Master of Puppets

When Van Gaal was first appointed as manager - and again now, in his first weeks in charge - I was reminded of this quote from Lacan on the uprisings of 1968:

What you aspire to as revolutionaries is a new master.  You will get one. 

Which I argue can be applied to footballers thus:

What you aspire to as footballers is a new master.  You will get one.

Which is to say that the void created by Sir Alex's retirement had to be filled, and that when it became apparent that Moyes was not the man to do this, for whatever reason, the players were lost.  It could have been a chance for a glorious experiment in socialist democracy, they could've created a free-thinking commune where everyone takes reponsibility and they band together and overcome everything.  Instead, they disappeared.  They hid until Moyes had been pelted out of the job.
And now they have what they want again.  A glorious leader. The authoritarian, masterful Van Gaal, who can come and tell them what to do.
And all is right with the world.

Perhaps the difference between them can be found in the adage that if you have to resort to anger and violence you have immediately lost power - Lear futilely shouting at the elements - and that the master is the one who perpetually holds it in reserve.  Van Gaal has not had to demonstrate his power, it is there, an aura around him.  One does not imagine that Moyes' aura was quite the same, and his hairdryer, one imagines, was probably not the most terrifying thing on earth...