MANCHESTER — All eyes will be on Old Trafford and Goodison Park tomorrow as Alex Ferguson and David Moyes say their emotional farewells at the end of one of the most dramatic weeks in the history of the Premier League.
Report by Daily Mail
At the start of this week it was hard to imagine that Manchester United’s apparently meaningless final home game of the season against Swansea and Everton’s relatively mundane Goodison Park fixture against West Ham would captivate millions across the globe rather than just the supporters of the respective clubs.
There are plenty of reasons not to make Moyes manager of Manchester United, and on Thursday we heard them all, tumbling out across the airwaves and forums.
He has never won a trophy or coached a team beyond the preliminary stages of the Champions League. He has not bought, or managed, a £30 million player. He does not know what it is like to chase the title in the final weeks of the season, or travel to Milan to defend a first-leg lead. Most of all, he is not Jose Mourinho.
Not being special is Moyes’ greatest crime. Mourinho arrives like a bad boy on the street corner, all leather and attitude, casually flicking a spark into a box of fireworks. Against his rock-and-roll image, Moyes is a nerd with a set of safety glasses and a long taper.
As manager of Everton his style has been effective, but often uninspiring. The season Blackpool were relegated they outscored Everton, who finished in seventh place. When Moyes took Everton into the Champions League from fourth place, bottom-of-the-table Southampton matched their 45 goals.
The Manchester United bequeathed by Sir Alex Ferguson was built on verve and attacking flair. “They always score,” as Clive Tyldesley exclaimed going into injury time at the 1999 Champions League final. Everton don’t. In six of the last eight seasons, Everton’s position in a league table of Premier League goalscorers is inferior to their final league position.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
They were seventh in 2010-11, but 10 clubs scored more goals than them. They were 11th in 2005-06, but only the bottom three were less prolific. Everton are currently sixth; on goals scored, they would be seventh.
So is the Steady Eddie who produced this team, often the antithesis of the risk-takers and game-makers of Manchester United, the man to succeed Ferguson at Old Trafford?
Yes, he is; of course he is.
For what would it say if United simply went out and appointed one of the marquee names that flit between the elite clubs of Europe: Carlo Ancelotti (AC Milan, Juventus, Chelsea, Paris St-Germain) or Mourinho (Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid)? What would it say if, Roman Abramovich-style, they hurled a fortune at the latest flavour of the month in Europe, 2013’s equivalent of Andre Villas-Boas?
United would be saying that English football doesn’t matter. That building a team doesn’t matter. That investing in youth is irrelevant. That consistency is bunk. That learning, personal development and loyalty are of no consequence.
These are the traits Moyes has brought to Everton over the last 11 seasons and are, coincidentally, the values that Sir Alex Ferguson instilled at Manchester United. So what United would be saying is that Ferguson did not matter, either. His beliefs and ethos were trivial, his 27 years condemned with a wave of the hand, or shrug of the shoulders.
There was a predictable backlash when the appointment of Moyes was confirmed. There is almost always a backlash against a new manager these days.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were going to give Mick McCarthy’s job to Steve Bruce until social media and the loudest mouths got to work on his reputation and the wise men in the boardroom panicked.
No doubt some of those now screaming longest about the comedy of errors that followed were also very vocal about Bruce’s impending arrival. They will have time to reflect on this irony while travelling to their first League One fixture of next season. Bruce, meanwhile, is back in the Premier League, against all odds, with Hull City.
