Should It Have Been Mou?

In the grand scheme of things, the appointment of Moyes at Old Trafford was a brave one. For a British coach to be given such a responsibility of taking the reigns at the most successful British club of the Premier League era was/is a Hell of a gesture. The harsh reality is, there are seldom, if any, British coach's who have the credentials to be considered "at a level" to take on any of England's "top clubs". A damning indictment indeed.

Moving on, prior to Ferguson's retirement, many were of the mind (myself included) that Mourinho was shamelessly flirting his wares in in the direction of the red half of Manchester, with very real aspirations to replace Ferguson when the time came when the Scotsman decided to leave the Utd hotseat. It made sense, it was a "natural progression", a man (Mourinho) used to pressure, inspired by criticism & a CV to blow most of his contemporaries out of the water. Suffice to say not only Manchester United fans, but the football community in general were a little shocked to see David Moyes take the all-conquering Ferguson hotseat.

As a person, many find Mourinho irritating, hypocritical, irksome & driven by ego. As a coach, it's difficult to argue that tactically he's very probably one the best in the business, he's a true motivator, he KNOWS how to get results and aside from his last season at Madrid, where his ego got the better of him & the Spanish press obliged in crucifying him (what goes around, comes around...), his record speaks for itself.

As it stands, Moyes tenure at Utd thus far has been a "mixed bag" at best. Replacing Ferguson was always going to be a tall order, for ANY manager. But inevitably eyebrows were raised when it was announced that Ferguson was to be replaced by his fellow Countryman. Whilst Everton can certainly consider themselves "a big club", with respect, they're not in the same bracket as the Mancunians, certainly with regards to prestige and perpetual sky-high expectations.

Moyes is not quite as poor a manager as (some) of the Utd faithful are making out. Football fans are knee-jerk and emotive creatures at the best of times and when things are seemingly going wrong, it's natural for people to think and behave irrationally. However, I (like many) was and still very much am, dubious as to Moyes' credentials to take on such a big job. I'm not sure this will end well for him or Utd, However, there's plenty of time to prove this notion wrong, provided the Utd board stay patient with him.

In closing, my school of thought is that Mourinho, in-spite of his faux "I was always coming back to Chelsea posturing", was anchoring for a move to manage at Old Trafford and had that happened, Utd would have gone from strength-to-strength under the Portuguese man o' war's guidance!

Author:
Joel Coote
Twitter: @MoistFootball

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