Saturday, 26 April 2014

Ferguson endorses Giggs for permanent United job

14:58

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Ferguson endorses Giggs for permanent United job

Ferguson endorses Giggs for permanent United job

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 08:51 PM PDT

Giggs, 40, was given the interim role in charge at the Premier League giants after David Moyes sacking on Tuesday. Ferguson backed the hiring of Moyes, who lasted just 10 months into a six-year contract after Uniteds struggles this season. But the Scot believes Giggs has all the attributes to become Uniteds full-time manager. I think that he (Giggs) is the one man they should go to, really, Ferguson was quoted as saying at a fundraising dinner in Manchester this week. Hes got 20-odd years of experience at Manchester United. I signed him as a kid at 13 years of age. Hes gone through the gamut of emotions at the club hes experienced all the highs and lows. He knows exactly whats needed to be a Manchester United player and I was so pleased he brought Paul Scholes back in (to his staff), and Nicky Butt of course two great professionals. They understand the club, they are hard workers, they are straight as a die. So you have got the right combinations there, theres no doubt about that. Ferguson said good succession planning was still possible at Manchester United despite the failure of Moyes. One of the things we have been criticised about over the years is succession planning, he said. Its a very difficult industry to say you can have succession planning, but in the case of what we were doing in the last few years, with bringing Nicky Butt into the fold, Ryan into the fold, Paul Scholes into the fold, and Gary Neville was offered a position but he decided to go into television. He (Neville) could easily come back.

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Mirallas: Januzaj shouldnt go to Brazil 2014

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:58 PM PDT

Manchester United starlet Januzaj, 19, declared his allegiances to the European nation despite also being eligible for Kosovo, Albania and Serbia among others. Mirallas, a 43-time Belgium international, is pleased the teenager chose his country, but said he should not be selected for Brazil 2014. There was a lot of pressure on him to make his mind up, and it is good for Belgium that he has chosen us, because he is a good player, Mirallas said. But I dont think he should go to Brazil. It would not be fair to leave out another good player for someone who does not know the others and has not played a lot for his club in recent months. Adnan does not know the group, and the fact is, he has not had much game time at Manchester United lately. Its not as if we are short of good players in that area of the team. In fact, there are a lot of good players in his position in the Belgium squad, so it is going to be difficult for him. He has yet to prove at United that he can be their number one asset in his particular position. I think for him, the European Championships in 2016 would be a more realistic target. Mirallas has been ruled out for the rest of the Premier League season with a small groin tear, but is expected to be fit for the World Cup.

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Man United agree settlement with Moyes

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:48 AM PDT

Moyes was relieved of his position as United manager on Tuesday, less than 12 months into a six-year contract, with United languishing in seventh place in the Premier League and unable to qualify for next years UEFA Champions League. Club legend Ryan Giggs has taken over as interim manager at Old Trafford, assisted by former team-mates Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville. A statement on the League Managers Associations website on Friday confirmed that United and Moyes had come to an agreement. The League Managers Association and Manchester United are pleased to confirm that terms of settlement have been agreed between the club and David Moyes in respect of the termination of his employment, the statement read. A settlement agreement is in the process of being finalised. No further comment will be made in relation to this issue.

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Mourinho has no interest in Man United role

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:27 AM PDT

The Portuguese was considered one of the favourites to replace legendary United boss Alex Ferguson last year, but David Moyes was chosen to take the position and Mourinho opted to return to former club Chelsea. Moyes' tenure proved short and unsuccessful, with the Scot leaving on Tuesday less than 12 months into a six-year contract. Yet Mourinho has made it clear there is no chance he will trade Stamford Bridge for Old Trafford as United search for a new manager. At a press conference on Friday ahead of Chelsea's match against Premier League leaders Liverpool, Mourinho said: "Of course not, I don't know how somebody can think about it. "I left Real Madrid to come specifically to Chelsea. I signed a four-year contract. I told Chelsea they never have to worry about me because I never want to leave. "So I'm here as long as they want me to stay. No job would move me from Chelsea." Manuel Pellegrini - manager of United's rivals Manchester City - has expressed sympathy for Moyes, pointing to the scale of the task the former Everton boss faced when replacing Ferguson. "I think he is a very good manager, that is why Manchester United chose him to continue the work that Sir Alex Ferguson did for so many years," said Pellegrini. "But I don't know the reasons they have.It is always not good for the club to sack a manager who has a contract who is just starting his work - and very difficult work after Alex Ferguson."

