David Moyes still thinks Manchester United should have given him more time to succeed as manager
The Scot believes the club's struggles under Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal prove he was not the problem
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Your support makes all the difference.David Moyes remains adamant that he was not given enough time to succeed as manager of Manchester United, adding that the club are still struggling to replace Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ferguson hand-picked Moyes to be his successor before retiring in May 2013, but the former Everton manager lasted just 10 torrid months at Old Trafford before being sacked once it was confirmed that United could no longer qualify for the Champions League by finishing in the top four.
Moyes struggled to command the respect of senior United players such as Rio Ferdinand and Robin van Persie while being undermined by the club’s broader difficulties to adjust to Ferguson’s absence, but he still believes he could have succeeded at Old Trafford with a little more patience.
“Do I feel I should have been given more time? Of course I do,” Moyes said in an interview on talkSPORT. “To go to a club like Manchester United and follow someone like Sir Alex after the time he had been there, to stay for 10 months…
“It couldn’t be a revolution at Manchester United, it had to be evolution. It had to take time. I wasn’t going to come in and change all the things Alex had done, but there were lots of things that had to be changed at the club.”
Moyes famously angered a number of United players by ending the squad’s tradition of eating low-fat chips on the evening before matches, while his training sessions were also criticised.
But the Scot believes United’s ongoing struggles under Louis van Gaal and now Jose Mourinho – who is under serious pressure after presiding over the club’s worst start to a league season for 28 years – prove that he was far from the biggest problem at Old Trafford.
“You look at the way Chelsea and Man City had been doing things and changing things along the way – Manchester United had been winning because they had a special manager and a special group of players. But when that all changed, it was going to take time to find its way.
“I still think they’re having difficult times at the moment.”
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