13 Dec 2015 10:23:41
After the experience with Moyes, the Board realized the club needed rebuilding from the inside out, and that it would be no easy job. Who was there available at that time to do it? Who were the realistic names? If I remember correctly there weren't many.

So LVG, the popinjay, it was. He was given 3 years to rebuild what had become a moribund club full of aging stars and a broken youth development program. Our problems had been aggravated by Moyes's year at the helm: his poor and expensive additions to the squad, and a ridiculously long term and extravagant contract with Wayne Rooney.

Well folks, rebuilding is exactly what he's doing. Looking at the team yesterday, and the extraordinary substitutions it's almost as if a) he's entirely given up on any player inherited from either Moyes or SAF and/or b) he is now at war with the fans and is deliberately antagonizing them.

The job of managing a club like Man Utd is a daunting one. We are coming off an unprecedented run of success and an expectation that we will and should be #1 all the time. Most clubs would be delighted with it, but for our fans #2 is a failure. And as hard as it is to accept, LVG is right in this respect, United fans better get used to the new realities. As Chelsea's woes this season show, the mighty can and will stumble. Money is important but it is not everything and there is enough of it swilling around the Premier League to make competitors out of every team. Injuries and a daunting schedule can wreak havoc on even the best laid plans.

Energy, spirit, tactics, teamwork and confidence can win any game on the day. The biggest indictment of LVG is that we seem to lack them all. Is this is because most footballers are not turned on by philosophy? Whether he will ultimately be vindicated or not, LVG's methods have sucked the joy out our football team, and that is what we fans find unforgivable.

{Ed001's Note - why is Moyes always given the 'credit' for Rooney's contract? The contracts are not decided by the manager.}

1.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 10:53:10
People are only crictising Rooney contract because of his recent form, he the biggest/easiest target at the club and the vast want him gone, I think it doesn't help Rooney when he signed this massive contract, the expectation increased and the fans expect him to get 50 goals a season, he never been thar type of player to do that, I don't think selling Rooney be logic at all, I would want until the next manager takes over to see if he re-discovers his form and make a decision then plus you be lucky if you get 10 million for him.

2.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 10:56:07
Ed001, because Fergie laid the foundations for a Rooney exit and Chelsea showed some interest in him but he stayed. You can't say Moyes had nothing to do with him staying.

{Ed001's Note - Moyes was given no choice mate. Rooney going would have guaranteed he failed.}

3.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 11:33:18
Ed, if that's the case, and Moyes had no choice as to whether Rooney stayed despite the fact it seemed to the masses out here like SAF had made the decision he needed to be moved on, then I'll take that part of my criticism back. Instead I'll blame the Glazer controlled board. They compounded the lack of investment in top players by some very unwise investment in players of limited quality.

We're scarcely a football club anymore, we've become a marketing company. Hopefully the realization has now arrived that ultimately it's the product not the name upon which success is built. One fears the Glazers and Woodward are out of their depth when it comes to the basics.

4.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 11:58:02
shaw
2 things 1 rooney was the best player at the club under moyes .
was the rooney contract worse than 60 million on di maria and the highest contract in EPL history?
10 mil loan fee and 300k on falcao?
or making bastion the best played player in the league on a 3 year contract when he can't finish 90 min and looks well past it?

5.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 12:00:12
Shawthing. How come Barca, Real and Bayern don't have these slumps where they go three to four years while rebuilding? We let the playing side of the club deteriorate so much that the job has become a daunting one now.
We were lacking in midfield and centre back areas for years and yet every time a big name came on the market, we did not want to push the boat out.
Lvg has spent a ridiculous amount of money and I'm not sure the club is in much better position than it was 18 month ago.
I would not give him a penny more to spend as he's wasted most of the money already.
Shaqiri and Pedro were available at reasonable prices but we didn't get them. There were lots of CB'S available but we didn't buy any. Striker was needed but we didn't buy a proven one.
Our recruitment policy has been a joke. Bayern bought Costa for a very reasonable price, where were we?
Instead, we keep hearing rubbish rumours that we're chasing Ronaldo ramps muller Neymar etc and we know there's no chance of getting them.

6.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 13:18:04
Jred and Schmidfield, I'm certainly not defending anything LVG has done. Far from it. He appears to be someone who has to have all the right players for his system to work, rather than an ability to bring out the best in the players he's got. His period in charge may have consigned us to an extended period in relative obscurity.

Looking back, Di Maria and Falcao were probably decent risks given the inaccessibility of our reputed top targets. Neither of them panned out. Falcao is still out in the cold. Di Maria is doing okay in a good team. He's clearly not the sort of player who can carry a mediocre one. As far as some of the possible players we might have acquired, I agree, and the idea of holding out for impossible targets was either a con or it was ridiculous.

Most of all though the fact that the club has lost its identity is down to the owners and the Board. I think I've been very consistent in my dislike of the Glazers and the leveraged buyout, which I believe was responsible for the lack of investment in quality replacements for Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo, Keane etc etc. The debt has been managed but the cost has been enormous. Ferguson and Gill held it together, but the cracks in the whole edifice, which we've all seen appearing, could no longer be papered over once they departed.

It's the end of era. That's the only thing LVG is right about.

The question is, if he goes early, who will replace him? Pep has never had to deal with a situation like this. Could he cope? Ancelotti? Klopp would have been ideal. If Spurs are ahead of us at the end of the season, why would Pocchetino leave? We're still a mess. The pressure will be enormous. Have we been nice enough for Santa to bring us just the right manager?

7.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 13:43:13
shaw
di maria, falcao and bastion where worse deals than by lvg than moyes given rooney a contract .
should also point out lvg has backed rooney more than moyes did so i'm not sure what your point is .
other teams continue to stay at the top year after year, manager after manager.

lvg was a massive mistake full stop its not the end of and era we just appointed a has been manager 15 years past his sell by date.
the club is in a great position for any half decent manager to take them forward.

8.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 15:01:18
There was no chance woodward or moyes would want rooney to leave just after fergie retired they would of got far to much abuse for it!

It just goes to show fergie was right at wanting him to go, what has rooney really done since he retired?

9.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 15:22:19
calvin
more than di maria, falcao and bastian.

10.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 17:33:06
Personally don't think he has done more than any of them he has been poor for a long time now its a shame because he has been awesome for the club in the past but at the minute he looks nothing like his former self and really can't see him getting any kind of form back to help us as a team.

11.) 13 Dec 2015
13 Dec 2015 18:10:32
calv
yer falcao was amazing.