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Giggs: United appointment my proudest moment

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:39 AM PDT

The Welshman was placed in temporary charge at Old Trafford on Tuesday after the Premier League champions dismissed David Moyes 10 months into his six-year deal following a disappointing first season at the helm. United legend Giggs is not thought to be among the leading contenders to take the role on a permanent basis, but he will assume control for at least the final four games of the season. The 40-year-old is relishing the opportunity to lead the club where he has spent his entire professional career, and thanked predecessor Moyes for handing him his first coaching role in football. Id like to go on record to thank David for giving me my first chance in coaching, its something Ill always remember when he rang and asked me to come on board. He gave me the opportunity for my first coaching role, he said at a press conference on Friday. Id like to say how proud I am to take charge for the remaining four games. Its the club Ive supported all my life and been associated with for 25 or 26 years. Ive enjoyed the week, Im proud more than anything, its probably the proudest moment of my career. Ill enjoy the last two and a half weeks of the season and bring back some smiles on the faces of the fans and look forward to the game, just like a player really. Giggs was tight-lipped on whether he could remain in the job, insisting his focus is firmly on improving the teams fortunes - starting against relegation-threatened Norwich City on Saturday. He added: Im just concentrating on the four games, including tomorrow against Norwich which is a tough game, theyre fighting for their lives. Giggs also confirmed his intention to continue in a playing capacity and jokingly stated that he has awarded himself a new long-term contract since taking over as boss. Ive just give myself a new five-year contract, he said Im using my power while I can. I havent done much this week but Im still involved as a player. Ive trained okay this week but the lads have looked sharp. There are 20-odd players involved with a shout.

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What next for David Moyes after his year at the Damned United?

