THE MORE UNKIND among you might suggest that Marouane Fellaini’s retirement has come at an apt time.
Approaching 10 years – April 2014 – from David Moyes’ sacking as Manchester United manager, the West Ham boss returns to Old Trafford today in charge of a side that are looking down on his old club from sixth spot.
This won’t be the first time that Moyes will manage an opposition team against the club that sacked him less than 10 months into a six-year contract, but with that decade anniversary on the horizon it’s only natural to take stock.
Fellaini’s announcement adds another layer to the discourse.
The Belgian was an easy fall guy – one of many to come – but his arrival at United seemed to set a tone for panic, indecision and plain bad planning.
A deadline day signing in the summer of 2013, United had spent the majority of the transfer window chasing Cesc Fagregas from Barcelona before switching course late on.
They also ended up having to pay more than the £23.5 million release clause in Fellaini’s Everton contract because that was only valid until 31 July. The midfielder arrived a month later for closer to £30m.
Looking back it was the catalyst for the following 10 years of waste and mismanagement.
The history Moyes has with United means there is always a kind of shared assessment of where they are both at, and that comes into even greater focus on an afternoon like this one.
More so given United, currently eighth, are two places below a Moyes team. It wasn’t supposed to be that way when they went their separate ways.
And yet the nature of his relationship with West Ham supporters means he returns feeling the strain of their dwindling belief in his methods.
There were boos at full-time of their 1-1 draw with Bournemouth at the London Stadium in midweek, and since losing 5-0 at Fulham before Christmas murmurings about his future continue.
West Ham exited the FA Cup to Bristol City after a replay in January and are without a win so far in 2024. Still, it seems incredible to think that Moyes’ stock has already fallen so low with some given they are sixth in the table and it was only last June that he was lifting the Europa Conference League trophy – the club’s first taste of silverware since the 1980 FA Cup and a first European trophy since 1965.
The last decade has felt like a lost one for United, the aimless and feckless direction of the Glazers leading to four more permanent managers appointed in the wake of Moyes’ 10-month tenure.
Erik ten Hag will hope the arrival of Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS investment and, more pertinently, the required football structure above him will allow him to operate without the same problems that led to Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all falling by the wayside.
For a time it felt as though it would be even worse for Moyes, who was affected by a more lasting malaise that threatened to end his career as a top-flight boss.
He sought solace in Spain with Real Sociedad in November 2014. A year later he was sacked again.
Sunderland offered him a route back to Premier League football in 2016 and by the end of his first season relegation to the Championship was on the cards. He was then fined £30,000 by the English FA for a disgraceful comment to reporter Vicki Sparks.
“You were just getting a wee bit naughty at the end there, so just watch yourself. You still might get a slap even though you’re a woman. Careful the next time you come in,” Moyes said after a 0-0 draw with Burnley.
Relegation was confirmed – the first of Moyes’ managerial career – and the general sense was of a man, and manager, being left behind in the modern game.
He resigned from his post and licked his wounds.
His first stint at West Ham was on a short-term firefighting mission to keep them in the Premier League. This time he succeeded. He was edging back to the coalface again but not deemed worthy of a club with ambition to do more than fight to survive.
Former Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini replaced Moyes at West Ham but when they dropped dangerously close to the drop zone again in December 2019 Moyes was called for.
It’s to his credit that the time since has turned into a period of such substance, and success.
The challenge for United is to ensure the next 10 years deliver the same, and to the higher standard which the 20-times champions of England will be judged by.