End-of-season decisions will change Manchester United as a club

Things not going to plan for Manchester United manager David Moyes

For Manchester United and David Moyes in 2013-14, the defining game has always been the next one.

But the game at home to cross-city rivals Manchester City on Tuesday did not gain any significance. That City would win was a foregone conclusion. However, the supporters’ patience inside the stadium seemed to be wearing thin. Old Trafford was well on its way to becoming Moyes’ personal Theatre of Shattered Dreams.

United’s clash against Liverpool ended with the home supporters voicing their support for their embattled manager. But the voices could not hide the visuals. In August, the stands of Old Trafford hung banners proclaiming Moyes as “The Chosen One”, handpicked by the retiring Alex Ferguson himself. Fast forward seven months, and rival clubs were unfurling their own banners in Moyes’ ‘honour’, gleefully calling him a ‘football genius’ for piloting the defending champions to mid-table mediocrity.

The loss against City led to the issue escalating further: stewards had to protect ‘The Chose One’ banner from being taken down, with the approaching home game against Aston Villa rumoured to be the stage for a flypast demanding Moyes’ sacking.

The chances of United winning the title are dim at best. Actually, if Bloomberg’s predictions are anything to go by, United’s chance of winning the Premier League stands at a grand 0.00%. And while Moyes and his players may talk of trying till the last game, they only have a 1.00% chance of ending the season in the top four positions. And that was before the loss to City.

A season without a single trophy and a year out of both European competitions means a massive task faces United. While the external pressure is there for all to see, it’s what goes on inside the United boardroom that matters at the end of the day. And irrespective of what decisions are taken, come May, Manchester United will be a changed club.

Possibility One: David Moyes Sacked

While it seems rather remote, one must learn to say ‘never say never’ in football. The Glazers did their bit by giving their backing to Ferguson’s choice and handed him a six-year contract in an age where only Newcastle United’s Mike Ashley could do something similar.

A long-term contract-and six years is as long-term as it gets, with the exception of Mike Ashley of course, and is supposed to have dual benefits. One; it allows the managers to craft the team in his own image while knowing that he has the owners’ complete support. Without the fear of the chop, managers can stay away from hasty decisions and make more long-term ones.

Second, it also acts as a deterrent to trigger-happy owners, increasing the cost of sacking managers before the contract ends due to large compensation fees.

Much of United’s attraction lies in it being a unique club. All the times when clubs fired their managers in search of glory, United stood with their man, Alex Ferguson, who continued to deliver title after title. Ferguson’s longevity was a crucial ingredient to his success. Having endured more than three barren years as United’s manager, the FA Cup of 1990 proved to be a turning point and initiated the United juggernaut.

Stewards protect the banner depicting Manchester United manager David Moyes at the final whistle after their 0-3 defeat to Manchester City.

But Moyes’ total inability to conjure any passion from his players has been highlighted several times, and the Scotsman has been accused of having ripped the heart and soul out of the club. Tactics-or their lack of-have been questioned incessantly, and have often been ridiculed even by opposition players mired in the relegation zone.

Moyes’ Everton had one feature: they were tireless on the pitch, and a working-class city like Liverpool appreciated that. But the city of Manchester is a different animal. It has been brought up on a diet of fast football, with flair in the right amount. Moyes has overseen the disappearance of both.

The grounds for sacking Moyes are multiple. There does not seem to be any plan on tackling teams, nor do the players seem to give any indication that they are being instructed by their manager in times of need. Additionally, Moyes’ track record in the transfer market-so far-has been mixed at best. While he was not backed by in the summer transfer window as he would have liked, the purchase of Marouane Fellaini continues to baffle. Moreover, even the acquisition of Juan Mata has not stemmed the rot, as Moyes’ decision to place the Spaniard on the flanks has left everyone dumbfounded.

In May 2013 – a long time ago for any United supporter – yours truly had said that there was little chance of Moyes being given the same amount of time Ferguson was given to win his first trophy. But I had never imagined that the first season would be anything like it has been.

So if the United hierarchy does decide to hand Moyes the pink slip, the last bastion of football would fall. The pride that United supporters felt in not chopping and changing in their pursuit of success would vanish. United, the money-generating commercial machine, would become just another football club who were scared by what they were seeing in the short-run.

With Rio Ferdinand possibly retiring and Nemanja Vidic off to Inter Milan, who will replace the two stalwarts at the back?

Possibility Two: Wholesale Squad Changes

Substantial additions, and subtractions, to the current squad of players are inevitable.

Consider the back-line: Nemanja Vidic is off to Inter Milan, and Patrice Evra may very well join him. Rio Ferdinand is probably on his way to retirement. Alexander Buttner could count the number of games he has played on his hand, with little confidence being shown in his abilities.

While Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling will stay, only Jones seems to be good enough to play for United. At right-back, for all his forward endeavors, Rafael is a walking liability. Conclusion: four defenders can be expected in the summer transfer window.

The same can be said of the mid-field, where Fellaini has been an unqualified failure/misfit (depending on how angry one is), and Juan Mata constantly played out of position. Nani, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young top the deadwood list. The case of Shinji Kagawa has everyone mystified, while Ryan Giggs is surely in his last year as player.

Tom Cleverley, despite being 24 years old, continues to be branded as a young player by Moyes whenever the former’s ability is questioned. The only bright spot has been Adnan Januzaj, and it speaks volumes about a club when a nineteen-year-old in his first season as a senior player is expected to save the team.

Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher are not the players they once were, and Wilfried Zaha’s loan spell at Cardiff is indicative of the confidence Moyes has in the youngster Ferguson paid £15 mln for.

The attack seems to be well-covered, with Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Danny Welbeck, and Javier Hernandez capable of finishing, but only when presented with opportunities.

Conclusion?

A massive squad overhaul not seen since Chelsea circa 2004 is in the offing. Sums such as £150m and £200m are already being bandied about as being available to Moyes in the summer.

However, a splurge will again split United at its seam. A club, that has promoted its youth set-up for so long and taken pride at the players it has produced, would be left with no place to hide when multiple £40m players make their way into Carrington. What would all the fans do when they see their own team brandishing the cheque book, not unlike their Blue neighbours? Years of mocking Chelsea and Manchester City of having ‘bought’ their way to success would come back to haunt them. And this would be even before success was delivered.

The possibility of a humongous spending spree is 100%, whether Moyes is sacked or not. But what happens to the club’s self-professed 659 million supporters? What happens to the uniqueness that brought them to the club?

Is Juan Mata just the first of many big-money signings to join Manchester United?

More importantly, what happens to the things United stands for? Over the last decade and more, it has stood out from the sometimes crazy, always chaotic, world of football and its never-ending incidents of poor decision-making on the administrative level. The club, and its supporters, have taken immense pride in being run in an almost old-fashioned way in an era of three-year contracts and regular breaking of club transfer records.

Ferguson would get the cheque book out regularly, sure. But he would never make heads turn by making obscenely expensive signings, leaving it to the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona to be the focus of fans’ capitalism-stemming vitriol.

Should Moyes be sacked, or an almost-cathartic squad overhaul take place, or both; Manchester United will not be the club that it has been for the last 25 years, or at least purported to be. It will just be another institution, great nonetheless, caught in the race of achieving success using short-cuts. The romance in football would shrink in size, consumed and subsumed by the green of money and the red of impatience.