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:50 AM PDT

A football dynasty ends. The defining figure in a club's history moves on. It is the time for the country's brightest managerial talent. He assumes control of the reigning league champions. Uncertainty permeates a successful, but ageing squad, "A side," the new manager will reflect "on its last legs." The team embarks on a series of disastrous results. Supporters are restive. Dressing room unhappiness leaks to the press. Floundering in the league, the board cut their losses and prematurely sack the new manager. It was, recalls the veteran sportswriter James Lawton, "without doubt one of the most dramatic of sporting tales." "Little did I realise," reflects the departed man, "The extent of the dislike and resentment – if not downright hatred – waiting for me." Forty years on, Brian Clough's 44-day reign as Leeds United manager remains a salutatory tale, worth revisiting yet again. Immortalised in a best-selling novel and movie, the bare bones of the story have seemingly been played out once more, this time on the other side of the Pennines where David Moyes has been sacked as Manchester United manager. He lasted 252 days longer than Clough as Don Revie's successor, but one suspects we'll also be talking about his ill-fated reign 40 years from now. Just 42 weeks passed between Moyes's first and last day in charge of Manchester United. In that time the reputation of the most outstanding British manager of his generation has been universally trashed. After Sunday's defeat to Everton, Jamie Carragher, recalling his own Liverpool playing days, announced scathingly: "I wish I played against a Manchester United team like that." On social media supporters and journalists united in a mocking phalanx to describe Moyes as 'clueless', 'terrible', 'inflexible', 'out of his depth', 'the biggest fool in Manchester'. The small miracles at Everton – turning relegation fodder into a top-six outfit despite zero net spend – had seemingly been forgotten, even by many of that club's fans. One popular Everton fansite denounced him as a 'fraud'. Sir Alex Ferguson's 'chosen one' was apparently more Brian Cohen than Jesus Christ. Indeed the man whom would-be Labour Party leader Andy Burnham once cited as "a wonderful role model" for leadership, whose "text book would be on my desk as leader" – perhaps even that of 10 Downing Street – is now universally damned as a failure. Is this just a symptom of the age of social media, where everybody must have an opinion – usually outraged –on everything? Or has something more fundamental happened to Moyes's career? What went wrong at Old Trafford? And what now lies ahead for him? Will he be a Wilf McGuinness or Frank O'Farrell, the avuncular men given the thankless task of succeeding Matt Busby in the 1970s? Or will he be a Clough, who overcame one of the most wretched failures in football history to achieve unparalleled success elsewhere? Moyes: a modern-day Clough or McGuinness? What happened at Old Trafford under Moyes is already subject of thousands of column inches. A Google news search offers 6079 stories. But almost all of this for now remains speculation. What is worth contrasting, however, is what we know of Moyes's first season at Everton and his difficult 10 months at Manchester United. Both campaigns featured significant and perhaps unrealistic hopes placed on a talented homegrown teenager, mixed transfer records, disappointing cup exits and his teams finishing seventh in the Premier League. But there the similarities conclude. Moyes ended one of these seasons a hero, the other looking for a new job. Yet by unravelling what we know about his time at Everton we may have a greater understanding of how he approached the United job and ultimately what happened there. In 2009 Moyes told FourFourTwo it was "a fight" just to establish himself at Goodison at first. "I had to change it from a club that was just surviving," he said. He wanted "a younger football club, a fresher football club." Much of this 'fighting' at Everton went on behind the scenes, while in public everything Moyes did seemed inspired. At his unveiling Moyes famously described Everton as "the People's Club", a moment that instantly became part of Goodison lore, while permanently enraging Liverpool fans. He recalled later walking into the dressing room for the first time and seeing the scale of his challenge. "David Ginola, Duncan Ferguson and Paul Gascoigne –some of the biggest names in football. They were sitting on the bench, looking for direction. I thought, 'Jesus Christ. What do I do here?'" Yet for all his self-deprecation about this moment, Moyes was decisive about all three –who were on bloated contracts but contributing little: Gascoigne was released immediately, Ginola dropped from the first-team squad, Ferguson made captain and revitalised. His first Everton signings were largely unsuccessful, but he had some luck as well. A teenager blessed with genius by the name of Rooney helped Everton finish the 2002/03 season seventh, having occupied a Champions League spot for most of the season; no small feat for a club that had finished in the top 10 just once in the Premier League era. This isn't to say there were not grave mistakes: Everton fell to Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup, arguably the worst result in their history (Shrewsbury were relegated from the Football League that season). The perpetual 'fight' to establish himself allegedly brought him into physical conflict with Ferguson; the annus mirabilis was followed up a year later with Everton just a place off relegation. Although it can be a complicated and political club, at Everton the pressure comes mostly from within Merseyside and the confines of the stadium and training ground. At United it is a global venture, an international news story, a club that needs to sate the expectations of hundreds of millions of fans. Moreover, Moyes took over a moribund, deeply unstable Everton where his initial task was to avoid relegation and breed some stability. At Old Trafford he inherited the league champions and the burden of succeeding the most successful manager in English football history. "The biggest fool in Manchester" In short, the need to be strong-minded and hit the ground running was imperative. At United there was no 'People's Club' moment, no brilliantly articulated empathy with his new employers, but Moyes was decisive. On his first day he would have walked into the Carrington dressing room and, amid the winners and bona fide stars, seen a squad that needed revitalising –underperforming players like Anderson and Nani, but also a permeating unhappiness among stellar performers like Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic. Yet it was not these that he purged, but Ferguson's coaching staff: Eric Steele, Mike Phelan and Rene Meulensteen (though efforts were made to keep Meulensteen). This was possibly his biggest mistake. Not only would this have bred uncertainty among players, but in a club that had lost both its long-term manager and CEO, David Gill, such a break with continuity and inside knowledge seems short-sighted and, perhaps, arrogant. This error was compounded when, given significant transfer funds for the first time in his career, there followed an excruciating three-month odyssey to buy Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini for below market value from his former club. The latter was belatedly acquired on deadline day at an inflated price. As in his first days at Everton he possessed an extravagantly talented teenager to mitigate against poor dealings, but Adnan Januzaj is no Rooney. At Goodison his main failing