1.) 14 Oct 2013
Hi Sydney! I get that Moyes wants to be his own man and make his own decisions but it seems like he is refusing any of the clubs previously planned out targets out of stubborness. Regardless of whether they would have been good for the club or not. Thiago, Strootman and Garay would certainly have added to the first team but haven't been signed when we had realistically good chances to sign them.

I hope that he has some good signings lined up but am not filled with confidence at the moment.

On a seperate note I've noticed Lewandowski commenting about how nothing is signed with Bayern and that he'd like to play in the Premier League. Is he still nailed on for joining Bayern?

2.) 14 Oct 2013
I actually don't see how his start could of been much worse I'm not just talking about results everything he says and does suggests he hasn't got a clue what he's doing! I think he is a massive mistake and you could argue he needs a chance but to get rid of our coaches and bring in Everton coaches to a massively successful club like ours is ridiculous! Fellaini? isn't even close to being good enough and he had managed him at Everton for a couple of years! For him to apparently dismiss all our scouted targets then whinge we haven't got enough quality players actually makes my blood boil!

He's not good enough for our club I respected him as an Everton manager because he done a good job however we're not Everton despite his best efforts to make us so and in my opinion I think he needs to go! I was all for giving him a chance but honestly every time I look at our bench during a match I feel physically ill. The absolute naivety and arrogance of the man to bring his Everton coaching staff with him! that, for me is the hardest thing to take followed by bringing side show bob with him for 27.5m as a defensive midfielder when he used him at Everton as a number 10.

Actually starting to hate Moyes and the sooner he's gone the better!

3.) 14 Oct 2013
Jamal, I certainly do not hate Moyes and I will support him and I hope he succeeds. But some of the players he has decided against doesn't make any sense. MU have been crying out for a Thiago since Scholes declined. We have no left winger and have been forced to play Adnan (much to my delight), surely Oezil would have improved us there and could have played in the hole when Rooney goes. Some of his decisions are bizarre and need an explanation at some stage. We have to give him at least 18 more months to see what he can do, but I do feel that some of his decisions already have been bizarre and if he continues to dither, he will not last very long.

4.) 14 Oct 2013
Morrison is an even bigger talent than Pogba. If he'd sorted out his issues I'd take him back in a heartbeat, he'd be the first name on my transfer wishlist given that he's what we're missing in the team. There are obviously issues around him though:
1) He can end up again back to his wannabe gangster ways.

2) Even if he stays out of trouble, he could go all Adebayor after signing a new fat contract somewhere and not give that much of a damn.

And third would be he won't be able to make requisite sacrifices to be a real top player once he gets fame and not have the drive to get there.

5.) 14 Oct 2013
United could not agree a fee with Benfica. Garay is still being scouted and Moyes has asked for a background check on him recently.

Sure, let's buy Ozil and play him out on the left wing, a 42mil player out of position. Also, Moyes did not want Thiago, he wanted someone who would go straight in and be top class in Fabregas, shame how the equalizer couldn't get that done isn't it? Can't blame Moyes for these i'm afraid.

Its well known how likes to have extensive info on the player before signing him, so it was a mistake by the club not buying him out of his contract earlier. The next two windows should be a lot better imo provided we can get the deals done.

Fabregas/Herrera, Fellaini, Baines/Coentrao signed and would anybody have been complaining? I hardly think so.

6.) 14 Oct 2013
I'm glad we didn't move for strootman or garay neither are that good imo.
Thiago and Ozil would of been good signings .
Moyes must of had his own targets tho, I wouldn't expect a manager to come to a club and blow his transfer budget on someone else's players

7.) 14 Oct 2013
Redfaith, Spot on about united knew how Moyes works in the transfer window. There's 2 many people looking to blame Moyes or call him dithering Dave for taking time with signings but that's probably never going to change, it's who he is. He wants to make sure he's making the correct decision.

8.) 14 Oct 2013
I don't think it's fair for anyone to judge him about his actions during the first transfer window. Yes he could have signed players straight away that were already supposedly 'nailed on' but then again it could have created more problems especially with a bunch of players he doesn't even know. A club where we haven't had a change of manager for the last 26 years I think we shouldn't be so rash with judgement straight away. Moyes know's he has time so why rush and potentially create more problems and drama for the media to clutch onto?

