Sacked Moyes 'out of his depth'
In the final analysis, Alex Ferguson's successor at United could not be entrusted with the task of rebuilding one of the world's greatest teams
When Manchester United overlooked Jose Mourinho and chose David Moyes to succeed Alex Ferguson, they gambled on a manager with neither a recognised winning mentality nor experience of European soccer - and with no trophies on his résumé.
Instead, United went for someone with a track record of loyalty and building a dynasty, as 11 relatively successful years at Everton would attest.
It quickly became apparent, however, that Moyes lacked the gravitas for one of the biggest jobs in soccer - that he was too satisfied with a mediocre level of performance, in awe of the team rather than ready to rebuild it.
Moyes is a good football manager. He's proven it at Preston and at Everton. David Moyes will be back, make no mistake
It is hard to avoid the conclusion he was a man out of his depth. Take, for example, his response to a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool three games into the Premier League season.
"I thought we played very well" was Moyes' assessment of what most experts found to be a poor display by the reigning champions. With more performances like that, he added, United would surely finish "in or around the top four".
It was to be a recurring theme.
United took Moyes out of Everton, but not the Everton out of Moyes.