1) He never really recovered from last summer, a sense of doom pervaded before a ball had even been kicked with him as manager. A summer of transfer inactivity compounded by shambolic attempts at signing players, both actual and perceived, and coming out the other side with nothing but an over-priced Fellaini to show for it, was hardly the way to launch a new era on the front foot.
2) In hindsight, was it really wise to simply rubber-stamp Sir Alex's choice of manager? At the time it seemed like it was aiding continuity - the master chooses his apprentice - and everyone (barring the usual suspects who moan even when we're winning,"Well, the treble was ok but did we really have to leave it so late, should have changed it up after 60 minutes...") had a warm fuzzy feeling inside,"this is how Man Utd do things, not like those other classless clubs..."
3) Which raises the question of when, precisely, the right time to sack him actually was? If we're special, and like to give managers time, rather than just have a knee-jerk reaction and sack them after a few bad results, then is this not too early? And yet, following that to the letter would mean Moyes could have relegated us and we'd be like, well, we have to give him time, we're not like the other clubs...
The promise of giving someone a chance cannot become a security blanket for bad management.
So should Moyes have been given more time. Should he have built a team in the summer and been given another season? Until recently I would have been in the camp that said yes, but it has become very apparent that nothing has improved over the season. We look rubbish, we look like a team in the doldrums, out of ideas, out of energy, out of desire. We look tired. It's alright saying that it wasn't his team, and it's ageing etc. but really, Moyes has shown no hint that he had any answers. We signed Mata and that did nothing to improve us, so even if he signed more in the summer there's no reason to suppose he would know how to improve us next season.
4) Paradoxically, given his record in the Premier League, he did ok in the higher echelons of the Champions League. For all the shouts that as Everton manager being his highest experience he couldn't cope competing with the very best in the Premier League, he actually did pretty well in the Champions League, one dreadful performance against Olympiakos notwithstanding, only being, narrowly, knocked out by a very good Bayern team. Indeed in some of those performances there seemed to be a desire and an edge about us that was missing in pretty much every league performance. Why he couldn't replicate that level of performance in the league is his ultimate downfall.
All of which adds up to this being the right decision, but we can be a little disappointed that it has come to this: from beginning to end there have been failings all over, not just from Moyes - in the boardroom; from the players, the senior players especially; the PR department - yet these failings can't excuse Moyes his shortcomings. He had a chance to grow into the role and he didn't take it.
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