On this day in 2014, David Moyes was sacked as Manchester United manager after just 10 months in the job.
The Scotsman had the, in hindsight, impossible task of succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson, who had enjoyed 26 years successful years at the club. Ferguson had recommended the Red Devils to appoint Moyes upon his retirement and was awarded a six-year contract in July 2013.
But after winning just 27 games of 51 with United (52%), who had won the Premier League previously, Moyes was sacked. The club were sitting in seventh place in the table at the time of his departure, a distance away from the Champions League which, under Ferguson, was unthinkable.
The final nail in the coffin for Moyes was a 3-0 defeat away at Everton, who he had previously left to take up the job at Old Trafford. His squad looked depleted, lost and in major need of a revamp despite there being an abundance of world-class players there.
So much so that Moyes only made one first-team signing in the summer of his appointment. The now-West Ham boss decided that he wanted to reunite with Marouane Fellaini at the Theatre of Dreams, forking out just under £30million for the Belgian’s services - a hefty price tag at that time.
Juan Mata was then signed in the January transfer from Chelsea for £37m and has remained at the club ever since, though his contract does expire at the end of the season and it appears very unlikely that he will be a United player next season. Both players struggled under Moyes and lacked the ‘wow factor’ of a Ferguson signing – especially considering Robin van Persie was signed the season before. One would wonder whether Moyes' decision to replace most of Ferguson's staff upon his appointment played a role in the obscure transfer strategy - especially considering central defence was the position that needed investment.
Despite a third-round exit from the FA Cup to Swansea City (United's first game in the competition), a semi-final loss to Sunderland in the League Cup and a crushing defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Moyes has no regrets over his tenure at United and felt he needed a lot more time. The silver lining for the now-thriving manager is that Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have all failed at the club since he left.
Speaking to talkSPORT in 2019, he said: “I think probably [the last time I cried was] when I lost my job at Manchester United. I feel that since I took over to where they are just now, I don’t think there’s an awful lot of difference.
"When I took over it was needing a change and needing a turnaround of players, and that was all going to take time. I feel like in the four years or so since I was managing there, it’s probably not moved on much more. It’s quite similar, they’re still saying there needs to be changes and has to be things done. That time since I felt hasn’t been used awfully well." Since then, nothing really has changed and now Erik ten Hag has been tasked with making United the powerhouse club they once were.
