Football clubs can be unforgiving, occasionally vicious environments, and the stories coming out of Manchester United about the brazen mockery of David Moyes are not as shocking as they may seem.
To a varying degree that culture exists at all clubs, where inside the artificial bubble of the training ground you’ll find plastic bonhomie, remorseless backstabbing, even bullying, and it’s all governed by something akin to the rules of the playground.
At Everton, a foreboding Moyes ruled the club’s Finch Farm complex to the point where young players or non-footballing staff were wary of crossing his path in the corridor.
An intense figure with little time for pleasantries, Moyes entrenched himself at the top, above the vagaries of popularity.
Yet it seems within weeks of his arrival at United, that fearsome veneer had been daubed in clown paint. And make no mistake, it’s the single biggest reason he failed so catastrophically in what was his dream job.
It took him two and a half seasons and Champions League qualification for his authority to become absolute at Everton.
He arrived there aged 38 to manage Paul Gascoigne, David Ginola and Duncan Ferguson – big names, big egos and the sort of characters who didn’t take kindly to being asked to do a few extra laps by old carrot-top from Preston.
At Goodison Park last week his United players delivered an impotent performance that screamed: “Sack him now.”
Back in 2003/04 his Everton side stayed up by the skin of their teeth, then waved a white flag and lost 5-1 at Manchester City on the final day of the season in what could also have been interpreted as a vote of no confidence in the manager.
At the time the Merseyside outfit were troubled, so Moyes was given time to make changes and construct his team. He duly obliged, and finishing fourth the following season with a miniscule budget and a painfully-limited squad remains one of the great managerial feats of the Premier League era.
At United he was never going to get that sort of time, and the thinly veiled contempt of his senior professionals hastened his humiliating demise.
Watching United this year has been excruciating and Moyes’ tactics have rightly been slaughtered. After all, you can only judge what you see on the field.
But while he is clearly no Rinus Michels, the most potent gameplan ever conceived is hardly going to work when your players don’t want to know.
Moyes became a laughing stock and it was seemingly the big hitters among his squad cueing up the punchlines.
It’s not entirely dissimilar to the player-led coup which ousted Andre Villas-Boas from Chelsea in 2012, only perhaps with a little more camouflage.
Like Villas-Boas, Moyes found that his face didn’t fit, and life’s tough in the playground when that’s the case.
It was revealing in a statement released through the LMA on Wednesday that he thanked a lot of people, but not the players.
Five flops who let the side down
It’s pretty clear Man United’s players have underperformed this season, but who let sacked boss David Moyes down the most? Here are five culprits who should hang their heads in shame.
1. Rio Ferdinand
United fans will tell you what a great season Ferdinand had last year. This term he has barely featured, and when he has done, he looked a liability. His biggest impact came when he publicly criticised Moyes and with his cryptic sniping on Twitter.
2. Marouane Fellaini
Moyes’ old ally from Everton has been an unmitigated disaster. The Belgian was brilliant for him at Goodison Park but seems to have forgotten how to play football quicker than you can say £27.5million.
3. Shinji Kagawa
Not trusted by Moyes, most fans would have you believe the Japan star has been wasted by the Scot. The truth is that the poster boy for the anti-Moyes brigade has never performed for United. Five goals and six assists in 56 games.
4. Ashley Young
For those of you with long memories, you may recall a winger at Aston Villa who oozed class – apart from the diving of course. Young looks like a Championship player these days.
5. Tom Cleverley
It’s pretty clear this is a young man with absolutely zero confidence and his game has gotten progressively worse. Based on this season it is mind-blowing to fathom how he ever graduated to international football.
