Arab fans welcome sacking of Man United manager David Moyes

Arab fans have welcomed a decision by Manchester United Football Club to fire its manager David Moyes after a disappointing season.

The team announced Tuesday that the 50-year-old Scot has been let go, and that Ryan Giggs, a Welsh player on the team, will temporarily take over the post until the club finds a permanent manager.

Fans took to social media to express their approval of the decision.

“Moyes ruined Manchester United, demolished its prestige, made fans hate it, and took it out of all the championships, and all that was in one year! A failure like no other!” tweeted @7amanosh from Kuwait.

@magbool_77 from Jeddah agreed: “Manchester is larger than Moyes, he made us hate football, whoever will replace him will not be worse the Moyes I think.”

David Moyes

Official fan clubs in the Middle East also welcomed the news.

“Something had to happen. Either we sack him, or suffer until the beginning of the season,” Abdulaziz al-Hardan, chairman of the Manchester United Fan Club in Kuwait, told Al Arabiya News.

It was “a good decision, but the bad side will depend on who’ll replace him, and how fast the club will get a new manager,” he added.

Shoes ‘too big’ to fill

Moyes was appointed manager last July after a personal recommendation from his predecessor Alex Ferguson, who retired at the end of last season.

“The decision has been made at the highest level to relieve him of his responsibilities, and we support the club’s decision,” Mustafa Ibrahim, chairman of the Manchester United Fan Club in the United Arab Emirates, told Al Arabiya News.

“The shoes he was asked to fill were too big,” he added.

Ferguson steered the team for 26 years, during which it won the title 13 times.

Moyes signed a six-year contract with the club, but since then the team had gone from one loss to another.

The final straw for the club’s owners was a 2-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday, with Manchester United failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1995-96.

“As the season went along and unfortunately some of the results didn’t entirely go our way, a lot of people were frustrated,” Ibrahim said.

Omar Othman, a representative at the UAE fan club, said: “Some believe this was coming, and a few others think he should’ve been given the chance to rebuild and prove himself.”

The decision is “very unlike Manchester United,” which is not in the habit of sacking managers, he added.

Players to blame?

Manchester United players were criticized for not performing their level best, especially in the latest game.

“It’s very obvious it wasn’t going well for Moyes. Luck wasn’t on his side, and players weren’t performing,” Hisham al-Kooheji, treasurer of the Manchester United Fan Club in Bahrain, told Al Arabiya News.

However, Hardan defended the players, putting all the blame on Moyes, since he was the manager and their performance reflects his efforts.

“As a manager to my company, if I wasn’t good, my employees definitely won’t be good,” he said.

Potential replacements

While Giggs is interim manager, the team continues to look for a permanent one. No names have been officially suggested, but the fan clubs are speculating.

Some media outlets “seem to be pointing to Louis van Gaal as a possible replacement, or Jürgen Klopp,” said Ibrahim.

Gaal manages the Dutch national team, and has reportedly shown interest in taking over the role.

Klopp is a German manager with Borussia Dortmund.

Ibrahim stressed that the fan club will always support the team.

“We don’t support an individual man, we support the club, so every decision the club takes, we stick by it and agree with it 100%,” he said.