In a statement in which they lambasted the club’s owners for just about every bit of Red Devils failure, the Manchester United Supporters Trust let their feelings be known on the firing of David Moyes after less than a year on the job.
The statement is an at-times comical barrage of insults aimed at the Glazer family that even takes shots at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as supposed clear link between Manchester United falling out of the UEFA Champions League and the game of American football.
It’s sure to label Alex Ferguson a genius and take away any responsibility from the Scot, who handpicked Moyes to be his successor and left him an aging if not depleted roster.The Glazers record of appointments at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is truly awful so it should come as no great surprise to see the same pattern emerge at Manchester United once the shield of Sir Alex Ferguson is no longer there to protect them.
The quicker the owners realise that the Club’s current problems are underpinned by the ownership model rather than just the identity of the manager, the better.
The challenge for the Glazers is that their ownership model, and valuation, is premised on the basis that either the club can operate on much lower investment levels and still compete as we did for so long under Sir Alex Ferguson or the club can generate enough surplus revenue to allow us to compete with the European elite whilst still having funds remaining for future dividends.
One thing spokesman Sean Bones got mostly right in his talk with Sky Sports was United’s waiting to speak to Moyes about a termination that was all over the news on Monday:
“Obviously it is wrong to brief journalists the day before and not speak to the manager himself.
“Manchester United has a lot of style and class and we don’t do things that way and to me this is typical behaviour of the Glazer family. We do things with style, class and dignity.”
This isn’t to say Bones is wrong to question the Glaziers at all. This firing, and season, has become an absolute circus. Perhaps it even started with allowing Ferguson to handpick his successor (though admittedly that probably slowed the fire that eventually engulfed Moyes). In any event, there’s a whole lot of anger in Manchester... and it could get worse before it gets better if United doesn’t land a big, big name to take over. One thing seems sure: it won’t be interim boss Ryan Giggs.