was being too cautious on the big occasion, surrendering: the 2009 FA Cup Final, the 2012 FA Cup semi final, European knockout matches, at Anfield, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Arsenal – where he never won an away match in 11 years. Overcoming this at a club that exists for the big occasions was fundamental. But in the league he won just one of 12 games against the six teams above United, was knocked out at Old Trafford by lesser teams in the domestic cups, and stuttered to the Champions League quarter finals. This was not acceptable. One of the things that once set him apart as an outstanding young manager was his ability to adapt and change his managerial technique. Some accuse him of aloofness and arrogance, but those who know him say that this is misplaced: it is introspection, self-assessment, the continual journey of improvement. After the disastrous 2003/04 season at Everton he went on a tour of the USA on which the squad had a sing-song and Moyes asked his backroom staff about what had gone wrong. He recalled: "'Give me it double-barrelled,' I said, and some of them did. That's what you want, isn't it? You don't want people around you telling you you're always right. There were bits I heard where I said to myself: 'Is that right?' I gave them all a chance to have a prod.'" Moyes listened, evolved his style, and united his divided squad. "He's continually challenging himself and looking for something else that will help him," his long term Everton assistant Alan Irvine told FFT last summer. "A different way of doing something, a different way of saying something." No one would have been more conscious of David Moyes's shortcomings as Manchester United manager than Moyes himself. But Goodison is not Old Trafford, where trophies are demanded annually, and deviation from the success-filled map defined by Ferguson can impact the club's stock market value by nine-figure sums. When asked about Moyes, there was a common theme among United's Golden Generation: time. In February David Beckham, who played alongside him at Preston, acknowledged that there would be a necessary "transitional period". "I think David Moyes is a great manager, but it takes time," he said. Last month Eric Cantona said that his appointment was an acknowledgement of a "long-term project". Roy Keane previously said that he thought Moyes "would get plenty of time" and deserved it. Yet there exists an unbridgeable gap between this thinking, the need for the new manager to evolve, and the realities of a club owned by the Glazers, where hundreds of millions need to be generated annually to pay back the interest on the mortgage they have borrowed against their so-called investment. Last Sunday's confirmation of United's failure to qualify for next season's Champions League came at a cost of around £40 million. By 8am Tuesday, Moyes's severance package reputedly worth £4.5m was laid out by United's CEO Ed Woodward. In the nine hours that followed, United's share price rose by £110m. Such are the realities of modern football. A workaholic who'll bounce back In December 1970, when Wilf McGuinness learned he was to be sacked 18 months into his reign as Manchester United, he went in search of a bottle of whisky in the director's room. Finding only sherry, he drank several glasses and began headbutting the wall. "I was demoralised, heartbroken, horribly hurt," he recalled. "It wasn't so much I got the sack but the way they behaved as people," O'Farrell wrote in his autobiography, of the impersonal way he was summoned to the chairman's office and dispatched two years later. "I can never forgive them for that – they were nasty beggars." O'Farrell went on to manage Cardiff, Torquay and the Iranian national team. McGuinness, who was only in his early 30s when he was United boss, managed in Greece and had 30 months in charge of York City. Most of the rest of his career was spent coaching in the lower leagues at places like Bury, where he helped nurture a young Neville Southall. When he left Leeds in September 1974, Brian Clough appeared the very same evening on the Yorkshire TV magazine programme Calender, where he debated his reign with his predecessor Don Revie and Austin Mitchell. It was an extraordinary TV moment. "Aren't you in a difficult situation, after the argument at Derby, you left Brighton under a cloud and now this with Leeds," pondered Mitchell. "Who's going to touch you with a barge-pole?" Maybe he had a point. Clough never got another job like Leeds: repeatedly overlooked by England, he came close to managing Everton in the late 1970s, but was considered too controversial or sullied by the Leeds experience for another big club. Instead he found a home at second division Nottingham Forest, where he achieved the impossible, making them League and double European Champions. One wonders what will happen to Moyes now. A millionaire many times over, it seems unlikely he will be searching for the sherry bottle or need to scrape out a living in football's nether regions. But will prospective employers consider him 'a wonderful role model' for leadership or the 'biggest fool in Manchester'? It is hard to imagine him wanting to be out of work for long. He has always been a workaholic; obsessive, intense, passionate. "I can't lose my drive and my desire," he told me in 2009. "Football's got to keep driving me on." Yet there are few examples in English football of managers returning to a proverbial 'big job' having failed so publicly in a previous one. Ferguson's Old Trafford predecessors, Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson, returned to the First Division with Coventry City and Sheffield Wednesday, but none of the most recent British managers sacked by leading clubs –Roy Evans (Liverpool), Bruce Rioch (Arsenal), Ian Porterfield (Chelsea), Glenn Hoddle (Tottenham), Stuart Pearce (Man City), David O'Leary (Aston Villa) –have returned to club football at a level approaching their previous standard. Only Walter Smith, who was replaced by Moyes at Everton and returned to achieve success at Rangers, is an exception. Even then, however, Smith was arguably guiding a famous club in a lower-profile league. But while precedent may not stand in his favour, at a time where gaps between football's haves and have nots have never been so pronounced, there are plenty of club chairmen who would cast an envious glance at the job done by Moyes at Goodison. Moneyball management has become a modern sporting cliché, but Moyes is one of the few to have succeeded in this at Everton and the team that has so wowed under Roberto Martinez retains his imprint. Beneath the workaholic veneer, the real Moyes can be enigmatic. Maybe it's because he is so focussed on football at the exclusion of everything else. His father, son and brother all work in the game; "My wife understands me," he told FFT with a wry smile in 2009. One thing that does shine through, however, is his love for his home town of Glasgow and the impression it has made upon him: Drumchapel Amateurs, where he learned; Celtic where he played; Rangers whom he supported as a boy. "Glasgow's my home and football was what you done," he told FFT, as if it were as fundamental as eating and sleeping. Maybe – whether with Celtic, Rangers or Scotland – this is where we will see Moyes next. Or perhaps a Villa, Newcastle or Sunderland – clubs that have tried and largely failed to emulate the Everton model. Asked in that 1974 dramatic interview what would happen next, Brian Clough replied to Mitchell's acerbic question with an insouciant smile. "I think many many people are going to touch me with a barge pole." One suspects the same will be true of David Moyes.