Not sure how many of you know but no Manchester United manager has ever come in and won a trophy within the first two seasons. Just because SAF was spoiling us with wins after wins with what he built, we shouldn't expect the same success from Moyes straight away.

9.) 14 Oct 2013
Redfaith, Thiago would have come in and been top class straight away. He is a world-class player and only 22. A world-class player for a very good price. Instead we bought Fellaini for 33% more. I am not sure how you can say Moyes turning down the chance to sign both Oezil and Thiago isn't his fault? Moyes isn't keen on Kagawa, so why didn't he sell him during the summer and buy Oezil? Moyes has been playing Rooney as a striker so why not buy Oezil for the hole? Oezil can play right, left and could have replaced Scholes in midfield. Moyes needs time and he will get time, but I hope we do not see anymore cock-ups in January and next summer. Wenger had Cazorla, it didn't stop him buying Oezil. When a special player becomes available who is as versatile as Oezil you cannot dither about. SAF would have signed him.

10.) 14 Oct 2013
A. Would Pep/Bayern sat back and let us sign Thiago? I doubt it.
B. Once Bayern were interested did Thiago prefer us or Bayern. I imagine Bayern.
C. Would Arsenal have sat back and not bid high for Ozil had we made a move? I doubt it.
D. Would we have matched Arsenal's bid for Ozil? I doubt it.
E. If you took over in a new management role, would you want to recruit your own team or just bring in the people your predecessor identified? I imagine the former.

I'm personally waiting until after next summer before judging his transfers. Getting on his back and pre judging him because he didn't just sign SAF's targets (that he might not have been able to anyway) isn't helpful. I'd have preferred a Fabregas type to a MF type bur at the end of the day our squad is better as last season + MF than just last season. By the end of next summer he has no excuses but we should try and give him time to do things his way. He's not SAF but he is the boss and should be allowed to do things his way not just follow SAF. Otherwise SAF might as welk still be in charge.

Rant over.

11.) 14 Oct 2013
The problem is always the same - this man is now so used being over diligent and cautious that all risk-taking is anathema. But he is now dealing with opportunities several branches higher up the food tree, together with the funds to be decisive. It is not that hard. Other managers of top clubs recognize exceptional talent when it becomes available, and they move quickly to secure it. That is how you need to be.

The truth is person does cannot do anything with either alacrity or imagination. Instead all of his actions appear to be reduced to a level of snail-like caution that ensures that nothing ever happens. It is difficult to believe that we can expect anything different in the future. Blame Ferguson's ego for ensuring that he would be replaced by a mediocrity bound to fail.

12.) 14 Oct 2013
Well said Ben80.thank god a lot of those who come on here probably don't actually go to Old Trafford. them and their negativity is sucking the life out of the club. Give the guy a chance. Stay in your armchairs lads.

13.) 15 Oct 2013
Who ever said Morrison is a bigger talent than pogba needs to check his self - is your head still on your neck mate?

You honestly don't have a clue, pogba is going to be one of the BEST footballers on the planet. Morrison is english he can only get so good. And for those who disagree, just ask yourself how many englishmen would be in your world 11. {Ed007's Note - One.}

14.) 15 Oct 2013
@Sydney

You seem to be struggling to come to terms with the fact that Sir Alex is no longer manager and what players he wanted or the deals he had set up are completely irrelevant, Moyes is the man in charge now and its the players that HE wants that should be targeted. I don't know any manager who comes in and goes for the targets of his predecessor. I wouldn't have expected Mourinho, Guardiola etc. to do that as well.

If Moyes felt that Fabregas, a more experienced and established player already familiar with the premier league was what we needed, then that is what needed to be targeted and done. We do not know if Thiago would have been a top player, in the EPL.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree with you about Oezil. You don't buy a 40+mil and play him out of position. We are already struggling to give Kagawa gametime in his favored position. If Rooney had been sold, Oezil would have made sense, and Moyes made the right decision about Oezil. You say Moyes has been playing Rooney as a striker so why not play Oezil in the hole? Are you serious? That would leave ONE central midfielder to play against 3 of the other teams, we would get murdered.

