No doubt David Moyes breathed a huge sigh of relief when his team beat Swansea 2-0 at Old Trafford on Saturday night and not just for obvious reasons.
There was the fact that they avoided losing a fourth consecutive game, but as important for the 50-year-old Scotsman must be the fact that the torrent of criticism he has received pretty much since the day he took over at the club might ease off for a day or so.
It’s time for the media and the doomsayer United fans to realise and appreciate what a massive job Moyes has got on his hands.
Even the most ardent United fans will acknowledge the difficulties he faces in having to fill the shoes of someone of the stature of Sir Alex Ferguson. In his 26 years at the club, Ferguson built an empire of success which seemed to roll along from trophy to trophy in seemingly effortless fashion.
The problem is that that type of success inevitably comes to an end and someone has to step in and pick up where the previous manager left off.
That is an impossible task as numerous managers have discovered in the past, both at United and at many other football clubs.
It must be particularly difficult for Moyes who has to pass the Ferguson statue on his way to the ground and stare at the stand named after his predecessor at every home game. Never mind the fact that Sir Alex is in the stand watching every single game.
United fans demand success because they have become used to it. After a barren period from the late 1960s, until they won the first of their thirteen Premier League titles in 1993, United won the odd FA Cup but never came anywhere near threatening Liverpool’s dominance.
Look how things have changed: it is now the Merseysiders who have waited over two decades for that elusive title victory.
Even Ferguson was given a decent period before the pressure to sack him started to mount. For Moyes it started within weeks of him taking over the job.
In fairness he did not have the best transfer window and had to settle for the signing of Marouane Fellaini when all else failed.
Even there though there was logic because he is a player Moyes knows well having managed him for a number of years at Everton and so it made sense to bring him in even as a short term fix.
In any event the pressure for a marquee signing was so great that taking comfort in someone whose capabilities he knew well mades perfect sense even if in the medium term Fellaini is moved on from United pretty quickly.
Moyes has a major rebuilding job on his hands before they can even think about challenging for the title. He will need at least three years and £300-500million to have any chance of building a squad capable of challenging for the league.
If you don’t accept that his current squad are just not good enough, then look at the starting 11 for both Manchester clubs in the Premier League last weekend.
United: De Gea , Rafael, Evra (Buttner – 79 ), Carrick , Smalling, Vidic, Antonio Valencia, Fletcher, Welbeck (Hernandez – 86′ ), Januzaj, Kagawa
City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kolarov, Yaya Touré (Javi García – 61), Kompany, Demichelis, Nasri (Milner – 79′), Fernandinho, Dzeko (Jesus Navas – 52), Negredo, Silva.
If United fans are honest, there aren’t many players in their starting line-up who would make it into the City one (I’ll give you Milner as a sub for City) and don’t forget Sergio Aguero is still to come back for City.
Well both teams won and City hardly looked convincing I hear you say. That’s a fair point, but City were playing a better team than Swansea and won even though they had an off day away from The Etihad Stadium.
Moyes should be credited at the very least for the tactical change which made the difference in the game by switching Adnan Januzaj and Shinji Kagawa.
Looking at this season so far, in the same situation United would probably have lost the match because which ever way you look their squad, even when Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie are fit, simply lacks quality in-depth.
Too many of United’s players are at the wrong end of their careers, or are just decent professionals who will do a job but lack the quality to compete with the mega money across the city or in the south west of London.
Sure United won the league with pretty much the same squad last season, but they did that because they were the least worst of the top four and in part through the sheer personality of Sir Alex.
Moyes has yet to acquire that legendary status and will need to do it in the way other managers do it and how Sir Alex did it before he became a legend: by patiently building a squad of quality professionals who can work and compete as a team.
As part of that building process, United fans might have to accept that they will not compete for the title for the next two or three years and may not even qualify for the Champions League this season and maybe even next.
Sometimes though you have to take a step back to move forward and it is that which will require the patience of the fans and the board.
It’s probably true to say that some if not all United fans trusted Sir Alex without question. It’s also right to say that Sir Alex is not a stupid man. He anointed Moyes as his successor because he saw a great deal of himself in his fellow Glaswegian.
He saw a man who could deal with the challenge of taking over such a massive job and rebuilding the team from the ground up.
The task facing Moyes is unenviable. He has to replace the likes of Paul Scholes (the best English midfielder of his generation), Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic, all of whom have retired or are coming to the end of their careers.
He probably needs to ship out another eight to ten players who just are not good enough for United and need to be replaced with better quality players.
That will take time and money. While that needs to start in this transfer window, it will be a long road back to the sort of dominance United fans have enjoyed for the last couple of decades.
Image courtesy of SkySports via YouTube, with thanks.
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