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Schneiderlin will not force Saints transfer

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:11 AM PDT

The Frenchman has reportedly been the subject of interest from reigning Premier League champions Manchester United and Arsenal this season after catching the eye with some impressive displays in the top flight. Schneiderlin is aware that other clubs are keeping check on Southampton's highly-rated stars, but the 24-year-old is not looking to engineer a move. "We know top teams are watching us," he is quoted as saying byThe Daily Mirror. "As long as we don't receive a concrete offer, and as long as the club says they won't sell, I will never force a transfer." Schneiderlin moved to St Mary's in June 2008 and has been with Southampton throughout their rise from League One to the Premier League. He has been a mainstay in Southampton's first team this season, making 31 league appearances.

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The FourFourTwo Preview: Man United vs Norwich

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:06 AM PDT

Billed as Game one of Ryan Giggs' managerial career. The lowdown "Manchester United announces that David Moyes has left the club. The club would like to place on record its thanks for the hard work, honesty and integrity he brought to the role." And with those words, condensed into two tweets, the David Moyes era at Manchester United was consigned to the history books. It's been nothing short of a disastrous campaign for the Red Devils. After defeat against Bayern Munich ended any chances of a trophy in Moyes' first –and only –season, a spineless 2-0 deconstruction at Everton last weekend also hammered the final nail into the coffin for United's hopes for a top-four finish. Clearly the clueless, dishevelled performance at Goodison Park was too much for the United bigwigs to take. That night, in a conference call involving the Glazers, David Gill, Ed Woodward and Sir Alex Ferguson, the decision was taken to sack Moyes. Moyes spent 11 years at Everton but he barely lasted 11 months at Old Trafford. History will not look too kindly on his time at United. His appointment was always seen as part of a long-term project but ultimately the Scot failed to keep the plates spinning long enough to survive the first year. An inability to win over the dressing room led to declining performances and a run of 10 defeats in 22 games in 2014, despite two transfer windows in which to tweak the squad as he wished, saw even Ferguson, Moyes's greatest pillar of support, eventually fold his hand. The search for a new manager begins, but in the meantime Ryan Giggs takes charge for the final four games of the season. Giggs has spent his entire career at Old Trafford, and in a sense it does somehow seem fitting that,in what is likely to be his final season as a player, he was asked to take the wheel and steer the club through this period of uncertainty. Giggs became the first British man to complete his UEFA Pro License coaching badge during his playing days and it will be interesting to see what influence he has on the team's style in United's final four, effectively meaningless, matches. Giggs will meet a man with two extra games' worth of top-level managerial experience come Saturday. Neil Adams was appointed first-team manager at Norwich just over a fortnight ago, and having lost 1-0 at Fulham and 3-2 against Liverpool last weekend he now takes his Canaries to Old Trafford desperate for points. Norwich play Chelsea away and Arsenal at home in their final two games, and with just a two-point gap separating them from the relegation zone the Canaries need points somewhere, somehow. Team news A knee injury means Robin van Persie remains nowhere to be seen for United, while Rafael is also out and Patrice Evra doubtful. For Norwich, Joseph Yobo (calf) is Adams' only injury concern. Player-manager to watch: Ryan Giggs Who else but the only player to score a goal in every Premier League season except this one? While Moyes preferred to keep Giggs at arm's length, offering United's No.11 only 81 minutes of Premier League action since the turn of the year, no one can stop Giggs from playing himself now can they? If this is to be Giggs's final month as a professional footballer he might fancy playing as much as he can –especially with the opportunity to extend his scoring record another season. On the other hand, the Welshman may fancy putting his feet up and trying out this whole manager malarkey for size, studiously sitting in the hot seat and edging out the kinks made by Moyes' old arse groove. If Giggs does select himself, what chance he yields to the temptation of appointing himself United's penalty taker too? The managers Adams spent six years at Norwich as a player, making 206 appearances before moving into the club's youth coaching setup and guiding the young Canaries to their first FA Youth Cup triumph in 30 years. For the first time in his short-lived career he heads into the game as the managerial veteran, a whopping two whole games under his belt. All eyes will be on the dugout as his opponent Giggs assumes the position for the first time. Facts and figures Norwich have lost 7 straight away games with 5 defeats by at least 2 goals and 5 having trailed at HT. 9 of United's 16 home games against bottom-half teams since start of last season have had at least 4 goals. Norwich have lost 11 of their last 12 trips to bottom-half teams. United have won 14 of their last 16 home games against bottom-half teams including 7 by exactly 2 goals. Best Bet:Over 3.5 Goals @ 2.50 More FFT Stats Zone facts•Find the best odds with Bet Butler FourFourTwo prediction A goalfest awaits as Giggs attempts to inject new life into a drab home campaign that sees United in 11th for home form. 3-2 United. Man United vs Norwich LIVE ANALYSIS with Stats Zone

