To be fair to Moyes, the rebuilding job that was required at United following Ferguson’s last season can be viewed as massive in hindsight. He gets slaughtered because they’d won the league the previous year and he was of course out of his depth. He also made the massive mistake of bringing in his own coaching staff making the transition from the Fergie era even harder. Following Fergie though? Perhaps the greatest manager of all time? That would take some doing and I don’t think it says much that Moyes couldn’t do it. Not many could.
For me as well, that squad he was left with was very similar to the squad Mourinho left at Inter; vastly experienced, full of winners but also ageing and past their best and in need of an overhaul. Those two clubs suffered the exact same fate after winning big and still haven’t properly turned it around.
Moyes would do fine here. He’s had better squads but he’s done more with a lot worse. But do we want to do just “fine”? When he left, it felt like he’d done all he could with us and we’d done all we could with him. We were both supposed to do so much better. It feels like a relationship where a break is agreed but both parties realise they can’t do any better so end up back together for convenience and familiarity. Coexisting together but never quite having the same feelings they once had. Man that’s depressing.
