There were perhaps no bigger shoes to fill than those of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, who is arguably the greatest coach/manager of all time in any sport. In about 26 years as club manager, he won five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions League titles and an astounding 13 English Premier League championships.
For emphasis, he averaged winning a championship every other season.
He was all set to stroll into retirement at the end of the 2011-'12 season, but the noisy neighbors Manchester City took the championship they thoroughly deserved (beating United a combined 7-1 in two games) in the final minute of the season.
The Red Devils then chose to buy the best available player Robin Van Persie and won as Sir Alex retired being on top, where he was quite used to being.
It is a common sports adage that you do not want to be the guy to replace the guy (as beloved and successful as Ferguson), you want to replace the guy who replaced the guy.
In his farewell speech, Ferguson urged the United faithful to be patient.
"I would also like to remind you, that when we had bad times here, the club stood by me, all my staff stood by me, the players stood my me," Ferguson said. "Your job now is to stand by our new manager."
The crowd erupted, but perhaps they would not have if they knew where they would be roughly eight months later.
Under new head coach David Moyes, many teams are breaking the formerly impenetrable fortress that is Old Trafford, United's home stadium.
Everton, Moyes's former team, won their first at Old Trafford since 1992. West Brom was their first game there since 1978. Newcastle won their first there since 1972. And even Swansea City were victorious on the road against Manchester United for the first time in their history.
The question that has been asked thousands of times over the past few months, is Moyes to blame for United's poor form with a team that has largely remained intact after last year's championship?
One reason Manchester United are not a world class team this year: The injury concerns of Dutch striker Robin Van Persie.
First, his excellent play alone is indicative enough of his influence.
Last season against Aston Villa, a win from Manchester United would clinch the championship. The result of that game: A first half hat trick by Van Persie (may I mention all three involved an offside pass) including a volley that was as technically sound and skillfully perfect as I have ever seen.
Van Persie was the Professional Footballers' Association Players' Player of the Year in his last year before transferring to United. In his first year with the Red Devils, he was certainly close to winning it again with 26 league goals and eight assists, but Tottenham's Gareth Bale took the silverware before becoming the most expensive player in the world when he left for Real Madrid.
In the 2012-'13 season Van Persie started in 35-of-38 league games and came on as a substitute for the other three. This year? The Dutchman has played in only 11 of United's 20 league games.
After losing the championship to Manchester City, Van Persie proved he was the player United desperately needed in 2012-'13. One key difference between Ferguson and Moyes is their transfer market experience.
When he came to Manchester United, Moyes stepped into a whole different ball game. At Everton, Moyes was used to smaller signings and more emphasis on developing cohesion and chemistry to move up a level and compete with the big spenders at United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Everton's biggest signing ever was Marouane Fellaini from Standard Liege for £15 million in 2008.
United's biggest ever signing was more than double that. They paid £30.75 million to Tottenham for Dimitar Berbatov the same year Fellaini went to Everton.
Manchester United's transfer policy this summer under Moyes was a catastrophe. After being rumored with names like Bale, Thiago Alcántara, Leighton Baines and Cesc Fabregas, United only ended up with a deadline-day deal for Fellaini from Moyes's former club.
Because United missed the July 31 deadline in Fellaini's release clause (that Moyes himself helped construct at Everton ironically) to get him for £23.5 million, they were forced to spend £27.5 million. This is good for the fourth highest transfer in team history, ahead of what Ferguson bought for Van Persie (£24 million) who we can all agree is exponentially more important to United than Fellaini.
Finally, an area in which Ferguson's experience with United is being overshadowed by Moyes-related frustration was his excellence in getting the best of out these players.
It is pretty clear that last season's Manchester United team was not one of Sir Alex's best championship-winning teams, but his brilliance as a manager allowed him to bring out the best in his team.
What is being overlooked is that Moyes was superb at that in his time at Everton. David Moyes deserves more time to be around his players at United because he should never have been expected to walk through the door and create the same magic Ferguson conjured up.
There were always going to be growing pains. Moyes's strength was never managing a big club, certainly not the biggest one in the world. With time, with grooming and more experience in dealing with the top-level transfers, Moyes can find his footing at United.
But will the team and the fans give him that time?
Who do you think is to blame for Manchester United's performance this season? Email Jonah at jonah.beleckis@dailycardinal.com and let him know.
