2025/26 David Moyes

[Drico]

David Moyes is the best manager we’ve had in the last 35 years. If you want to start criticising people using the term ‘hypocritical’ you need to ask why you’re doing that. Nobody (in terms of ownership/management) has done as much for this club as Moyes has since Howard Kendall part one.

He even made Kenwright look good (sort of, if you squinted)

He definitely was the tallest pygmy in the tribe.

 

[Rita_Poon]

I mean, to me 2 significant upgrades to your starting XI is a significant upgrade to your squad, even ignoring the fact that you’d say spending another £100m should also mean the wider squad has improved. The context here is increased expectations from thinking we should be aiming for 11th or 12th to thinking we should be aiming for 8th-10th, nobody’s claiming we’ve got the best squad in the world and have improved in every single position, that’s just a weird straw man argument being thrown about to try to help a pretty ropey argument.

That's a bit of a false equivalence isn't it. Didn't we lose more players than we brought in in total? 16 out, 9 in? re increased expectations, well, Moyes delivered. Dyche wasn't being obeyed by the players and he'd gone as far as he could and so DM got the run and produced some much improved stuff. Anyone expecting the same or similar improvements to that initial change - well, that's entirely on them. There are no guarantees in football, and the set up change re J O'B could only pay off so far. Add to that a major difference of play from the Doucoure marathon press game we had to the more football pass and move stuff we've tried to implement. Where once we relied on 3 or 4 loans to be starting for us (Mangala, Lindstrom, Harrison, Broja) and a couple of veterans (Young, Gana) we've come quite a long way in a very short time whilst trying to improve on the spectacle AND the results.
Not many sides made such wholesale changes as we have over the summer, and trying to bed all those new players in takes time, training and experience. (a couple of extra games in the LC would have helped a lot here!)
And then there's everyone else, few saw Sunderland being such straight out of the blocks league high fliers, they took a punt on some new faces and got cooking quickly. Good for them. Slowly the novelty difference wears off.

Q. Is the outlook night and day compared to the last hours of the Dyche regime?

Q. How much more improvement would have satisfied you than has been delivered so far?

 

[Rita_Poon]

Big Sam kept Sunderland up. And Man Utd have won trophies since Moyes left. Moyes ain’t the only manager in the last 20yrs to get West Ham in Europe. Like he’s not the only Everton manager to do that as well.
This how did it work out for Sunderland, Utd and West Ham is such a bizarre shout. Sunderland fans can’t stand him for one. Or Utd fans

He was hand picked by SAF. There are very few that have that distinguishment on their cv.

 

[Drico]

He was hand picked by SAF. There are very few that have that distinguishment on their cv.

I wonder, could we get Sir Alex to handpick the next Manchester United manager by any chance?

 

[Rita_Poon]

I wonder, could we get Sir Alex to handpick the next Manchester United manager by any chance?

Well, this is the DM thread so I'm not sure it's the place. I suspect the man utd thread would be best to ask questions about why it took them so long to get mourinho in. After all, who was the gentry that disliked him so much...

Anyway, Moyes needs another KDH, that was one can start LCM, and the other can push up and be trusted with possession and passing like Alcaraz cant.

 

[Bluepablo]

Just for context it wasn’t just £100m spend. It was £100m PLUS Grealish PLUS Rohl.

 

[blueboy72]

View attachment 339200
We were 2 points off relegation this time last year. Are you honestly saying that you’d of guaranteed we wouldn’t be in a final day scrap?

100% the bottom 3 were trash and so it proved. We were basically 7 points off safety in that picture , think we had enough points by the end of January to be safe. Dyche would have kept us up easily

 

[Infernus]

Just for context it wasn’t just £100m spend. It was £100m PLUS Grealish PLUS Rohl.

Which, in premier league terms is still absolutely nothing. It’s not a kings ransom anymore. 100 million is a very, very average mid table premier league spend. The champions, the team that won the league spent a further 500million in the summer. Based on spend we are pretty much as we should be, in the middle.

 

[PercyPlant]

100% the bottom 3 were trash and so it proved. We were basically 7 points off safety in that picture , think we had enough points by the end of January to be safe. Dyche would have kept us up easily

Ok

 

[Efcjake]

Which, in premier league terms is still absolutely nothing. It’s not a kings ransom anymore. 100 million is a very, very average mid table premier league spend. The champions, the team that won the league spent a further 500million in the summer. Based on spend we are pretty much as we should be, in the middle.

It didn't even place us in the top half of premier league spending but people expect us to finish top half.

 

[MikeH72]

Just for context it wasn’t just £100m spend. It was £100m PLUS Grealish PLUS Rohl.

MINUS our best centre back for minimum 3/4’s of the season yeah, is that how this works?

 

[Bedfordblue]

He was hand picked by SAF. There are very few that have that distinguishment on their cv.

 

[Rita_Poon]

This is my least favourite argument on here. Sorry Willo, I'm not meaning to single you out, loads of people are on your side here, I'm just trying to figure out what it means. Can someone please explain to me precisely what stability means over, let's say 1 year, 3 years and 5 years? Would 13th this year, 11th next year, 10th in year 3, back down to 11th in year 4 and then up to 8th for year 5 be stability, for example? And if so, is that really a desirable goal? I feel like "stability" is a word thrown about in this thread in particular without anyone really knowing what it means.

It's about context isn't it.
Would 13th, 11th, 10th, 11th, 8th, have been handy as BMD was built, and so the new revenue streams come online for a solid mid table side to then try to advance with?
13th (25)
15th (24)
17th (23)
16th (22)
10th (21)
Then there is the silliness of the ownership run around.
The madness of the previous respective signings and the loss making inflictions they've been (and are in part still carrying).
A very badly handled psr set of punishments.
Commercial deals that have us sponsored by a firm that (ahem) jumped into bed with bonnie blue.

Desirable? Not a lot of it. It took decades of misownership (they had that leech phil green knocking around in the background ffs) to have us on the rocks as bad as we were. It'll probably take a bit of time to repair that damage, reputationally, financially, and to agents and prospective players. Clearing the clouds around the support will provide a more even keel. It's time to be honest, basket cases rarely get turned around in a jiffy.

 

[Swartzy]

He was crap at Man Utd, he was flying at Sporting. And not just in the Portuguese league, in the CL too. I'm not sure why everything has to always be at the extremes. Not everything has to be pure crap or utterly brilliant.

Read the last part of your post before the first part..

It did make me chuckle..

 

[Bedfordblue]

Why did nobody ask him why he changed the backline from the Forest Game?

Such weak Press people.

Don’t forget he once got caught on a ‘hot mic’ threatening to give a female reporter ‘a slap’ after asking a question he didn’t like.

No wonder Guila Bould and the like go easy on him.