Rewind | Manchester United News

Rewind

Rewind 13ish months…

Sir Alex was enjoying the benefits of his retirement, we had faith in the man that the legend had nominated to replace him.

David Gill had moved on, trying to fill his size 14 shoes was a guy who looked like he’d be out of his depth managing a McDonalds drive through on a Tuesday morning, he was a mess, forever leaking stories about player bids to clubs who’d no interest in selling, or for players with no interest in leaving, all the while a squad that’s weaker than this big lads will power is becoming weaker by the week as our rivals continue to strengthen their squads ahead of 13/14 kicking off, to add to his reputation as a man without a clue what to do, we reach deadline day and his actions on that day are more farcical than anything Coogan, Barker or Morris have ever written, it was worse than listening to your dad describe the recent surge in his sex life (unfortunately I’ve experienced that, and I can say confidently that Ed’s slackness was even harder to take than that was), so as the summer window closed, my hopes for this guy learning his lesson were lower than the chances of finding dirt under an office workers fingernails.

So we move into the 13/14 season, and let’s be honest, there was little to enjoy on the pitch, but let’s take a look at what the summers clown did behind the scenes during the campaign.

Januzaj – the stand out talent coming through, the proof that we still had the ability to spot and nurture talent that was first team worthy, but as with the previous players who looked to be hitting that level, the time left on his contract left little to be excited about for the fear he’d be walk away as others before him did, but not this time, within weeks of the breakthrough game at Sunderland, the deal was signed and we could look forward to the youngsters talent lighting up OT for years to come.

Mata – some might say this shouldn’t count as an Ed win as he used third party negotiators to bring the deal together, but for me, that he had the sense to do that after the mistakes made in the summer showed that he was learning, drawing a line under his mistakes and taking steps to avoid making them again.

Moyes – it would’ve been really easy to dodge doing what he did towards the end of last season, he could’ve just played the clip of SAF saying it was our job to support our new manager, and he could’ve claimed to be doing just that, but no, after that performance at Everton, he had the courage to say enough is enough, Moyes as a manager was out of his depth and needed to be removed if we were to stand a chance of competing at a level this club is used to, so that’s what he did, he sat Moyes down, told him what results & performances had told us all of last season and that was it, the pain of the Moyes reign was over.

LVG – the club identified a man who could fix the damage of the season gone, and restore some of the passion and tactical variety missing in 13/14, Ed set about selling the project to him, now let’s be fair, LVG has achieved it all, he was due to retire after this World Cup, convincing any husband to tell his wife that their life plans are changing significantly is a skill that commands respect.

Transfer dealings – comparing this summer to last is like comparing Frasier to Mrs Browns boys, where last summer was a farce too stupid to laugh at, this summer has been a clean, well tuned & perfectly executed piece of work that’s delivered results that have brought far more joy than we expected when the season ended.

There are still many things that can be thrown at Ed over his involvement in bringing the Glazers into United, but as my ex finds when she tries to drag an argument out of me, the past isn’t a currency you can spend anywhere in the present, yes he’s a twat, but he’s a twat who’s now working for the benefit of United, if he carries on improving his ability to do so as he has since last summer, then he’ll always haves fan in me.

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