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Martinez confident Moyes will bounce back

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 08:32 PM PDT

Moyes' tenure at United was forgettable, steering the club to their worst Premier League season ever, which saw him fail to see out the first of a six-year contract as club owners ran out of patience in April. Martinez, meanwhile, has developed what Moyes grew over 11 years at Goodison Park, and enhanced it brilliantly - putting Everton within striking distance of the UEFA Champions League. Despite his side beating Moyes' United 2-0 in what turned out to be the latter's last game in charge, Martinez said Moyes had enough character to return to coaching and prove his wide-ranging critics wrong. "We know David Moyes will look forward to the next footballing chapter," the former Wigan and Swansea boss said. "We all know he is a very successful man and has a real strong winning mentality and he will get ready to bounce back straight away. "I am sure he will be ready to get into another job as quick as he can and I am sure he won't have a lack of offers or opportunities when you have someone who is so hard-working, focused and dedicated in his job." Martinez was asked if anyone at Everton would be revelling in Moyes' failure after jumping ship to lead powerhouse United, but the Spaniard said there was no sadistic feeling around Goodison. "It is not a nice situation when a manager loses his job, especially someone who has such strong links with our club," he said. "We wish him the best of luck and he will always be well thought of and we will always be thankful of the job he did at our football club."

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Staff overhaul cost Moyes, says Meulensteen

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:44 PM PDT

Moyes' 10-month reign as manager came to an end on Tuesday after United's hierarchy decided to sack him after a disastrous Premier League campaign, which has left the club languishing in seventh position. The final straw proved to be Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Everton, a result that crushed United's hopes of qualifying for next season's UEFA Champions League, with fourth-placed Arsenal 13 points clear with four matches remaining. Upon his arrival at Old Trafford, Moyes disposed of Meulensteen, assistant Mike Phelan and goalkeeping coach Eric Steele. The Scot replaced the trio with assistant Steve Round, first-team coach Jimmy Lumsden and goalkeeping coach Chris Woods, while former United defender Phil Neville arrived as a coach. And Moyes' decision to change United's winning backroom staff despite warnings not to, cost the former Everton head coach his job, according to Meulensteen. "David ignored the solid advice given to him by many of the staff in place at the time and opted to put his own plans in place, which he's entitled to do but it backfired on him a little bit," Meulensteen told US radio station SiriusXM. "I always strongly believe that performances and results are a reflection of what is happening behind the doors. That wasn't good enough. "Don't forget that Moyes was a respected manager over 11 years at Everton, but I tried to warn him: 'You do realise that, with all respect to Everton, you're going from a yacht to a cruise liner, and that's how big the difference will be?' "It's everything that surrounds the club – the players, the pressure, the performances. I think he's underestimated that and unfortunately it's cost him his position." Meulensteen, who went on to manage Russian outfit Anzhi Makhachkala and Fulham following his departure from Manchester, is stunned by the speed of United's decline. The fallen Premier League giants are 23 points adrift of leaders Liverpool, while they will be absent from the Champions League for the first time in 19 years. "It's really too crazy for words that we are talking about this," the 50-year-old said. "I've been part of the United backroom staff under Ferguson in the last five years that has proven to be the most successful period in the club's history. "To now have a really poor season, dropping to seventh in the league table, out of the Champions League suddenly after so many years of constant success, that's probably why the decision has been made. "Even before Moyes had the job, I still think United had a fantastic squad with fantastic players."

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Leaks, mutiny and media malaise: the inside story of Moyess Man United disaster

