Moyes was not Man Utd’s first choice

Michael Kenrick , 16 May, 23comments | Jump to most recent

A French journalist has revealed David Moyes was not Sir Alex Ferguson’s first choice successor at Manchester United. The Metro reports how Julien Laurens, who writes for Le Parisien, believes that Carlo Ancelotti was the iconic Scotsman’s preferred choice.

The Frenchman told his Twitter followers: “Very reliable sources tell Le Parisien that Sir Alex Ferguson called Carlo Ancelotti last week to ask him to succeed him. He was surprised and flattered but politely declined the offer. So Sir Alex Ferguson then turned to second choice David Moyes.”

» Read the full article at Touchline Talk

Reader Comments (23)

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John Gee
1 Posted 16/05/2013 at 13:43:45

Talk sport reported this last week too. It could just be a Frenchman pretending that he's relevant.

I believe there's some truth in it. Ancelotti is, apparently, nailed on for the Real Madrid job. Why would he go to the worlds biggest club when he could go to the actual real biggest club in the world?

Matt Traynor
2 Posted 16/05/2013 at 13:59:40

Other news sources said that Real Madrid were rebuffed by PSG when they approached to speak to him about the Madrid job. So who knows? If it was on twitter, it must be true.

Tony Cheek
3 Posted 16/05/2013 at 16:56:35

Actually he was third choice, Barry Fry was second!

Nick Entwistle
4 Posted 16/05/2013 at 19:01:28

Second hand evidence that Moyes was only approached last week after all. No wonder this post has failed to catch on.

Could it be there were no smoke and mirrors? Shock!

John Gee
5 Posted 16/05/2013 at 19:09:43

Nick, I don't believe it. Someone at Man Utd press department leaked this in France and it takes almost a week to get back here...

-'Look mon ami, we're gonna say Fergie offered it to Ancelotti to take the heat off us tapping him up. Ancelotti will be cool with it because it looks like he was in the loop. Just don't push the story. Let it grow, like, organically.''

Nick Entwistle
7 Posted 16/05/2013 at 19:27:46

Wouldn't it need to be Everton's PR? If only the club could get Fer's knee to explode, it would be a clean sweep!

John Crawley
8 Posted 16/05/2013 at 19:32:02

Don't believe it, Independent reported last Sunday from a source at Man United that the backroom staff were told by Fergie before Christmas that he was going and that Moyes was the manager United wanted.

Ross Edwards
15 Posted 16/05/2013 at 19:48:14

Carlo Ancelotti is a good manager. I wouldn't be suprised if he went to Real in the summer.

Paul Ferry
18 Posted 19/05/2013 at 05:54:06

silly story saf was in charge wanted Moyes end of

Tim Jones
19 Posted 19/05/2013 at 06:29:57

SMOKESCREEN but eagerly picked up by the Moyesophile Entwistle . Who will grasp at any straw to avoid except accepting that your Messiah was a deceitful , disrespectful LIAR hey Entwistle.

Ernie Baywood
20 Posted 19/05/2013 at 07:41:56

It is, though, quite interesting which media rumours/reports generate comments.

This one has presented an interesting quandary. Ammunition to say that maybe he's not quite 'the chosen one' offset by having to accept that the decision was a recent one.

Personally, I think it's probably better to keep an open mind about individuals in the game and just mistrust all the media.

Eric Myles
21 Posted 19/05/2013 at 07:47:05

More than likely when BK didn't deliver the goods in the transfer window DM was pissed off and SAF tipped him the nod that if he's not sorted come the end of the season there could be a job going at United.

Combined with the end of year accounts being bad and DM looking at having to break up his squad to pay back the banks and try to rebuild on the scraps he's thought "fcuk this for a game of soldiers" and given SAF a call.

Tim Jones
22 Posted 19/05/2013 at 08:16:02

Eric Myles # 676 what you really mean is DECEMBER 2012 of course don't you Eric which was when SAF decided to resign at the end of the season and, just co-incidentally of course keep telling yourself that Eric and soon like a gullible fool you will believe it, when Dire Davey started playing his Contract EXCUSES games with Billy Liar and the gullible naive sycophants here on TW like YOU.

Tom Hughes
23 Posted 19/05/2013 at 08:41:50

Whether that's when Moyes started refusing to sign or not is debatable. I would've thought negotiations over his contract started long before last Christmas. Is it not equally conceivable that he was holding out to add leverage to any demands for greater spend having struggled to spend in so many transfer windows? Even if he was given the nod..... who can blame him. .... or are you a BK sycophant who would like to take the last opportunity to deflect the real blame? No doubt if the new manager falls short too you can continue to ignore the elephant in the room and get on his back too.

