Gary Neville has blasted Manchester United for the way they handled the sacking of David Moyes.
Reports of Moyes’ imminent departure emerged on Monday afternoon and Neville was sad that the United manager’s exit proved to be an undignified one.
“The last 15, 16 hours or however long it’s been, I don’t like it, it’s not the way in which the club should portray itself,” the former right-back, who won eight Premier League titles with United, told Sky Sports News.
“But it’s the modern world, it’s how things seem to be dealt with now, but I’m a traditionalist and I think it could have been dealt with a whole lot better.
“I believe in managers being given time, I think they should be allowed to complete their work. The idea of giving people three and four and six-year contracts and then getting rid of them after 10 months is something that’s foreign to me.
“However, there’s no disguising that the football this season has been poor, the results have been poor, as a fan I’ve not enjoyed watching it – I’m sure David Moyes himself hasn’t enjoyed watching it.
“And I can’t think many Manchester United fans will have enjoyed watching it either.
“The performances have sort of got worse and worse. There was a little bit of a pick-up before Christmas when you thought there might be a bit of a run but in the last month or two the performances have sort of deteriorated really.”
United CEO Ed Woodward has not covered himself in glory once again with the handling of this situation. It was Ed Woodward we screwed up last summer’s transfer dealings at the club, leaving United to overpay for Marouane Fellaini. It was Woodward who was reportedly behind a lot of the leaks to the media yesterday and you have to think that if David Gill was still in charge that United would have handled this with a little more class than Woodward showed.
Neville went on to add:
“The players have to take massive responsibility.
“I never once during my 17/18-year career at United turned around after a game and thought ‘you lost us that game boss’.
“It’s always the players. Players have to take responsibility, accountability in football.
“Those players there are not as bad as they have been showing, I’ve played with a lot of those players
“They’ve got great care for United, they love the club – the ones that I know – they’re desperate to do well for the club and they have completely lost confidence.
“These are players who were champions nine months ago and the decline has been surprising to say the least.”
Agree with Neville that the players have to take blame to for the last 9 months. Rio, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Cleverly, van Perie have all had poor seasons by their standards. It will be interesting to see how these players respond in the final three games with Giggs in charge.
