Fergie wasn't infallible, particularly when it came to signings tbh...Moyes is unfortunately of the Djemba Djemba variety rather than the Cantona variety.
I'm old enough to remember life before Fergie and the early years that people keep banging on about, what I don't remember is the poor attitudes and lack of commitment being shown...United has always been about proactive attractive attacking football, it's the fundamental underlying mantra of the club...and yet they appoint David Moyes, a reactive defensive manager whose history shows a pragmatic rather than adventurous approach to football.
Sometimes even the most influential and respected figures just need to be ignored....and Moyes appointment was one such time.
Im the same - Im also old enough to remember that kind of football, but its not Moyes fault that SAF got him to inherit such a **** midfield, and yes SAF has been whinging for years about getting value for money (or words to that affect) but at the end of the day sometimes you need to spend £37m (or whatever) to get the player you need.
Vidic and Rio should have been replaced at least a year ago, and a worthy replacement of Evra (despite Fabio not working out as well as his brother) should have also been in the plans, thats even without coming to the terrible midfiled (and SAF knew the disaster that was waiting to happen after Scholes' first retirement).
Of course its partially Moyes' fault for the attrocious summer, thats not in question. However I think its more to do with David Gill going at the same time, and a marketing man coming in his place and trying to attract players and failing just as badly (as Moyes) if not worse.
Im not sure why Utd didnt buy out 2 months of Moyes' contract with Everton so he could step into Carrington the day after the season finished (even if he then had a couple of weeks holiday) it would have given him at least another month or so extra to do some dealing rather than a rush job before going off on tour a couple of weeks after arriving.
Ok I seem to recall Everton flirting with relegation under Moyes for one season, but given the tiny budget he has had getting in the top 6 is incredible (with very few outstanding players but a decent squad).
They needed to do more in Jan without question, and I honestly dont know why Moyes didnt spend £50m on the Porto pair of Mangala and The Octopus (without a doubt its a huge amount of money, but on the other its one season of Chevy sponsorship) - even if the latter ends up as a squad player its a position we needed fixing urgently and for £10m for that position its a good deal. Ok its debatable whether the inexperience but promise of the centre half is worth £40m but given the crazy prices all players are going for (and the Nike deal coming along) - its not like Utd HAVE to be budget concious for FFP reasons (after all Veron was a complete failure at Utd costing £30m being an international and club success before coming - so even these players arent gaurenteed to work).
Moyes deserves more time, Utd dont NEED CL football (although of course it will help attract new players in the summer) and its not like 4th is out of reach even now.
Every team has freakish results due to injuries and freak weather conditions (not helped by the stadium you happen to be playing in that weekend - and a bit of help from the incompetant ref),
Its only natural for a team to struggle after having two injuries in the same position whithin the first 45 mins (although Moyes I think is fully at fualt for starting Evans if his strain only lasted 10 minutes before being subbed)
When fit who would have been definite starter at the beginning of the season ? De Gea, Rafael, Evra , Carrick, Rooney and RvP - and even then Evra has had a debatable last season or two and RvP has had two clear seasons from major injury in the last 5 or 6 years (or seems that long). Not really even a decent foundation for fourth to be fair however good SAF's intimate knowledge of the squad has made it look for the last few years (helped by other teams not challanging that hard until this season)
