Re: Ferguson Retired (merged) (cont)
This says a great deal about the strategic vision that the Glazers have for the club. Whatever we might think about that club there is no doubt that it is one of the top jobs in world football.
Top managers have certain common characteristics: egomania; a desire for control and winning. They all love winning.
Perhaps the top managers have looked at that job and wondered, with the financial handcuffs in place, and following in the footsteps of such a colossus as Ferguson and the very real prospect of being overtaken by your local rivals what their odds of "winning" actually were. Clearly given the preeminence of the club, not insignificant, but perhaps too replete with risk to their CV to take the gamble.
As to Moyes, I think for what I believe the Glazers are seeking to do with that club, he is an ideal appointment. He isn't quite the joke that some on here would believe. True his trophy haul is feeble, but it's much harder than it used to be for mid-table teams to lift the FA and League Cup these days due to the sheer size of the top six teams' squads. His record in the transfer market has more plus points than minus ones and he strikes me as an intelligent man, which is pretty much a prerequisite for any top managerial role in the modern game. Most of all, at least as far as the Glazers are concerned, is the fact that he has always demonstrated a willingness to tow the party line at Everton, which may be slightly counter-intuitive for him, as he strikes me as a pretty obdurate character to say the least. This is a quality that will trump all other considerations from owners who are content to keep using the world's greatest football club TM as an ATM to support their other, less successful businesses and their lifestyles. Homes in Tampa don't come cheap.
As to Ferguson there is no doubt in my mind that he is the greatest manager of all time from these shores. What he did at Aberdeen was astonishing and whilst the dice have been loaded in his favour, he has played his own part in that process for which he deserves at least some respect. He has built several great sides at united and got the most out of very average players. This season's title win is a fitting tribute to his powers as a manager. That said, he can hardly be said to have been a positive force for the game. A bully, who dispenses favours, but like a medieval king can turn against people in a vicious and ugly way: Brian Kidd and Rafa Benitez are examples of people in the game who he once got on with, upon who he turned becuae he felt slighted. He has been allowed to get away with far too much by the media, most especially the BBC whose supplication over the last twenty four hours is astonishing given that he arrogantly refused to talk to them for several years.
I don't doubt he loves his club, and I take no issue with that, but he's constantly disrespected mine and for that I reserve the right to think he's more than a bit of a cünt, when all's said and done. I need not repeat the things he's said about City in recent years, but what is more telling are his recent utterances about Liverpool and Arsenal and what "great clubs" they are. I have no doubt that we were partly occupying his thoughts when he said those things. A way of insulting little old City by implication.
I wonder what was going through his mind when he drove into work on September 1st 2008. His team were Champions League winners and the season had just started. He would have known he couldn't carry on forever, even he isn't that deluded and vainglorious, but a man that never stopped thinking about threats to his hegemony would have been thinking about Chelsea, Arsenal and possibly Liverpool. He could not have possibly imagined that less than five years later his departure would have occurred against the backdrop of a club a few short miles away continuing its rise to prominence. If you'd have told him then that in 2013 City finishing second and (hopefully) winning the FA Cup would be viewed by most as a disappointing season, his mind would have struggled to reconcile those words.
It goes to show you that no matter how great the man, how great this achievements, there are things in this word that no-one can predict or control. Enjoy your retirement, Taggart. Sit back with your pipe and slippers and watch that small club, with its small mentality carry on going from strength to strength.
