Article 24 — Manchester United 2013–14
It was a sea of change for Manchester United this season. Not only had Sir Alex Ferguson retired, in February 2013, CEO David Gill also announced that he was stepping down from his position. Ed Woodward was named as his successor. Sir Alex Ferguson’s coaching staff, assistant manager, Mike Phelan, goalkeeping coach Eric Steele and first-team coach Rene Meulensteen stepped down too. New United manager David Moyes hired his own staff in assistant manager, Steve Round, goalkeeping coach, ex-Sheffield Wednesday and England international, Chris Woods and Jimmy Lumsden as the first-team coach. Ryan Giggs became player-coach in July and Phil Neville was brought back to the club as part of the coaching staff.
United spent considerable effort in the summer to sign a top-quality central midfielder to replace Paul Scholes, failing in two attempts to sign former Arsenal captain, Cesc Fabregas. We were linked to German pair Toni Kross and Sami Khedira too. An attempt to sign Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini from Moyes’ former club, Everton was rebuffed too. Finally, Fellaini was signed on the last day of the summer transfer window paying over the odds for him. Unknown Uruguayan Guillermo Varela and Swiss Saidy Janko were also signed. The new era certainly didn’t get off to a good start on the transfer front. Sir Alex Ferguson had made a final signing of promising Englishman, Wilfred Zaha from Crystal Palace as well and he joined the club this summer.
One of the biggest challenge facing the club over the summer was to keep hold of Wayne Rooney and they rejected two bids from Chelsea for him, insisting that he was not for sale. Rooney remained at United. I suspect if Sir Alex had remained, Rooney would have been sold.
On the pitch after a horrible pre-season campaign which included 2 defeats and 2 draws in 5 matches on tour in Asia, United began their campaign with a 2–0 win in the Community Shield over last season’s shock FA Cup champions, Wigan Athletic. Wigan had beaten Manchester City in last season’s FA Cup final 1–0.
United had started their league campaign very well too with a 4–1 drubbing of Swansea City away at the Liberty Stadium, Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck scoring 2 goals each. United’s first home game of the season was a big one against Chelsea but a 0–0 stalemate was played out. Jose Mourinho was back in English football this season and at Chelsea. However, this was United first 0–0 draw at Old Trafford since 2009. United then lost 0–1 to fierce rivals, Liverpool at Anfield, failing to score in consecutive games for the first time in 6 years.
United beat Crystal Palace 2–0 for the first home win at Old Trafford. They were then put to the sword by neighbours, Manchester City 1–4 at the Etihad Stadium for United’s heaviest defeat at the Etihad Stadium in 9 years. United followed that up with a 1–2 defeat to West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford, West Bromwich’s first win in 35 years at Old Trafford. They travelled to Stadium Of Light next to play against Sunderland and had to come from 0–1 down to beat them 2–1 thanks to 2 goals by then 18-year-old Adnan Januzaj.
After being held by a late Southampton equaliser in the 1–1 draw at Old Trafford, United produced a performance that was typical of their previous season, coming from 1–2 down to beat Stoke City 3–2 thanks to a late winner by Javier Hernandez. We had hope that this win would finally kick-start the season for us and instil confidence in the team but it wasn’t the case.
After beating beat Fulham 3–1 and Arsenal 1–0 in consecutive matches, United went on a run of 4 games without a win. The run included back-to-back 0–1 defeat at home to Everton and Newcastle United in December 2013. It was Everton’s first win in 21 years at Old Trafford and Newcastle’s first win in 41 years.
Under Moyes, United was gifting teams with a chance to break their long winless run against us at Old Trafford. United then went on a run of 4 consecutive wins including an exciting Boxing Day, coming from a 0–2 deficit to defeat Hull City 3–2 at the KC Stadium.
United lost 1–2 away to Tottenham Hotspur on New Year’s Day 2014 and a below-par, embarrassing and shocking season ambled on. United struggled to string 2 wins in a row as their wins were punctuated by more defeats and draws.
In the January transfer window, United had signed Juan Mata from Chelsea but that had little impact in lifting the flagging spirits of the team.
On the 16th March 2014, title-chasing Liverpool came to Old Trafford and tore us up, beating us 3–0 and embarrassing David Moyes with a disrespectful “David Moyes Is A Football Genius” banner in the away end to further rub salt onto the wounds.
