Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes: A mistake waiting to happen at United

Lost somewhere in those thick blocks of text about Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, are a few lines dedicated to Wayne Rooney‘s future. Whilst columnists are bending over backwards to piece together a fitting tribute to Sir Alex, Rooney was quickly relegated to second choice, like he has been for most of the season in the United squad.

When the news that Rooney is interested in a move to Bayern Munich was broken, it received little coverage due to Sir Alex’s announcement. Speculation about the next Manchester United manager meant that Rooney was altogether dropped from the news headlines.

Bookies have named the Scottish manager David Moyes as favourite to join Manchester United. But, considering the history between Rooney and Moyes, is it a good choice to name him as Sir Alex’s heir apparent?

“I would have gone almost anywhere just to get away from David Moyes. If no-one had come in, I would have joined Newcastle,” Wayne Rooney ‘wrote’ in his autobiography. Rooney continues: “To me he appeared overbearing; just wanting to control people. I suppose being young and confident and playing for England at 17, I wasn’t bothered about upsetting him or answering back.”

Moyes sued Rooney for libel, and the striker paid £500,000 in damages and apologised before the trial began.

But, surprisingly, last October Moyes heaped praises on Rooney, saying that he had boosted his profile as a manager and, also, was open to the idea of Rooney making a return to Everton someday. “I would certainly welcome Wayne back. It’s more likely to be later in his career but I think it is something even he would welcome.”

Rooney must have already been feeling unappreciated after playing second fiddle to Robin van Persie and, sometimes, even Danny Welbeck. Rooney may have cleared the air with Moyes, but would he be willing to work under him?

More importantly, will he use this as an excuse to leave United? If things come down to choosing between Moyes and Rooney, it is difficult to say who will get the nod. Since Sir Alex has a say in the appointment of the next manager, the odds appear to be in his compatriot’s favour.

Whatever may be the outcome, the fans will respect Sir Alex’s judgement.

However, his decision to stay on at United as a director and ambassador may do more harm than good.

In the 1969/70 season, Sir Matt Busby became the club director after appointing former United player, Wilf McGuiness as manager. But he had to be sacked after just one season and Busby made a brief return to management.

Busby named Frank O’Farrell as his replacement in the 1971/72 season. Results soon picked up but George Best openly rebelled against O’Farrell, and continued living his wild lifestyle. O’Farrell was sacked too for poor results. And Tommy Docherty became United’s fourth manager in four seasons. He saved United from relegation when he took over in December 1972 but, eventually, the club went down the next season.

Docherty said, Busby should have left the club instead of staying on as a director. Busby, apparently, still had a big influence on the players.

“If I fell out with a player over something and they felt they were getting no satisfaction, they were going to see Sir Matt. They called him ‘the old boss’. That kind of thing isn’t good for the stability of a club or for discipline. You can only have one boss,” said Docherty.

Is United repeating the same mistakes it made in the past? No matter where he looks, a new manager will see that Sir Alex has left his mark everywhere possible: the bronze statue, the stand at Old Trafford, and the glistening trophy room are a few of his reminders. If this wasn’t enough, a new manager has to deal with Sir Alex, the club director, scrutinizing his every move.

And the question nobody seems to be even bothered asking is what happens to Sir Alex’s backroom staff? Mike Phelan has been with the club since the last 11 years, and he became Sir Alex’s assistant in 2008. And Eric Steele, United’s goalkeeping coach, who worked with Van der Sar and is now working with David de Gea. If Mourinho gets the job, he would definitely bring in his own backroom staff. And if the job goes to Moyes and he has to compromise, would he be comfortable working with Sir Alex’s assistants?

With Sir Alex still at the club, he and his replacement will be like the two mice that fell into a bucket of cream. One will eventually drown and the other will struggle hard to churn that cream into butter and crawl out. The question is, who is it going to be?

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