What is the point sacking Moyes and getting Giggs to take over with only a few games left? At least leave the man a bit of dignity and let him see out the season. If they want to make a change then, fair enough.

@ Wolf Pack

Well to be honest Wolf Pack – what has his dignity got to do with it? He has left precious little dignity for the club this season.

Sacking him now might give the squad a lift – they clearly don’t want to play for him. They may just improve over the next couple of games. Not that it matters now.

Plus there is the share price to consider. They cannot really afford to lose more games (and they will) and may need to show a willingness tot take action from a business point of view.

Well Felix, I actually think dignity has a lot to do with it. Things have not worked out for Moyes this season, no doubt. But I do believe he is a good footballing man that, at this late stage deserved to get the full year.

And what lift will it give the squad? Get them to 6th instead of 7th? In my opinion parts of that squad have been nothin short of a disgrace this year. I think they knew Moyes was always going to be the fall guy and used it as a crutch.

And is having an interm manager with no previous experience really going to save the share price as you say?

United had the same manager for over two decades. Now they will have three in one year and I disagree with that.

VeLOLceraptor.

@ Wolf Pack

According to YOU dignity might have a lot to do with it. Not to the United board though who have a billion dollar empire to run.

Good footballing men get shafted all the time – at United, most recently, Moyes shafted Ferguson’s coaching staff. How did that work out for him?

The lift it MAY give the squad is to get them playing in the right way. The problem Moyes had had and United have is NOT where they finish in the table. It is the fact that PERFORMANCES have been DREADFUL. Neville said it many many times this season – You can lose matches, but NEVER be dull.

Everton yesterday was ABJECT. Two shots on target in 90 minutes with 61% possession.

They may get from 6th to seventh. They may not. But the lift it might give the squad is that they play better football and right now THAT is what matters.

First of all Felix putting various words in capital letters doesn’t actually increase the weight of your argument!

Secondly if the Glazers are so worried about their billion dollar business should they not sack the entire board and indeed Ferguson in particular who was soley responsible for making such a terrible decision? Or should he be cut some slack?

There will be a media circus when Moyes is sacked before the season ends, all negative publicity highlighting how far United have fallen…and all for what? To appoint an interm who himself will be replaced anyway.

Wolf pack thats a great point, i think the same thing happened with the Ireland team with Trap, they knew the front cover of The Herald would be of Trap shaking his head

@ Wolf Pack

As I cannot use italics I must use capitals. I think you’ll find that, according to conventional writing rules, altering the stylisation of specific words DOES denote emphasis – specifically the use of italics.

Sacking Moyes for 9 months of dreadful performances and a failure to improve the team is reasonable. Sacking the Board or Ferguson for one poor decision is not. Grow up.

There is no hiding how far United have fallen. The entire world is well aware of it. Sacking Moyes won’t make the world any more aware of it – whatever the headlines. And lets face it – those headlines are all going to be “United Board make inevitable, unavoidable decision”.

Of course they have to appoint an interim. The only other option is to appoint no one. Maybe Evra could pick himself up front?

At this point there is no real downside to sacking him. Certainly not compared to sacking him in 4 weeks.

Exactly Iain – where do people get this ridiculous idea that the United team is crap!?

Wild Rover don’t jump on the band wagon mate… Moyes is a mid table manager , simples, look where Everton are without him??? very little difference in both teams from last season… Murphy made a very good point on MOTD last night… Why was Valencia , the fastest footballer in the world on the bench, when pace was needed…. Just not the guy for united.

Did he? Did you have a chat with him?

@ All of you

As usual the truth lies somewhere in between. This is an ageing, poorly developed squad with a real lack of top tier quality. Ferguson abdicated building responsibilities during his last few years.

Moyes on the other hand has been a disgrace from the moment he arrived. There has not been one single laudable action he has taken – from pandering to Rooney, to failing to inspire his players, to meek acceptance of failure and his embarrassing press statements, never mind the shoddy transfer business – he has been a joke.

Moyes only has himself to blame for failing to make the best of a poor United squad.

But there were serious problems with the squad when he arrived.

Dave one question why was ferguson’s departure so sudden? Because he knew he had old and sub standard players.

@ Wild Rover

That’s total rubbish Rover.

@wildrover His departure came about due to the death of his wife’s sister. Still find it amazing how many people buy into this ‘Fergie jumped because of an ageing squad’ tripe.

United have an aging defence. About to lose 2 of their more experienced players. A midfield lacking imagination. A midfield with a 40 year old in it and one that Scholes dominated last year.