Just tell me one thing, Moyes wanted Fabregas, Baines, Fellaini and later Coentrao, Khedira, Herrera, would these players have improved us significantly? The answer is yes. Would these players have improved us as much as Sir Alex's targets would have? Again I think the answer is yes and if we had gotten Fabregas done then it would have been the best thing that could have happened this summer.

15.) 15 Oct 2013
Totally agree with redfaith on this one as the players targeted by moyes were quality in my opinion. If he targets similar players in future windows and we manage to acquire them I don't doubt the quality of our football will improve. I also don't agree that he is overly cautious as it took balls to pick adnan when he was getting stick after losing to wba but understand he wants to give experienced pros the chance to shine which some have not done.

16.) 15 Oct 2013
Redfaith, I agree with you on 99% of subjects and I even said week's ago that I cannot see why we would buy Oezil when we have Kagawa and Rooney that both play in the hole. But we 'NOW' know that Moyes never had any intention of playing Kagawa or Rooney there. So if he doesn't want Kagawa and he wants to play Rooney as a striker, then why not Fellaini & Oezil? Oezil can play anywhere in the midfield and attack bar striker. Players of his brilliance are very rare and he wanted to join us. If Moyes has turned down the chance to sign Thiago and Oezil then IMO it's bizarre and quite worrying. We have two very talented players in Kagawa and Zaha who are being forced out of the club. Two more bizarre decisions and again very worrying. We signed Fellaini for a massive £27.5m. A player who has not improved us. That's five blunders in one season IMO. I have a feeling there are a few more to come and perhaps some that have already happened that haven't surfaced yet. We need to see what happens in January and the summer, but why offer £23m for Herrera when we could have bought a better Thiago for £21m? Cesc was never an option, but that wasn't Moyes' fault. Gill and SAF would have realised much earlier that it was never going to happen, we have to put that down to inexperience on Moyes and Woodward's part. But they must learn fast as other clubs will keep taking the best players whilst MU dither.

17.) 15 Oct 2013
When you are a manager of a team, it's his god damn job to hire the best suitable whether it is for football club or else where. I would have been ok with Moyes if he had brought in Fabregas, but he hadn't. Top managers always have the contingency plan, but he didn't seem to have planned it through. If this isn't even the case, then he must have an execution issue, which is in fact even worse. We can be a little more goal-oriented than other clubs and to earn the fans' respect and trust, Moyes simply needs to prove it by the result and that is his bloody job. He's not a volunteering labour force, but is getting paid millions of pounds.

18.) 15 Oct 2013
I agree with Syd on Oezil. Moyes would've seen what kind of a player Kagawa is and I think his mind were almost set to play others over Kagawa before the transfer was shut. So Oezil in and Kagawa out could've happened would actually save us near 15 - 18m, would've cost us 25 - 30m, but neither happened. Ok, Kagawa still has some +side on marketing revenue, so keeping him might not be that costly.
Redfaith, good post, but I have to ask, if all these top players were our target, who did we end up signing? It's called lack of execution skill, unless it's Glazers. If the funds weren't simply allowed by the board as we simply did not have them, fine. Otherwise, i) he couldn't pitch well enough to convince the board for the spending ii) whoever the negotiators were, Moyes should've had close look on the progress to make sure the deal comes through, but failed on that too. Management skill failed. What more do we need to say. He needs to prove the season by the result. This is really worse start than anyone has imagined.

19.) 15 Oct 2013
@Sydney

1. Oezil and Fellaini will get absolutely murdered in midfield with two strikers upfront. It will be worse than what it is now. There will be acres of space for the opposition to run at.

2. Zaha is not being pushed out of the club. Anybody who thought Zaha will just be put straight into the first team squad must have been kidding themselves. He is a raw talent and one that needs to be nurtured. He will go out on loan in January imo.

3. Again, I am trying to tell you that its irrelevant whether Thiago was available, since Moyes wanted Fabregas and we should have done much more of an effort to get that one done.

