Firstly I'm reluctant to simply lay the blame at Glaziers or our spending. This season we've spent £67m on new players; in 2012/13 we spent £63m on players; in 2011/12 we spent £53m; in 2010/11 we spent £27m. That's a fck of a lot of money towards players. So that leads nicely on to Fergie. Maybe he should be blamed for not addressing our midfield problem when he clearly had money available to spend (as shown by the figures above) when season after season most fans and pundits could see the emerging problem several years ago. BUT, and this is important, Fergie had built countless sides successfully. Imagine he knows he's leaving. I can understand if he no longer had the will to rebuild again AND maybe he thought he would leave it to the next guy to build his own team?? I can understand that... even if in hindsight that's turned out to be a mistake. THE BIG PROBLEM: In a way we've been the victim of our success and our stability. Having had a manager for 26+ years, we just lacked experience in how to transition from one manager to another. I don't know if this has been mentioned already but the biggest fck up the club made was the clean break. Allowing Moyes to get rid of the WHOLE backroom staff. THAT WAS OUR BIGGEST MISTAKE. Not only are you taking away a great manager who has influenced every part of the club from head to toe, but you also take away all his right hand staff. Now some may say, Moyes chose to get rid of them, BUT it was up to the club to impose that as a condition of any appointment. That although Moyes would bring in his own backroom people, they should have insisted that for an interim period (let's say for one season), the two backroom staff would work together. Imagine the benefit of that. Imagine what it would have meant to the new backroom staff coming in as far as the club's systems, training and really knowing the players, was concerned. And who knows, at the end of it, Moyes may have actually kept some or all of them. Instead, the club were naive. We're supposed to be a business but we came across as amateurs. It was as if Moyes turned up on 1st July as Fergie, the staff and everyone was leaving, and Gill handed him the keys and said, "Off you go mate, good luck!" I think the debacle of the summer transfer window was a great immediate indicator of that. FINALLY, Moyes tactics are appalling at times. I believe in giving him time and I also believe in backing the position of the manager at the club, but Moyes HAS to show he's willing to grow and develop as the manager of a big club with high expectations. His mentality needs to change, and he needs to buy the players he needs and be willing to be AMBITIOUS with his footballing tactics.
For me it's: Moyes 30% Players 50% SAF 20% Moyes had the toughest job in football imo - no one has ever taken over the champions and led them to the title the following season. Also SAF had our team overachieving so much that it was a tough job to work out exactly how he should strengthen. That said, his tactics have been terrible and he seems to be really struggling to get to grips with the team. Most of the blame, for my money, is on the players. SAF made our team greater than the sum of its parts, which seems to have led most of the players to believe they are better than they are. The players have gotten too complacent, which has shown in an utter lack of urgency, passion and competence on the pitch this season. I don't care how bad the tactics are, the players haven't changed since last season, so there is no excuse for them not being able to string three or four passes together, track their men, make intelligent runs, or show even the slightest bit of desire. The only blame I apportion to SAF is that he got the players overachieving to such a degree that it's created this complacency in them. Dunno if you could fault him for being such an excellent manager, but it has definitely contributed to our decline this season. Like with Liverpool in 2010 - a few defeats and a poor response from the players and manager has shattered the trend of overachievement, and that's a big reason we've underachieved so much this season. Ruff, I wouldn't blame SAF for not signing a CM - he's signed plenty over the years, but most of them haven't worked out. Given his last six CM signings were Hargreaves, Anderson, Carrick, Kleberson, D-D, and Veron, only one of which was really a success, I'm not surprised he's a bit averse to throwing vast amounts of money at the problem. Particularly when he managed to get the team doing absolutely fine without a new one for so long. Tho' that's probably part of the problem - SAF's ability to get a top four squad to be title challengers every season played a big role in him not feeling the need to break the bank, and risk being saddled with another useless flop, for every big name CM that came free.
Tough blaming Sir Alex. Moyes 90 per cent. He has inherited some great players at one of the best organised and stable clubs in the world. Spent £200m on new contracts and transfers. Did Sir Alex fire all the backroom staff? No. Did sir alex panic-buy spend £37m on a no 10 and play him out of position? No. He's lucky to get the second or third biggest job in club football and on his CV indicates he is not good enough and never will be. 45 attempts to win at a big 4 club and crap football proves that. Why have Milan Real Barca etc never come in for him? Maybe United need to chop and change every few to achieve success like Bayern, Real, etc... and stop living in the past. You are very unlikely to get someone to stay for 27 years as coach. Move with the times