They fell quicker than would have been expected though. New manager will be following Moyes not Ferguson so much less pressure.

Fergie new how to win the league without him that team is an arverage team and this season has proved that your doing the same job for 27 years you know how its to be done utd are done they will never rule the EPL again the way they have the utd way went with fergie cos it was fergie way

Last year’s league was one of the worst in the leagues history. Holding up this team as having won it by eleven points is no fantastical achievement. Anyone with two eyeballs can see that the squad is in a dilapidated state and you could barely choose some of them that would make it into any of the top 4s starting eleven. The current state of United is down to one man and the board that supported him. Not moyes

United won the title last season because of Ferguson. That squad would not have won the title under a different manager (look how what is largely the same squad has done this year without Fergie).

@ James Comerford

The current state of United is not down to “one man” but a variety of players.

The Owners for failing to invest top dollar for top players
The Board for not planning for Fergusons retirement
Ferguson for ignoring crisis level issues in the squad, transfer, scouting and youth development systems.
Moyes for his truly abject and lamentable management this season.
The players – for totally failing to be professional and work for a manager they did not respect.

it was not all of a sudden , lf you listend to the man he said two years earlyer he would retire last year..

Weakest team to win it, stop using that excuse, Moyes was and is being shafted!

@Dave O’Shea, that is what everyone is saying, do u think someone else hasn’t thought of the possibility that Moyes is the problem, you are on the bandwagon that has been going since he got the job!

What a ridiculous comment. Everton are due to finish where in the league this year first is it. Did moyes not finish 5th or 6th most years.

Worth casting our minds back to this Journal article after Moyes’ appointment http://thescore.thejournal.ie/5-issues-david-moyes-united-manager-976058-Jul2013/

Here’s some of my favourite comments!

John Deane: ‘Dont worry Liverpool fans i wouldnt get my hopes up finishing above United this season because its not going to happen.’

Conor Counihan: ‘I’m loving all the LFC fans on here writing Moyes off. He’s made Everton the best team on Merseyside now. The league table never lies :)’

Martin Jones nails it: ‘They be lucky to get a top four finish. Moyes has never won a trophy and don’t wont change next season,very average squad’

As was Jamie McCormack: ‘I’d say Liverpool will finish higher than Utd next year’
to which B7584 responded: ‘Come down off whatever drugs youre on.’ – the Rodgers drug baby!

And finally Sean Kelleher, hats off Sean!: ‘Cant wait to see United in mid table at the end of the season with no champions league spot, no prem title and Moyes been shown the road’

Let’s be avin’ ya!

@ Sean Collins

Nonsense Sean – he is getting a reward for his performances this season.

Damn it!
Everything was going so well…

I’m sorry he spent 11 years at Everton and won NOTHING ! They only managed a champions league qualifier ONCE ! He was never the right man for United and I’m glad he’s going

Kept Everton near the top 4 all the time, just what Martinez is doing and with hardly any money, imagine what he can do with money! if it’s not announced tomorrow or this week it won’t happen and I’ll be glad as I know he will get it right

Ageing squad? Really have another look at the whole squad
Jones, januzai, mata, smalling, Rooney, DeGea, nani, kagawa, welbeck, Hernandez, Evans …, all in their twenties….

Ferguson perhaps didn’t ignore the crisis… Simply knew he was moving on and left it for a new manager to build….. Moyes can’t attract big names. If taking what Everton has is his ambition, it tells of his ability…..,

The pain will be felt most in that place where the ordination of Moyes by Ferguson was born and nurtured, the terraces of Ibrox. This will be hard to take and even harder when Lennon comes to take over. Ha.

Even the Sevco Serf Club couldn’t bad trip like that on one their Buckie and Ketamine benders!!

From the same people who say the league is weak because Liverpool is on top…. But then that makes Man U even worse, right? But they will be back, by some divine intervention….

They’ll NEVER get a manager in who can start winning leagues from the start. Look at Ferguson’s first few years:
86-87 – 11th place
87-88 – 2nd place
88-89 – 11th place
89-90 – 13th place. (won FA cup.)
90-91 – 6th (Cup winners cup)
91-92 – 2nd (League Cup)
92-93 – finally won. Only took the (apparently) greatest manager 7 seasons to get there. Fire Moyes now & I guarantee the fans will be looking for the next poor sod to be sacked this time next year too.