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 02:11 AM PDT

It's March 2014 and the former Manchester United first teamer is asked: "Would Ryan Giggs be up for managing Manchester United? And would he be good at it?" The player knows Giggs exceptionally well, but he pauses to think about the answer. Then he nods and replies: "Ryan wouldn't take any s***, there would be no danger on that front." Sir Alex Ferguson once claimed Giggs's greatest asset was a bulls*** filter capable of sifting out the unnecessary. That he could see hangers-on a mile off and that, when he'd established himself as a senior player, he would pull younger United team-mates aside and ask how many of the people they were out with at the weekend were friends before they became famous footballers. If the answer was not many, they were socialising with the wrong people. On Sunday, as he returned from United's anaemic defeat at Goodison Park to Manchester, Giggs was asked if he'd take over at the club he's served for 24 years until a new manager could be found. He agreed to it and in doing so realised an ambition to be United manager, the club's second player-boss. Clarence 'Lal' Hilditch was the other, between October 1926 and April 1927. Like Giggs, he was a left-winger. Calls were put in to Paul Scholes, who was on an Easter break with his family. Scholes was asked to help out with coaching. He's been taking courses himself, though his diary was free, if not short of invitations. Athletic Bilbao wanted him to be the guest of honour alongside Jorge Valdano at a film festival of their charitable foundation later this month. They'd noted that Scholes had referenced the Basque club in a complimentary manner in the Class of '92 film and invited him, perhaps also to watch the first team and young players train. Scholes was an unusual trainer himself, as Mike Clegg, United's power development coach between 2000 and 2011, recalls: "He'd get ill, he had asthma. I wouldn't consider him an athlete: his endurance capacity was low; he wasn't strong, quick or powerful. His cognitive processing was better than any other player; he knew exactly what was going on around him. He was the best at reactions." Clegg had watched how Giggs continually opened his mind to new ideas to extend his longevity on a football field, while Scholes's unorthodox approach –he'd rather ping a ball at an unsuspecting head 70 metres away –shouldn't mask that he's a serious professional with the trophies and games to back it up. The pair will spend the rest of the season working alongside Nicky Butt, who will move up from working with United's reserves to take charge of the first team. Current coach Phil Neville will also be involved until United appoint a permanent manager. Persian persuasion Two weeks before the chat about Giggs, FourFourTwo travelled to Tehran to see Iran manager Carlos Queiroz, armed with the good wishes of several of his former players. By the end of his second spell at the club in 2008, those players had taken to the man Ferguson described as "brilliant, just brilliant. Outstanding. The closest you could be to being the Manchester United manager without actually holding the title." When he arrived in 2002, Queiroz surprised players by calling them by their surnames in training. One or two perhaps envied his close relationship with Ferguson, who entrusted him entirely with training (to Queiroz's initial surprise, as he'd not prepared any training sessions on his first day), but Queiroz was seen as an excellent employee. Had timings been different, Queiroz would now be manager of United with Giggs as his assistant. Had Ferguson stepped down in 2007, Queiroz and Roy Keane would have been favourites for the job. Iran's manager granted FourFourTwo an interview over four hours in a hotel where his team slept. The 61-year-old used to buy the magazine when he lived in Manchester, a city he was reluctant to leave. "It was like choosing between two lovers," he said of Portugal and Manchester United, whom he left in 2008 when the club were European champions. Maybe that's why he agreed to help us get into Iran and write a piece when 62 foreign journalists had been declined. It still took five months of effort and considerable expense before a three-day trip to collect the visa in Dublin, before flights to Tehran, via Istanbul. The Iran article is in the current issue of the magazine, to be followed by a further, in-depth interview, but towards the end of our discussions, the former Real Madrid coach and twice assistant manager of United discussed his future after the World Cup when his Iran contract expires. "I'm fortunate to have had several offers," he said, choosing his words carefully. "I'd prefer to manage a national team, but a team in the Premier League would be hard to turn down." The May issue of FourFourTwo,featuring Quieroz, Aguero, Fowler, Matic and more, is available nowin printandon iPad Queiroz was linked with United when David Moyes was dismissed on Tuesday,though the club have identified Louis van Gaal and Real Madrid's Carlo Ancelotti as their principal targets. Hours after dismissing Moyes face to face, Ed Woodward was in Madrid, where the Champions League semi-finals were also being staged. United want to go with the tried and tested, not take another risk as they felt they did with Moyes. Van Gaal's contract with the Netherlands is up after the World Cup, while Ancelotti works at a club who've changed their boss an average of once a season over the last quarter of a century, an institution where the coach isn't the only person influencing team selection from the sidelines. Whoever gets the United job is likely to be given time, but that's what Moyes thought when he found out he was to replace Ferguson a year ago. Giving Moyes a six-year contract, United were serious about bestowing upon him the level of power which Ferguson had thrived on rather than employing a sporting director as at other major clubs. Money over matter The Glaswegian wasn't the only one learning on the job. Executive vice chairman Woodward had been at Old Trafford for eight years, but was elevated to chief suit having replaced David Gill, an experienced and respected operator, though one criticised by some fans for his role in the Glazer takeover. Like Moyes, Woodward could hardly say no. In September, I interviewed Woodward near United's Mayfair office, which is used to attract sponsors who are more likely to stop in London than Manchester. Woodward had been successful in attracting sponsors to Old