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Ryan Giggs, with Nicky Butt as his assistant, will take charge until the end of the season. Giggs has served as player-coach under Moyes while Butt has worked with the reserves.
The Glazers handed executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward the mandate to dismiss Moyes less than 12 months into his £4million-a-year, six-year contract after United’s defeat at Everton on Sunday confirmed their failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
A statement on the club website read: "Manchester United has announced that David Moyes has left the Club.
"The Club would like to place on record its thanks for the hard work, honesty
and integrity he brought to the role."
Moyes is likely to receive compensation of one year’s salary rather than the
remaining five years of his deal, with key performance targets having been
missed in United’s worst campaign for almost a quarter of a century. He
will be forced to endure the humiliation of reporting for training before
the formalities of his departure are completed.
The backroom staff he appointed in place of Sir Alex Ferguson’s coaches Mike
Phelan and Rene Meulensteen are also likely to be moved on, with Steve
Round, Jimmy Lumsden and Phil Neville having struggled to earn the players’
respect. The future of Chris Woods, who has overseen a marked improvement in
the form of David de Gea as goalkeeping coach, is uncertain.
United have yet to actively pursue a replacement for Moyes, with the Glazers
remaining supportive of the former Everton manager until the weekend.
Borussia Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp has admirers at Old Trafford after
building a young, vibrant and successful team in Germany, and the
46-year-old is expected to be favoured ahead of candidates such as Louis van
Gaal and Diego Simeone. Giggs’s lack of experience is likely to count
against him securing the job in the long term.
Carlo Ancelotti, currently in charge of Real Madrid, could be in the frame as
he has failed to to settle at the Bernabéu following his move from Paris
St-Germain last summer.
The Glazers regard the likelihood of a seventh-place finish as substantially
below expectations, despite the acceptance that Ferguson’s departure would
lead to turbulence this campaign. The owners thus do not wish to entrust
Moyes with the £150million transfer funds available in the summer.
With United needing to close a six-point gap on sixth-placed Tottenham to
salvage potential Europa League qualification, the club is facing the
ignominious prospect of failing to qualify for European football for the
first time since 1982.
Senior United figures have also noted that United are poised to become the
worst defending champions in Premier
League history, equalling the seventh-place finish of Ray Harford’s
Blackburn Rovers in 1996.
Concern has grown among the United hierarchy over the direction the team has
taken under Moyes and several senior players’ disaffection has been
transmitted to influential power-brokers at the club.
With season-ticket renewals due at Old Trafford for next season, and growing
anger among supporters, the prospect of Moyes being retained has led to
fears of a potential drop in ticket income at a time when the club cannot
rely on Champions League prize money.
Moyes has been given several opportunities to arrest the team’s slump this
season, with his position most under threat after the 3-0 defeat at home to
Liverpool last month, but there is now a realisation that the manager has
been a central factor in the downturn .
Ferguson’s support of Moyes, after recommending him for the job, is also
understood to have been eroded by the poor performances and results, as well
as by the breakdown of the manager’s relationship with the increasingly
marginalised Giggs .
Moyes’s repeated complaints last summer about the difficulty of United’s start
to the season, during which they faced Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester
City in the first month hinted at his discomfort in the role.
While he persuaded Wayne Rooney to commit his future to the club after the
forward attempted to leave last summer, persistent rumours of discontent in
the dressing-room failed to subside, with Robin van Persie, Giggs, Nemanja
Vidic and Danny Welbeck all disenchanted with the new regime.
Moyes alarmed his bosses with his indecision during the summer transfer
window, which resulted in a disastrous £27.5million purchase of Marouane
Fellaini from Everton minutes before the deadline. Having failed to add
sufficient reinforcements, Moyes then oversaw a poor start to the season
from which the team have not recovered.
The Glazers sanctioned the £37.5million club-record signing of Juan Mata in
January but United have lost 10 of their 22 games this year. Sunday’s defeat
at Goodison Park was their 11th league reverse this season – a club record
in the Premier League – and United are on course to record their lowest
finish since 1990, when Ferguson’s team finished 13th.
Source: The Telegraph