4. Fellaini has had absolutely no time to settle in imo and its affected him. Actually the injury might do him a world of good and he will come back stronger imo. I am no fan of his but its far too early to judge him and I know for a fact that he is twice the player he has been for us.

5. Moyes had very little time to assess Shinji Kagawa. I think him being involved in a deal for Gundogan is a real possibility come the summer.

Lets look at some of the good Moyes has done :-

1. Giving Januzaj a real run out in the team. This would feinitely not have happened had we signed Oezil and decided to play him out wide.

2. Getting Rooney back fit and firing despite of the all the Chelsea distractions.

3. It also appears that he is not happy with Young, Valencia, Anderson and the likes and they might be moved on in the next two windows. We will see in the next two windows the effect of having a new manager and a fresh perspective on some of the deadwood we have.

4. Interest in players that would address the core issues of the team (i.e Fabregas, Herrera, Baines, Coentrao, Khedira) rather than trying to sign players we don't really need (i.e. Oezil).

20.) 15 Oct 2013
@RumourNo.1

The players I mentioned were targeted are facts. Also SAF lost out on some pretty high profile names throughout his tenure so its nothing new to us imo.

Its simply a case of the club bringing in a manager who likes to completely assess every aspect of a player before trying to sign them, Moyes is a freak about detailed info, and the club should have bought him out of his contract to give him more time.

The Equalizer will have an interview published in a United fanzine in the next couple of weeks, and more will become clear after that I hope about what happened this summer.

In any case the poor start will have actually highlighted to Moyes some of the dross we have in the squad and he will address it i'm sure. The next couple of windows are critical for us, I agree, and the club need to sign some top players.

21.) 15 Oct 2013
Fair enough mate. Let's hope Moyes finishes his assessment soon and sort out the team and start playing some winning football.

22.) 15 Oct 2013
Redfaith, I don't buy you defence of Moyes transfer policy at all.

1. Oil and Fellaini would get murdered in midfield. But if you can't find a way to fit Ozil into your starting 11, you have got problems. The lad is one of the best players in the world and a consistent creator of goals (you know the things we have struggled to create in the last few months). The problem is Moyes is committed to playing 2 strikers to accommodate Rooney and RVP. This is not a formation that will win trophies in the modern era.

2. The Zaha situation is very strange. He had a very good pre season, played in the shield, and since then has been dropped completely. Nobody expected him to walk into the first team, but when we have three out of form wingers and a 39 year old as wing options, it's worrying that he isn't even making the bench. Moyes seems to have a problem with him, and he is being forced out on loan because of it.

3. If Cesc was always first choice then why did Moyes wait until Thiago was sold until we bid? Logic would suggest that if Barca are in danger of losing two midfielders because they are worried about game time, that they have a better chance of convincing one to stay if the other is sold. We waited until Thiago was gone and there was no way that Barca would have sold two of them in the same window, especially at the money we were offering. Cesc was either dithering or stupidity, and pointless in any case.

4. I agree that Fellaini deserves time, but this again is Moyes fault. He should have bought him at the start of the window and given him a chance to bed in. More dithering.

5. I think that Moyes has fully assessed Kagawa at this stage and he has decided that he doesn't fit into to his style of play. The problem is, why would any other Dortmund player want to join us after seeing what is happening to Kagawa?

As for the positives.

1. He absolutely deserves credit for playing Januzaj. But Januzaj is potential, Ozil is the finished article and we need finished articles to compete with the best.

2. Rooney is much happier and is playing well. However, this has come at a cost, and the cost is that Moyes has had to commit to 4-4-2 and this will severely limit us.

3. If he is unhappy with these players why are they getting more game time than the likes of Zaha and Kagawa? If Moyes was unhappy with players who we have know for at least a year are not up to standard why didn't he sell them this summer? The truth is that nobody wants to sign Anderson, and we would make a massive loss on Young. Regardless Moyes did not look to replace them this summer, so their continued presence in the team is down to his poor transfer dealings.