Tim Jones
24 Posted 19/05/2013 at 09:13:26

Tom Hughes # 687 Yoyu are the one who is deflecting not me. In essence what you are doing is defending the LIAR and targeting the one being LIED to.
Now I am not defending Billy Liars record whatsoever he is doing an absolutely pathetic job of being Everton's Chairman but that does not change the facts that Moyes LIED to him and to the Everton supporters and there is no way you can excuse or explain that away by trying to divert attention on to BK to defend your Messiah.

Barry Rathbone
25 Posted 19/05/2013 at 09:27:38

Moyes being given a nod and wink from fergie with the proviso "if Anchelotti refuses..." fits perfectly.

Hanging on hedging his bets lying through his back teeth while praying for the stars to align really does add up with every machiavellian falsehood.

Nick Entwistle
26 Posted 19/05/2013 at 09:56:05

Tim, you're not a very nice bloke are you.

Eugene Ruane
27 Posted 19/05/2013 at 10:45:45

This is a kind of timely thread (imo) as we are just about to head into a summer that will provide us with no World Cup Finals and no European Championship Finals.

Why timely?

Well because when there is no summer football, the newspapers are under pressure and when they're under pressure, the level of bullshit increases.

Is the story above true?

It might be and it might not be (indisputable fact - we don't know either way).

It states..

"The Metro reports how Julien Laurens, who writes for Le Parisien, believes.."

So there's the story - some feller 'believes'.

Ok to be fair that's not quite ALL the story, there's...

“Very reliable sources tell Le Parisien that..."

So a feller 'believes' and a very reliable (UNNAMED!) source tells.

Well, that's good enough for me!

Seriously, if you were in the alehouse and some feller said 'I believe Brendan Rodgers is coming to Everton' you would ask "WHY do you believe this?"

If the answer was "A reliable source told me" you would then ask "Who?"

If the response was 'I can't say' or 'I'm not telling you', an entirely legitimate response would be "well fuck off then".

Wouldn't it?

We are going to be getting double-bubble this summer.

First re the appointment of a new manager, then re transfers.

It is going to be fucking relentless and 99.9% of it will be total and utter bollocks.

What to look out for?

"An insider yesterday informed us.."

"Sources close to the player..."

"Friends believe..."

"Those closest to the player think.."

"It is believed the player won't be..."

"Club officials are thought to be..."

Etc etc etc.

It is all newspaper-speak for "We don't know..but we'll take a guess..and then we'll present our guess as fact and hope you mugs swallow it"

It is going to be a loooooooooooong old summer.

Rodgers out!

Ernie Baywood
28 Posted 19/05/2013 at 10:58:44

Eugene, heading a long way off topic but what was "EJ Ruane vs Lyon"?

Tom Hughes
29 Posted 19/05/2013 at 10:51:56

Tim,
The only fact is you don't know if he lied. My only contention is that you seem far more condemning of your speculated liar than the proven liar. My feeling is that Moyes has earned the right to put his own priorities first. .... if indeed that is what's happened. The glaring and over-riding issue regarding our club is still the underperforming board of which Moyes departure is just another symptom.

Eugene Ruane
30 Posted 19/05/2013 at 11:04:47

Jesus Ernie, where did THAT come from?

Ok, in short, I went to a pre-season against Aberdeen with a few mates.

There was a feller in the Everton End who imo made a huge twat of himself during the game (he could be identified as he had a replica shirt on with 'Lyon' on the back)

He was constantly goading their supporters, not watching the game (actually spent half the game facing away from the pitch imploring us all to sing our hearts out 'for the lads' etc).

Anyway back then, I used to write the odd piece for WSAG and I sent in a 'match report' that was mainly about the antics of this feller.

It was printed and in the issue after that, he responded.

It's so long ago I can't remember specific details of his response but he wasn't happy and hinted that if he knew what I looked like, I might be in trouble.

I think I responded to his response saying the reason he didn't know what I looked like, is because I had the good sense not to plaster my name all over my back and act like a twat.

I also seem to remember saying "actually I really fancy you" and describing my 'look' as being very like Dick Emery doing 'Honkey-Tonk'

So as you can see, it was all grown up stuff.

Ernie Baywood
31 Posted 19/05/2013 at 12:33:57

Cheers EJ. It's on a two page spread of the latest (and last ever printed) WSAG. Basically a list of WSAG things. Sort of stuck out for me on the page.

Eric Myles
32 Posted 19/05/2013 at 12:43:54

Tim, Moyes did say that he'd see how things go in the transfer window, and as we all know they didn't go well at all with no support from the board and the usual shenannigan's from BK.

So would you have expected him to sign a new contract on that basis? Or have walked away from the Club and not honoured his contract and lef the Club in the lurch?

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