United beat West Ham United 2–0 next at Upton Park, a match remembered for Wayne Rooney’s goal from middle line similar in nature to David Beckham’s at Wimbledon in 1996. Coincidentally, Beckham was in the stands to witness it. Personally, I prefer Beckham’s goal for its technique and aesthetics as the ball was on the ground when he took the shot and it went straight into the goal without any bounce on the way to goal. Rooney’s goal required a different technique as it was effectively a volley from long, long-range.
Another title-chasing team and our neighbours in the form of Manchester City were the next visitors to Old Trafford and they matched Liverpool’s score, 0–3. For the first time in the league since the opening day 4–1 win over Swansea City, United beat Norwich City and Newcastle United by scoring 4 goals in each game, 4–1 and 4–0 respectively. However, by then, the fans have had enough with Moyes and a flypast was arranged in the home game against Aston Villa with the banner, David Moyes — The Wrong One.
Moyes’ time as Manchester United manager was up after a 0–2 defeat to his former club, Everton meant that mathematically United didn’t stand a chance of making it into the Champions League positions. His contract ended less than a year into his 6-year contract. Ryan Giggs was appointed as the caretaker manager for the rest of the season and that gave the entire club a lift. The appearance of old boys, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt next to him rekindled nostalgia amongst the United fans.
Riding on the good feeling that was back at Old Trafford, United beat Norwich City 4–0 in Giggs’ first match in charge. However, it all came crashing down to the ground with a surprise 0–1 defeat in the next home game against Sunderland. United and Ryan Giggs played their final match at Old Trafford in a 3–1 win at home over Hull City. Youngster James Wilson made a dream debut, scoring 2 goals and Ryan Giggs brought himself on as a substitute on his final appearance at Old Trafford after he announced his retirement from football. The season ended in a 1–1 draw away to Southampton.
Ryan Giggs was not the only player making his final appearance at Old Trafford. Club captain Nemanja Vidic announced in February 2014 that he was leaving United at the end of his contract at the end of the season.
This was the first time United had missed out on qualification for a European competition since 1980–81 after taking into account the ban of English clubs from European competition from 1985–1990 due to the Heysel Stadium disaster. The 7th place finish was the lowest finish since 1990.
The season was so bad that I had forgotten United actually made it all the way to the semi-final of the League Cup, knocking Liverpool out in the 3rd Round for our only win over them this season. In the semi-final, we lost the first leg 1–2 away to Sunderland before a 2–1 win at Old Trafford after extra-time meant that the semi-final had to be settled over a penalty shootout. Sunderland emerged victorious 2–1 from a terrible sequence of penalties from both teams. We were knocked out in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup by Swansea City, Swansea’s first-ever win at Old Trafford.
We had some respite from a nightmare domestic season in the Champions League. United finished top of their group, 4 points clear of German side, Bayer Leverkusen who we beat 3–2 at Old Trafford and impressively 5–0 away at BayArena. The other teams in the group included representatives from Ukraine, Shaktar Donetsk and Spain, Real Sociedad.
In the 2nd Round, we suffered our first defeat in Europe, losing 0–2 away to Greek side Olympiacos before Robin van Persie inspired a 3–0 win at Old Trafford to send us to the quarter-final to face German giants, our old nemesis and title-holders, Bayern Munich.
On paper, it was a mismatch considering our domestic form and that of Bayern as well as the quality and strength of the German team’s squad. We held our own in a 1–1 draw at Old Trafford, somehow making it over the line without losing. In the return leg at the Allianz Arena, we did well to hold Bayern for the first half and took the lead through a stunner by Patrice Evra. However, we couldn’t hold on to the lead and capitulated. Bayern won 3–1 to progress 4–2 on aggregate.
This season was such a contrast to the previous season, the difference like heaven and earth. A team that had won the league so commandingly by 11 points couldn’t possibly be so bad that they finished 7th the following season.
The dreams of many anti-United haters came true this season as United crashed and burned. The hope that Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement would herald an end to an era of dominance came true.
I was never keen or pumped up by the announcement of Sir Alex’s replacement, David Moyes. Common sense would dictate that he would have been absolutely the wrong choice to replace Sir Alex. He did well in his time at Everton, getting the Merseyside club to punch above their weight but the football played wasn’t attractive. He had no track record of managing a top club or of winning trophies. I was hoping to be proved wrong but I wasn’t.
