No star signing, Rooney
unsettled, and a novice chief
executive. No pressure then,
writes Jim White
David Moyes said this week that
he was looking forward to the
new season beginning. “It can’t
come soon enough,” he
suggested, as he addressed
journalists after Manchester
United’s lacklustre performance
in Sweden on Wednesday night.
And you can understand why he
is anxious for the summer’s
phoney war to end: anything
would be more uplifting than the
pre-season he has just
experienced.
He is anxious for the summer’s
phoney war to end: anything
would be more uplifting than the
pre-season he has just
experienced
Since he was appointed Sir Alex
Ferguson’s successor in May,
almost nothing has gone Moyes’
way. Like an inverse Midas,
everything he has touched has
turned to straw. He lost to the
equivalent of a pub team in the
Far East, his most renowned
player, Wayne Rooney, is keen to
play elsewhere and he has
singularly failed to strengthen his
squad in the areas it most
urgently needs upgrading.
A symptom of his summer of
discontent was evident yesterday
when he learnt that his lengthy
pursuit of Cesc Fabregas had
come to nought. Moreover the
Barcelona midfielder indicated
there was never the remotest
chance he might return to the
Premier League in Manchester
United colours: Moyes had
apparently spent the last month
chasing the unattainable.
“I am happy at Barcelona. My
dream is to play and triumph
here and I have never considered
leaving,” the player told a press
conference in Kuala Lumpur
where the Catalans are on tour.
Which, while accepting that the
truth is the first casualty of the
transfer window, sounds pretty
unequivocal.
No wonder, with the soap opera
plotting of Wayne Rooney’s
future filling the back pages,
Moyes admitted he was finding
the scale of his new job taxing.
“The transition from Everton to
Manchester United has been
difficult at times as I have had
hard decisions to make,” he said.
“Everton are a great club and I
was proud to manage them. I
can’t deny Manchester United are
on another level. Let’s be honest,
it would be a step up from just
about any other club in the
world. The level of interest from
the fans and press is
phenomenal.”
And in truth Moyes has not been
assisted by the fact he is not the
only new arrival in the United
hierarchy. A manager without
experience in the top end of the
football market, he needed all the
help he could get to negotiate his
first few weeks in charge.
Instead, whereas Ferguson could
rely on advice and practical
support from David Gill, a man
with a decade’s worth of
experience running a club of
United’s scale, Moyes can only
turn to the new chief executive
Edward Woodward. A man with
considerable prowess in
marketing, Woodward is,
however, someone who has
never before engaged in the
arcane processes of the football
transfer market, a business
requiring the bluffing skills of the
poker player combined with the
forked tongue of the serial
conman.
While he did not always get his
man (the fat Ronaldo was just
one of the players he failed to
secure), at least Gill could pick up
the phone to any agent or
football club chief executive in
the world and immediately start
discussions. This summer
Woodward was obliged to begin
every conversation with an
introduction. He has admitted to
his colleague he is starting from
scratch. From your own point of view what do you think?