Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Moyes Out?

By Gary   Smith  ::  10/12/2011   89 Comments (»Last) I should start by acknowledging that I have always been a big supporter of Moyes and believe he HAS moved the club forward from the dark days of the early 1990s when we would be regularly fighting for our Premier League survival.

We HAVE without doubt enjoyed a fantastic spell under Moyes since he took over and has deserved all the plaudits for the regular miracle he worked year on year without money to spend of any note.

One fact stands out to me which has slowly eaten away at me more and more aggressively over the last 12-18 months... we finished 4th in the Premier League with a team significantly worse than the team we have assembled today!!!

I have been trying to remain upbeat and positive but the more I relate to this fact and watch the negativity and drivel that has set into Moyes and the team over the last 12-18 months, the more it seems true... Moyes is failing.

He sets himself very high standards and prides himself on well organised and disciplined team formations but I believe he has lost something; it maybe self-belief, it maybe the lack of funds to progress his vision, it could even be he just doesn't care anymore. Only he can answer that question; whatever the answer, I know that I have now lost the faith.

There is a well know saying: change is as good a holiday... Moyes probably needs a long break away from football, like Martin O'Neill has done not so long ago. Change is good, change will breath a new freshness, a new vigour, a new strategy, a new hope. 

Even the greatest managers embrace change openly, Sir Alex Ferguson has created three, maybe even four great teams; he has never been scared of change.

Moyes on the other hand does not seem to embrace this concept well, in fact he seems to prefer the opposite. This can be beat summed up by the numerous debates about formations, negative tactics, lack of Plan B, first name on team sheet is a 'past his sell-by date' Cahill etc.

All these point towards a lack of willingness to openly embrace change. So now I, a longtime Moyes supporter and advocate, ask for the one thing Moyes can't bare... CHANGE. This is not change for the sake of it but change to reinvent, reshape, re-energise, rejuvenate, revitalise our very good (on paper but not the pitch) football team.

The challenge we have is who would be the man to replace Moyes. For me, I believe there are a lot of good young Managers out there and they all bring with them the desire and ideas Moyes demonstrated when he first arrived. More importantly, whoever replaces Moyes must have a philosophy of football; if only we could find an obscure French manager in the mold of Arsene Wenger, he has an eye for spotting the type of player that fits HIS football philosophy and always plays good attractive attacking football, no matter what. This reverberates throughout the club and youth academy, every day that philosophy is drilled into all players of all ages. I do wonder if another Wenger is out there waiting to be discovered.

My favourites to take over from Moyes are:

• Paul Lambert
• Roberto Martinez
• Bredan Rodgers
• Neil Adkins
• Mark Hughes

All these managers have proven they make their teams play good football with little or no funds and it would excite me to see those football philosophy applied to our considerably strongly football squad than the teams they currently manage.

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