left for Juventus for a compensation package of around ÂŁ800,000.

He wasn’t proved right when he went to Italy, as everybody who knew him knew he was an exceptional footballer. What he did prove, unfortunately, is that most of the power nowadays lies with the player, even when he is still very young. (more…)

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(Jose ponders selling the entire squad and starting again!)

The real difference between Manchester United and the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona can be seen when the clubs mention that some of their players may be allowed to leave. The press immediately begin speculating which players those may be and then start linking them to different clubs around Europe.

For example, there were mutterings that Isco was surplus to requirements at Real Madrid. He was reported to be of interest to Manchester City. Then it was James Rodriquez, who is still not certain to stay. He is linked with Manchester United, amongst others. Raphael Varane has also been mentioned in the same breath as United.

Barcelona sold Thiago Alcantara to Bayern Munich and Pedro to Chelsea. In fact, Thiago was linked with United for a while but, by this time, Ed was in “full dithering mode” so they missed out on him. There was never any doubt that, when the availability of these players became public knowledge, they would go to big clubs. (more…)

 

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What does Wayne Rooney have on the plus side of his account with United?

He is the clubs leading all-time goalscorer. He is the captain of United as well as of England, although the impression is that both appointments were made due to a massive shortage of suitable candidates. He has been a decent player for a few seasons whilst never reaching the heights thought possible when he first appeared for Everton. That’s about it!

Unless I am missing something glaringly obvious then Rooney hasn’t actually contributed massively to United’s success over the years. That isn’t to say that he hasn’t contributed at all, he has, just not to the extent that some people, himself included, would have us believe. (more…)

 

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Well that was refreshing! Having watched every agonising minute of Manchester United under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, I am already far more optimistic with Mourinho in charge than I ever was with either of the other two.

There were good moments from the Moyes side and the same goes for the van Gaal side. The problem was that they were so few and far between that their dismissals were met with the same kind of celebrations that are usually reserved for winning a trophy.

Mourinho’s first game in charge, the friendly against Wigan, saw most of the kids given some game time. Fosu-Mensah started, as did James Wilson. Luke Shaw made a welcome return after injury and looked to link up again with Depay on the left. Depay still looks short on confidence and this is the reason that the link-up didn’t work as well as it might have done. (more…)

 

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It seems to have been a relatively straightforward appointment. Jose Mourinho became Manchester United manager after a short break during which Ed Woodward dithered, as usual, over what to do about Louis “the loser” van Gaal.

Finally, Woodward’s decision was made for him as United, for the second time in three years, finished outside of the Champion’s League places. Winning the FA Cup was never going to be enough to save the Dutchman, who had produced boringly slow football for the majority of his time at Old Trafford. (more…)

 

imageAccording to Wayne Rooney he is extra motivated by the fact that Jose Mourinho is now the manager of Manchester United.

This means, by definition, that he didn’t give 100% when Louis “the loser” van Gaal was in charge. Logically “extra motivation” can only take him to a maximum of 100% as nobody has more than that to give, despite all the pundits who think some players give 150% or more!

So, if he didn’t try as hard as he might have done under van Gaal, yet he was extra motivated by being given the captaincy, where does this put his level under Moyes and, previously, under Ferguson? Again, by a process of deduction, he was only giving about 50%. (more…)