Can I ask a question of the Manchester United fans?
Why is there such an obsession to strengthen? I mean, last season Manchester United won the league at a canter.
David Moyes is coming in to his first season replacing a modern great and legend of World football, it is by no means an easy task, but he does have a pretty fantastic squad already at his disposal. Do United fans (and people in general) expect him to be winning everything this year?
I personally see this year as a big transitional phase and I think Moyes would be using this season to look at the club and squad and asses what needs to change, it is easy for a long standing manager or a manager that has been with the squad for a number of years to do this, but for a manager that has just come in to such a huge situation it must be a little different. I also think Moyes will be given this season regardless of how well or poor United perform. It's also important that Moyes has been playing a lot of youth throughout pre season, so it could be that he wants to give the young players chance to prove themselves and to see if they can make the leap in to the first team squad.
I would have thought that the big off field changes, new manager, new staff, end of an era type thing was one thing, but having stability on the field is something Moyes might be worried about.
Personally, I don't think we need to go as crazy as people suggest.
I think a 'body' does need to be added to the midfield, we currently have three fit centre midfielders - Carrick, Anderson & Cleverley, not even talking about 'quality' here but pure numbers I think an addition to that (of the Fellaini standard) is something that's definitely needed.
If we hold onto Nani & Rooney and you know, our wingers are actually fit this year (!) rather than constant niggles and getting injuries, I've got confidence in our front line for sure.
In defence there is generally enough cover, only injuries (as we do seem to get) will throw a bit of panic.
In terms of the rest of it, Moyes does definitely need time to asses the squad and see who fits into his plans and who doesn't. From reading, he's incredibly thorough in that sense -
there's a really good article floating around which is an extract from a book, about his scouting and everything.
One of the first things it says is that the scouting department and Moyes didn't concern themselves with players that they believed were destined for the Top 6 or out of their price range.
He's come into a club and he's still running on previous staffs knowledge and scouting, it's going to be difficult for him to say 'Yep, splash £25million on that youngster' when he doesn't know much about them (this is what all the Thiago reports point to, the player wasn't within his scouting criteria, not much knowledge of him, reluctant to just ***** a load of cash, makes sense).
This is why we've gone after someone like Fabregas - a proven world class player that you don't need to scout, Moyes knows he'd fit right in. It's also why there have been Fellaini/Baines bids, he knows the players already, they aren't an unknown quantity that may or may not be a punt.
The team and the way they play for a long period of time are going to be dictated by who's fit and available and will still be like it was under SAF, it is the same personnel after all and you can't magically transform them in the very very little time he's had.
Next summer is the one that he should be judged upon, he'd have had a year to know the squad, know who he wants and to scout them and implement part of his systems.
As for some of the low bids, it seems Mr. Woodward is a bit frightened of watching the bank balance go out rather than coming in like he used to. I also think they wanted a big signing before they went after anyone else, to appease the fans, rather than going straight for Fellaini/Baines, this may have backfired somewhat now.
Unfortunately OcUK, RedCafe, Twitter and other various places have a large share of absolute spoilt muppets that don't understand that things will take time to progress and will be calling for Moyes' head after the Chelsea match.
Heck, we even saw people going mental before the Swansea match and then suddenly after it they were all '
' about it.
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