Just past the halfway mark of the current season, many United fans have realised that, even allowing for his newness to the Old Trafford hot-seat, David Moyes’ tenure in charge hasn’t been an overwhelming success. Right now, it seems that he would be lucky to get his charges into a place at the end of the season.
Some people are making plenty of allowances for Moyes. Inheriting an ageing squad and a weak midfield, he was left with a major rebuilding job but as of yet, he has yet to impose himself on the team. This is partly helping to explain poor performances against teams who would have been swept aside as recently as 12 months ago, but is this one of the worst United teams in recent memory?
Dark days
When compared to the past two decades, you could say that this season has been a failure, but the early days of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign at Old Trafford were worse, while the 1980’s was a decade to forget for all connected to the club. Going even further back, there have been some truly disastrous seasons that remain etched in the Reds’ history.
Anyone playing the quiz by of a certain age may even look back to the 1973-74 season, where a defeat in the Manchester Derby condemned the club to relegation from the old First Division. Dropping to the second tier has been a rarity for United, although it wasn’t a remote possibility in the 80’s.
Given time
For now, younger fans may be dissatisfied with what they’re seeing played out in the early days of the Moyes era, but the team he has to work with isn’t the worst to ever to pull on the famous red shirts. Most of the same players went on to surprise quite a few pundits by going on to win the Premier League title last season!
Next season, should he still be in charge, will be huge for Moyes. If he’s afforded more time and, crucially, more money for new signings in defence and midfield, he should be able to at least get close to the success achieved by his predecessor.
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