Manchester United today announced David Moyes had been relieved of his duties as manager, having concluded long before Sunday’s punishing defeat at Everton that he cannot be trusted with the potential £150m war chest intended to meet the club’s aim of reclaiming the Premier League title next season.
The Glazer family, who will be in Manchester next week to help oversee a managerial recruitment process in which Borussia Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp is a front-runner, appear to have sanctioned the removal of Moyes as far back as the Champions League defeat at Olympiakos on 25 February. The decision to get rid of the 50-year-old was discussed and possibly ratified at a recent United board meeting but there is a financial motive behind delaying removing him until now.
The mathematical impossibility of United finishing in the top four this season, following their 11th Premier League defeat of the season at Goodison Park on Sunday, means that United need only give Moyes a one-year pay-off under the terms of his five-year deal, rather than honour the full four years left on that contract. Ryan Giggs could then take over as caretaker manager for the final four games of the season
Initially, it had been thought that the Scot’s departure might be a graceful one after United’s Premier League season ends at Southampton on 11 May. But chief executive Ed Woodward has been urgently seeking to tie up transfer business in Germany and Spain before the World Cup starts, in 52 days’ time. The prospect of securing players such as Southampton’s Luke Shaw and Bayern Munich’s Toni Kroos would be even more challenging if United were under the leadership of a lame-duck manager, as well as unable to offering such recruits Champions League football next season.