I'd rather us wait till summer and get Hodgson. I think that he'd do great at a big PL club with some proper support As for these rumours, I'm sure SAF would rather Moyes kept everything just how he had it, and the same goes for any manager. Seriously, do you guys reckon Dalglish called up Brendan Rodgers and said "you should sack all my backroom staff, they're ****". Like I said in the other thread, Moyes could just have kept everything exactly the same as SAF did. In which case we'd have comfortably strolled to 2nd or 3rd place this season, and next season, and the season after and the season after. But that would turn us into Chelsea after Mourinho left in 07 - in a nice long gradual decline no matter how much money we threw at the problem. Personally I'd much rather Moyes had some free reign to try things his own way, and that he gets the time to do it. That's the only real chance we'd have to build a sustainable and successful future for the club, without a few dump trucks full of oil money. He may well fail and have to be sacked in a year or two, but at least he will succeed or fail on his own merits, rather than his ability to be SAF-lite. Just look at how AVB did at Chelsea and then at Spurs to see how much you can screw it up by trying to force a manager to try and play with another manager's team, rather than giving them the time and space to build their own.
I fail to see why AVB gets such praise at Spurs? He finished lower than Harry and could still do the same again. Done nothing special except have Bale to dig him out of games now and then.
Beckham, in fact, could be a great addition as a coach and in transfer dealings. A splendid example of hard work, and making the most of one's ability. We barely have a good crosser of the ball anyway. Bring in Becks.
That's my point. He didn't make a spectacular start at Spurs but they stuck with him and let him rebuild the team and are seeing gains now. Whereas Abramovich seemed to lose faith with him as soon as AVB started trying to do things his own way, and it all went to **** from there. He may still fail, but at least he has given Spurs the chance to succeed at breaking into the top three or four in a meaningful way, which he couldn't have done had he just tried to copy Redknapp's approach. Think he's just managing expectations tbh. I'd be surprised if we won the CL this season, but then the same goes for any season - there are just too many things that can go wrong in a cup comp. Back in 2005 Chelsea and Milan both had four or five world class players, but Liverpool got a bit of luck and pulled it out of the bag when it counted and won it. Then in 08 we had four or five world class players and needed a penalty shoot out to win in the end. That's why the league is always the barometer of a manager and team's season for me. I think Moyes is just trying to avoid the inevitable media backlash for when we do go out. The only way he could underachieve in the CL this year would be if we went out in the group stage, or got turned over by a really unfancied team. He's probably also trying to get some fan pressure on the board so he can buy the players he wants in Jan or next summer.
Since when did United ever manage expectations mate? Moyes is merely repeating his MO from his Everton days imo, where he perpetuated the "plucky little Everton" myth & came out with gems like "taking a knife into a gunfight" when talking about the derby ffs. All comments that were aimed at lowered fans expectations & thus reducing the pressure on himself. Coming out with those comments about the CL when 5 of the United starting XI in the 2008 winning side are still there, must do wonders for their morale like.....
Exactly, a huge culture shift which may be too much of a shock for some Man Utd fans if results are also not coming (Moyes would be praised for humility and shrewdness of demanding investment if he made the same comments while actually winning). Fergie's style was more of celebrating on the pitch while your league rivals are still playing their game, and storming out of press conferences for daring to suggest they might go out of the Champions League right before they actually do.