4. Your last point sums up the problem with Moyes transfer dealings. He knew the problems in the team but he didn't fix them. He dropped Fergie's targets because he wanted to prove his own man, but he waited for the best part of two months before he made a real attempt to bring people in. He knew the fees that Everton wanted for Fellaini and Baines but he persisted in low balling and refused to rubbish his attention to other targets until he eventually had to pay over odds for Fellaini in a desperate attempt to save face. He refused to meet Herrera's buyout despite Athletic unequivocally saying that they would not sell for less, and he waited until the very last minute to move for Khedira and Coentrao. These are the actions of a manager and chairman whose kackhandedness and indecision left them scrambling to sign anyone at the last minute. Yet when one of the best players in the world was handed to them gift wrapped, they turned their noses at him. Unbelievable.

23.) 15 Oct 2013
That post is mine, must have been logged out before I finished it.

24.) 15 Oct 2013
@Danny

1. So you are suggesting we should have dropped either one of Rooney and RVP and bought Oezil to play as an attacking mid behind the striker in the hole? I have always been supportive of that idea. I agree with you that keeping Rooney has come at a cost, no arguments there.

2. The main problem with Zaha is that he gives the ball away too easily in dangerous positions, which is suicidal in the EPL, especially for a team like us which has been vulnerable to counter attacks recently. Januzaj does not do that, and has gotten gametime. Zaha needs a loan.

3. Cesc was always first choice mate. Irwin stated that long before. I agree we waited too long, and have stated that we should have bought Moyes out of his contract earlier so that we could have been much more up to pace. Imo we should have been far more aggressive with the bidding as well.

4. I think partly Moyes and Woodward need to share the blame on the Fellaini fee.

5. Players will always be interested to join Manchester United mate, as long as we can agree deals with their clubs.

Positives :-

1, 2 no arguments there. I agree playing Rooney as a proper striker costs us a little bit in midfield.

3. He can't do anything about these guys until January. The problem like you have said is getting clubs interested in these guys.

4. I agree partly on these again. Moyes and Woodward have not worked together before and it cost us imo. I think if you read some of my posts from before and on the european page you will understand my broader view on this one.

I just can't understand why one would want to buy Oezil at 40+mil and then shove him out on the wing. Its a massive waste of talent, just like Kagawa is when played out wide. When you buy a world class player you play him in his best position and try and get the best out of him. Sir Alex played too many players out of position in his latter years and that was one aspect I wasn't happy about.

For me, its a simple fact that Moyes had clear targets in Fabregas, Fellaini and Baines and the club should have paid what it took to get them, as early as possible. Its a massive job replacing Sir Alex and Moyes should have been supported a lot more in the market.

I hope we do some good business in January. Especially Hughes, Herrera, Coentrao are very much attainable provided we pay the asking price.

25.) 15 Oct 2013
Thanks guys Ozward, Ben80 and Redfaith for some really good posts let's give Moyes time to prove himself. lf l may ask those who are always accusing Moyes, who did Sir Alex buy whom you guys can say is a quality midfielder in the past 5 years (windows) NONE - that's why we had the likes of Scholes coming back from again and again. Honestly we are being unfair as MU fans to the New Manager.
Susu

26.) 15 Oct 2013
Redfaith, Zaha is ahead of Januzaj in progression. Well ahead in fact. The reason Moyes isn't playing Zaha has nothing to do with his abilities. It's a personal matter between him and the player. I think anyone who expected not to see more of Zaha this season is kidding themselves. I wonder how much of Januzaj we would have seen had he not been in his final year of contract? We can see exactly what Moyes wants to do with MU. He wants to turn us into a better version of Everton. No skills and flair, no Oezil or Thiago, no Zaha or Kagawa, he wants bruisers like Fellaini. I wouldn't be surprised if we bought Benteke, our very own Anichebe. let's forget about Garay, Moyes will probably opt for Jagielka. Redfaith, we need players like Thiago and Oezil. We are Manchester United, not Everton. Cesc was never an option. He was never going to leave Barclelona. He used MU to get more playing time at Barcelona with the WC approaching. We were duped and made to look like amateurs.

Lets wait until next September and see if we have bought and retained our flair players. Or we have sold them all and bought in hardworking bruisers.