Ahhhh the David Moyes era at Manchester United- what a ride it was. To be fair, it would be impossible for just about anyone to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson given all that he accomplished, but David Moyes was a bigger flop than New Coke and Crystal Pepsi combined. Moyes signed a six year deal, but lasted only 10 months.
In other words, Old Trafford paid him A LOT of money not to work. That’s what happens when you take a defending league champion, and guide them to a seventh place finish.
David Moyes has already been sacked from his next job after United. His tenure at Real Sociedad lasted from just November 2014 to November 2015. However, now he’s back in the Premier League with a brand new gig.
Yesterday brought Moyes’ first press conference as Manager at Sunderland, and the media session included some shade being tossed at Old Trafford. (on a side note, he also said that he would love to have current United wingers Adnan Januzaj and Marouane Fellaini reunited with him at the Stadium of Light)
“I’ve said all along I was unfairly treated there. When you sign a six-year contract and you end up with 10 months … yeah, I believe I was,” he told the English newspapers. (without mentioning the very expensive buyout he received to walk away)
“I didn’t win enough football matches but you must say there were mitigating circumstances.
“And I think you could say there are maybe things which have gone on since then that would actually justify that even more so.”
“What my time at Manchester United gave me is an unbelievable idea of what it is at the top. I believe that’s where I can work and that’s where I should be working, and my level is that.
“You don’t get offered the Real Madrid job, the Barcelona job, the Manchester United job, if you’ve not had something to suggest there’s a reason for it,” he said.
“I don’t think I have anything to prove to anybody else, but I am always proving to myself that I want to keep my standards high.
“I think I’ve got the fourth best win record in the Premier League out of all the managers. If I can even bring a bit of that to Sunderland, that will make a difference.”
Back in January, during an interview on The Clare Balding Show, David Moyes sang a different tune somewhat.
On that day, he expressed no regrets over his tenure in Manchester, and said that if given the chance, he’d do it all over again.
“Would I take the job again? Of course I would because there are very few managers in the world who wouldn’t want to manage Manchester United,” said Moyes, who signed a six-year deal at the outset of his ill-fated tenure. “I wouldn’t have done anything different. I’d have only done it different if I’d have known it was 10 months rather than six years.
“Everybody knows that if you have that sort of workspan it changes how you think. My understanding was that I was going to a club which always looked after its managers. Even when they were in trouble or it wasn’t going well, you got your time to sort things out.
“I was under that illusion when I was there. I didn’t think anything else.”
The Scotsman does make a good point there. United is definitely more of a “Stand By Your Manager” franchise than the other giant clubs.
You can see that with Louis van Gaal, who certainly made his case to be sacked long before the United board actually cut ties with him. Old Trafford are not usually trigger-happy, and with Moyes it does seem like an exception.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
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