Trafford and listed some of the people who'd visited United in London. "We've had the NFL commissioner," he said. "He's the most powerful man – in theory – in American sport. He heard our story and then said: 'This is the best run sports marketing agency in the world.' "We've had Formula One teams come to us and other sports clubs, or people asking how on earth we're doing it." United were bringing the money in to the extent that Woodward claimed United "won't lose on price" when it comes to attracting the world's best footballers, but spending that money in his new role was proving a chastening experience. The big clubs from which United tried to sign players face little financial pressures and didn't need to bargain, nor make short-term decisions when their planning had been done a year in advance, while agents can be duplicitous. "You might be faced with some stark decisions," said Woodward. "Do I pay a relatively large amount of money to an agent or do I lose the player?" United needed to be kissing cousins with some, and not for nothing did Jorge Mendes's daughter do work experience at Old Trafford in the autumn. We met days after United's 4-1 hammering by City and, as well as getting baffling abuse because of the selection of Ashley Young, Woodward had learned not to be caught on television putting his head in his hands. Woodward agreed that Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp was a "genius," adding: "Their wage bill is lower than half the clubs in the Premier League, but he's really got a lot out of them." Klopp has been categorical in his insistence that he's content at Dortmund, as he was when Liverpool approached him before appointing Brendan Rodgers. They gave an agent a mandate to bring Klopp to Anfield as a replacement for Kenny Dalglish. After a day-long chase, the agent obtained Klopp's mobile number from a German journalist. "Would you be interested in managing Liverpool?" the agent asked. "No," replied the German. Fall from grace Liverpool have flourished under Rodgers, while United slipped from champions to seventh under Moyes. Though a period of transition was anticipated, United's slump was completely unexpected. There was nothing extraordinary when Rio Ferdinand said in Yokohama last July that "We want to consolidate on what we did last season: winning the league. There's more experience in the squad and the players who were here last year are still here. They know what it takes to win." Almost two months of the transfer window remained and Ferdinand wouldn't have been unreasonable in expecting more than the arrival of Marouane Fellaini. United started the season badly and, save for a run of six wins around Christmas, didn't improve. Their average league position is where they are now, seventh, with a slim prospect of even appearing in the Europa League, a competition fans maligned when Liverpool appeared in it with chants of 'Thursday Night, Channel 5'. The Glazers saw the Europa as consolation for United, who would still probably attract 50,000-plus crowds, but now even that looks unlikely. Fans had heeded Ferguson's request and supported Moyes at matches, surprisingly so given the poor form. Some were even trying to get Moyes chants going in the away end on Sunday, though there wasn't much enthusiasm nor uptake. Though United fans were pre-disposed to hope that Moyes succeeded, the numbers who felt that possible had dwindled to percentages in single figures according to regular polls. Fans hoped for improvements which never came, watched farcical exits from domestic cup competitions and the worst home form in over a decade. United will finish outside the top three for first time since 1991, while the football has been cautious and pragmatic, with 51 different teams used in Moyes' 51 matches. Mutiny From the autumn onwards, Moyes had to deal with distractions from within. Several players weren't happy, though they weren't going to breach their contract and say it publicly. Men who could have been his greatest allies became foes. Others, like the young player leaking the team before matches, were simply disrespectful. Players will always brief from their own perspective and some are seldom happy, but the trickle became a stream of dissatisfaction, a problem for the club's public relations. Critical interviews were canned, players delivered cryptic messages through social media, agents talked of their clients wanting to leave while players privately discussed how long their boss had left. Some felt the club were going backwards and no matter how hard Moyes tried–with initiatives like encouraging the team and management to have a night out with their partners once a month – they simply didn't think he was the right man to manage Manchester United. Results showed that, but Moyes maintained he had a huge rebuilding job to do. Moyes's coaching team hardly won popularity contests either, and Steve Round and Jimmy Lumsden will also depart after 10 months, though goalkeeping coach Chris Woods will be retained following the good work he's done with David de Gea. The Spaniard, United's best player this season, is happy with his coach and doesn't want another change so soon after losing Eric Steele in last summer's departures. The outfield players didn't welcome that early purge either, for while Rene Muelensteen hasn't excelled as a manager, he's considered an outstanding coach. The football side was only one of Moyes's problems. He rarely looked comfortable with the media and delivered mixed and ill-considered messages. Like Ferguson, he would have been given help had he stayed, but fans weren't inspired when they heard their manager state that he hoped to "make it difficult" against Newcastle United. The team couldn't even manage that and the Geordies won at Old Trafford for the first time since 1972. There were numerous other examples. The board's faith in entrusting Moyes with £100 million this summer was repeatedly knocked, specifically by the defeat in Piraeus in February, then the 0-3 home losses to Liverpool and Manchester City. United's record against the top eight was atrocious –just one win in 13. Worried about season ticket sales and Moyes missing even the most moderate targets, the board, with the approval of Sir Alex Ferguson, took the decision to sack him on Sunday. That was the day when it was confirmed that United couldn't qualify for next season's Champions League, the day when United's season under David Moyes was confirmed as a failure.

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