It has been pointed out many times that there was actually a dearth of options available to the club to replace Sir Alex at the time of his retirement because almost all the top managers were unavailable. Carlo Ancelotti had already been confirmed to replace out-going Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, it was an open secret that Mourinho was going back to Chelsea, Pep Guardiola was already confirmed as the new Bayern Munich manager, Louis Van Gaal was the manager of the Dutch national team and Jurgen Klopp was happy in his job at Borussia Dortmund. It was a tough task to find an appropriate candidate to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at that time.
At the risk of sounding selfish again, he could have timed his retirement better and United shouldn’t have rushed into hiring David Moyes as Sir Alex’s replacement. They could have taken a bit longer to identify a manager that fit the playing ethos of Manchester United, perhaps offering a shorter 2-year contract to avoid getting tied down for long with the candidate and if things go wrong, the club wouldn’t need to pay too much in terms of compensation. It was frankly tough to find anyone that fit the bill in England, Sir Alex was the last of his kind, successful British manager. Even the United legends that played under Sir Alex and became managers were not good enough to be a United manager.
The job was too big for Moyes. I can understand why he would bring along the coaching staff that has served him well at Everton to United but by losing the experience of Phelan, Meulensteen, Steele and others from Sir Alex’s staff he lost the help of some familiar faces around to guide him. With all due respect, Manchester United is a mammoth of a team compared to Everton and he needed as much help as he could get especially in his first job at a big club.
The chase to sign Fabregas was embarrassing. It became apparent that despite the name, prestige, honour and history of Manchester United, David Moyes was not a big enough name to pull in highly-rated, top quality players from Europe to join the club. In the end, he had to plump for the tried and tested from his old club, Everton in the form of Fellaini. I had no problem with Fellaini joining the club because he has proven to be a handful for us in his time for Everton but he isn’t exactly the sort of player you could possibly think of replacing Scholes with. It should have been Fellaini and someone else.
He didn’t get the best of the players either. There were so many players that underperformed this season. The defence as touched on last season was suspect as age and injuries were catching up on Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans were not quite good enough to replace them yet. Yet he went after a left-back in Leighton Baines from his old club and attempted to sign Fabio Coentrao instead of a centre-back. Baffling decision and later it transpired that he tried showing defenders of the calibre and experience of Ferdinand and Vidic a video of how Phil Jagielka defended at Everton. That was just perplexing.
He couldn’t get the best out of Tom Cleverley who was still young enough to be developed and Cleverley took a lot of flak for his performances. Anderson was out of favour and allowed to leave the club on loan to join Fiorentina in the winter transfer window. Fellaini was struggling to cope with the pressure of playing for United like his manager. Antonio Valencia was being used as a right-back in some matches. Last season’s Manchester United Players’ Player Of The Season, Michael Carrick’s form dropped off this season. Nani and Ashley Young’s form suffered too. The emergence of Belgian youngster Adnan Januzaj from the youth ranks was a rare bright spot this season.
Shinji Kagawa was criminally misused and the signing of Juan Mata, a player in a similar role to Kagawa surprised me. If he didn’t know how to utilise Kagawa, there was no way he would understand how to use Mata better. A criminal waste of money and talent to have two talented, creative players wasted in a rigid system of 4–4–2.
Javier Hernandez’s smile was wiped off his face as he seemed to suffer from the lack of faith in his ability by the manager. Wayne Rooney despite the uncertainty surrounding his future at the start of the season was the team’s top scorer and bright spot. Robin van Persie wasn’t the player he was last season but still ended it as second top scorer in the team to Rooney. Welbeck had a better season this time scoring 10 goals.
David De Gea was the brightest spot in the team, having to face many more shots at his goal than usual. He did very well to be the first goalkeeper to end the season as the winner of the Sir Matt Busby Player Of The Year award. He was also voted by his team-mates for the Manchester United Players’ Player Of The Season.
Tactically, David Moyes had no clue on how to break teams down. He is normally more used at Everton for making things tough for their opponents and going direct with long balls to the front men and set pieces to score. In a game at home against Fulham, United hit 42 crosses without scoring a single goal. The mocking we suffered from rival fans was embarrassing and disrespectful but true and the truth hurts.