Matt, you are bang on, but the problem these days is the lure of Champions League money….. It dictates everything, forecasts are based on them…. The Glazers know, with the debt situation on Man U, that to make money, they need CL. Also, do sponsors also have a clause that includes CL as a necessity? As soon as Liverpool were out of CL, Adidas bailed….. Its a cutthroat business world more than a sport now.

as your name implies…. it hurts….. hahaha

“It hurts” your havin a laugh try watchin your greatest rivals collect the title 13 times since your last one now thats hurts. we can take a year or two off mate enjoy it ive certainly enjoyed the last 20 years.

Yes it did, but old enough to remember our dominance before that, but if you come out with Loserfool, then you assuming Man U will be back because of a divine right or something? Give me a break, you think the other clubs will stand still out of sympathy for Man U??? Many of you Man U fans do not remember your lean years…. humility will make you a better fan, or there’s a bandwagon once in a while passing by…..

I think it’s disgusting what the Man U fans are doing to DM,he left a top side to come to you lot of chancers and he has been betrayed by fans and players alike, totally classless it’s a long way back from here.

Excellent point Brendan.

And to boot he bought Everton’s best player and Chelsea’s two time player of the season.

The quality was there in the squad. You can’t honestly tell me that United team are as bad as 7th.

Sarah Jane, Please just stay Quite, He is right, United have a bunch of useless players in that squad that wouldn’t get a game for a championship side. The past is the past, United need a complete overhaul, 5 or 6 players in that team need to be shown the Door, if not more.

Everyone except United capitulated last year. Same again this year only Liverpool have showed such form.

United are poor.

In fairness to Liverpool they have kept up an amazing run. Hopefully Chelsea will go out if Europe but beat Liverpool to keep it interesting for Irish people. La Liga also very exciting.

Moyes is tactically awful. The players don’t know what the game plan is because there isn’t one. He has to go.

Moyes

Rodgers had worse start to his career with Liverpool, get of your high horse, I’ll be even longer than 24 years before they win their next one.

So, for every year longer for Liverpool, +1 year to united…

@Sarah
Quality?
Not a single player from their current squad would start at Liverpool or City, van Persie and maybe Rooney would get a spot at Chelsea! The rest is utter rubbish! Without the 40 year old Giggs and the mid-thirties Evra and Ferdinand they would have ended up even further down the table!
Utd wasn’t that short of quality since the early 80′s and it will take a hell of a lot more than a new managers and a couple of big name signings in the summer to make them winning trophy a again!
That’s the truth and as a Liverpool supporter I am thoroughly enjoying every second of it!
YNWA

@ matthias

De Gea would play at City. Probably Vidic too given how often Kompany is out and how poor the backup is.

Liverpool have played fabulous football this season but YNWA is and always was a crap song, and an even sadder tag line.

Yes, maybe they should sing always look on the bright side of life….. classic…

Also a crap song

Yeah, but it was Monty Python, so accepted….

De gea,Evra,Mata,Kagawa would start for Liverpool!!

Yea sure, Liverpool ladies team is doing just fine….. Ne need for them….. The ladies at Old Trafford need all the help they can get.

@Chris
Nobody was saying United had a crap squad 12months ago when they ran away with the league.

No detractors after the return leg vs Olympiakos, home to Bayern, 5 and 4 past Leverkusen…

Make no mistake, the players need to take their share of the blame.

@ Michael Cunningham

Categorically, literally and TOTALLY untrue Michael.

Many MANY United fans were saying United had a crap squad a year ago, two years ago, three years ago. Ever since Ronaldo left in fact.

That’s complete nonsense Michael. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

@ Felix

Yes. Of course you’re right. CATEGORICALLY and TOTALLY right.

I take it all back. The players had NOTHING to do with their performances. They certainly behaved like innocent bystanders.

In fact, those matches never happened, did they? Nobody cheered at RVP’s hat-trick. And the only matches that happened are the abject defeats you remember. A real fan here. Jeez…

Did I hit a nerve here?

Your worse than a guy I know on Facebook. Can’t be happy about liverpool winning..he has to have a go at utd. Its a bit sad

Problem is utd fans know only success .
No patience,

Its hard to see success in the future with the way he has the team playing. 7th place wouldnt be so bad if there were signs of improvement

Because man utd fans never slagged anybody during their years of dominance? Come on lads u have to accept your bit of slagging, u had it good for 2decades

Les, your into guys on Facebook??? :)

Not sad just life.

@ Conor Cahill

Rooney should never have been kept. The very VERY last thing he is is a leader. He is absolutely NOT a leader. When the chips were down under Ferguson he threw his toys out of the pram twice and asked for transfers.

He is nowhere near the best player in the UK and not worth 300k per week. Thats a joke. Thats Ronaldo, Messi money and he isnt even close to them. His performance against Everton was once again lamentable.

