How Did It Go So Wrong, So Fast?
Like all United fans, I have been reading all the blogs and newspapers, listening to TalkSport etc., and so much is being written and discussed about United, it’s depressing.
We’re all familiar with the stats, and all the records Moyes has managed to break in one short season, so we won’t revisit those just now.
I think back to last August when Moyes first took over. He complained about the tough fixtures… What is a tough fixture for the champions? Every fixture is tough if you into the game with negativity.
When you are playing golf and you are on the green to make a putt, if you think you won’t make it, guess what – you won’t. But if you believe you are going to get it in the hole, you most likely will. I coach my 6 year old son in golf – he has amazing talent, as do many other young boys playing golf. But it’s the mentality that dictates whether he has any chance of become a pro, or just a very good weekend player, so I focus with him on the mental side.
It’s exactly the same in any sport or, indeed, any walk of life. You have to believe to succeed. In August, Moyes also openly criticized his squad – he stated that you can’t win the Champions League unless you have at least 6 World Class players, so what did he do? He bought Fellaini. The point is, he had a dressing room of winners that he was making feel small and basically not good enough. For the past 20 years, we had a man who made these same players and those before them feel like supermen, 10 feet tall. Then, in one fell swoop, Moyes knocked all the stuffing out of that dressing room and the confidence just drained out of the players. Of course, as most people have rightly pointed out, at the same time as Moyes making all these negative noises, he also replaced a top class coaching team that had years of proven success with a bunch of losers that he expected his players to respond to. I believe Moyes has never owned the dressing room, not since day 1, and it has just got worse and worse as the months have gone by.
I listen to the coaches who are currently fighting for the top 4 – Mourinho cleverly takes all the pressure off his players; Rodgers, as much as I hate to say it, has been brilliant in his management, and only looks forward. Yet Wenger admits now that he is having to look back as well as forward at the table, which I think is very negative and maybe the crux of Arsenal’s problems these last 9 years. Ferguson, of course, was the master of “squeaky bum time”, and listening to Moyes claiming that the fans understand what is going on and we are in a rebuilding process just makes me incredibly angry. Whilst no one would deny that we needed new players of great quality in the dressing room, I can never ever accept that a top manager would not have had these same United players finish in the top 4 this season.
Of course the Moyes Out banner due to fly over Old Trafford tomorrow is causing controversy – but it will reflect what I believe the vast majority of United fans are thinking – they have had enough, and have realize that this man will never take us back to the summit of English and European football.
The majority of United fans demand action to sack Moyes and bring in a proven winner. Klopp or Simeone would do the job needed – maybe not in first or second season, but I am 100% sure, with the right manager, we would at least hear the right words and see the signs of progress on the pitch.