Moyes should have sold him.

Evra, Carrick, Cleverley, Fletcher, Vale have to go along with Young, Nani, Rio, Giggs and Vidic.

Spot on Felix. He has created uncertainty about his future more than once, ending in massive wage increases (to the point of farce) each time. He should be moved on, PSG possibly the only club mad enough to pay those wages.

@ Luke

I was certain CERTAIN he would leave this summer. Why on earth would you sign a new contract with United doing so badly?

Then Moyes bottled it by offering him 300k, a say in transfers, a future “ambassador’s role” and the Captaincy. I mean for **** sake. What a cowardly little worm Moyes became.

People think because he runs around a lot he’s a captain. Hell give me 300k a week and a professional fitness coach training me every day – I’ll Captain them.

Everton yesterday is a perfect example. Team losing. Chips down. CL qualification hanging in the balance. A leader, a figurehead a truly inspirational character – someone ACTUALLY WORTH 300k a week would have come up with something. As Keane did. As Cantona did. As Giggs did. As Robson did.

Rooney? He just ran around a lot.

In fairness to him, he flapped his arms and put in a few dirty tackles too. Is anybody really worth 300,000 a week? Its an insane amount of money to be paying an athlete, EVERY week for flip sake.

Giggs will probably retire and I agree with the players listed above. I rated Mata, Hernandez, Valencia, Kagawa, Buttner and a fit Van Persie. I don’t think Wellbeck or Rooney did enough to make the team work. They probably need to start from scratch with players who play with passion and pride not an idle bunch who want more money than they are worth!

@ Luke

Is any player worth that? Depends on the market. McIlroy got 200m from Nike to wear their t-shirts and swing their clubs. That’s the market for you.

The difference is Rooney is not good enough.

No arguments there at all. I like Moyes but his attempt to portray a disinterested player as the captain and leader of the club was a bit goofy.

Absolutely – a courageous man would have realised he needed to make the team his own and quickly. That would mean binning the Ferguson core – Rooney, Evra. Carrick, Rio, Vidic.

Giving Nani a new five year contract and Rooney a 300k a week contract was pure cowardice.

They are on the app

@ Paul

They are Paul. So is the Guardian. It seems genuine enough. & its only to be expected.

Frankly I would agree, generally speaking, that a manager should be given time. But he has been a total disgrace this season.

Ya when it broke here it wasn’t, which was surprising as there usually first with the big news

So many red thumbs for such a reasonable comment.

Can somebody, anybody name ONE good thing Moyes has brought to Man United?

@ Banking

As I stated above Banking Moyes has been a disaster. Everything (visible) that he has done has been a joke.

But there is no denying that the club was adrift. That squad badly needed a complete overhaul. No midfielders, poor wingers, and an ageing defence.

Moyes inherited a poor squad by United standards. But he made an absolute mess of what he had. Martinez and Rodgers have shown what can be achieved with positivity, attacking football and good tactics and training.

The current United squad is not, arguably, top 4 when you consider the investments of Arsenal, Chelsea, City, Spurs and Pool and the play of Everton and Pool. Are they as bad as 7th? Possibly.

It is not the end result that matters – it is the dreadful dreadful performances and total lack of improvement. And the inescapable conclusion that Moyes has no idea how to change it all.

Comedy?

What a comment, what substance do you have to back that up???

I agree with a lot of what you say felix but moyes did get Everton to fifth spot in his time. Next year will be a big year for Martinez after starting so well and when he puts more of his own stamp on the club. The total lack of respect for Moyes from the senior players at Utd did I think have an awful lot more to do with the awful season than people realise.

But he inherited the spine of his team for the next decade through Uniteds youth system. In the transfer market he had far more chumps than trumps.

@ Ger

The spine of a team? Are you bloody kidding me?

There are no bloody midfielders at the club. There haven’t been for 6 years. Their CL winning defence is now all over 32. Smalling & Jones are decent but they haven;t developed the way they’d hoped. And their isn’t a single leader in the whole damn side.

Not to mention the fact there isn’t a single world class player bar RVP in there and he’s 30 and has been injured.

Felix if you’d read the thread you’d see I was talking about what A F inherited through the youth system. Beckham, Scholes, Butt, the Nevilles, Sharpe etc. My whole point was that Fergie didn’t have a great record in the transfer market.

For every Ronaldo or Keane there was a half a dozen Djemba Djembas. Had he ( Fergie ) not had those youth players coming through he wouldn’t have had the time at United he did.