Nani could sum up this current incarnation of Manchester United. A player who has offered glimpses of outrageous skill but too often been anonymous, found wanting in big games, or lacking in steel, his decision to sign a new contract shows what we had all suspected and feared: David Moyes is the continuity candidate at Manchester United.
Has David Moyes made his first mistake at Manchester United?
David Moyes has made an error in giving Manchester United’s dead wood a second chance. He should’ve followed in the footsteps of one of the club’s biggest fans...
Alex Livesey
More from our team blogs: Manchester United blog The Busby Babe
It's odd how, in the post-Cristiano Ronaldo years, the same faces keep cropping up at the club. United seem to be perpetually on the verge of a clearout that never comes. It's odd to think that Nani was starting against Real Madrid in the biggest game of last season for the club, just as it's baffling to think Fabio started a Champions League final before being smuggled away to Queens Park Rangers on loan.
It was hoped that Alex Ferguson’s retirement would see the club commit to a necessary overhaul. The Glazer family have always been miserly, but there were enough players at the club who could safely be shipped out to raise some significant funds. Yet seemingly taking the line that everybody deserves a chance under the new man, Moyes may have made his first big blunder at the club.
Few people blame the fiasco over the summer transfer window on the manager (although he was hardly blameless either, particularly with the Thiago deal) but there was still the scope to do a lot more. Players like Ashley Young, Anderson, and of course Wayne Rooney were never sought to be replaced.
If United stagnate on the pitch, as they have looked in danger of doing, it will be no small wonder. Particularly as the players have now witnessed the disaster of deadline day. The same faces, passing to the same players, team spirit becoming a loveless marriage and knowing where a player will be through instinct resulting not in killer through-balls, but Tom Cleverley and Michael Carrick passing back and forth to each other in the centre-circle.
As well as the on-pitch considerations, Moyes has showed a lack of ruthlessness in persisting with players not only likely to find themselves out of the team and brewing resentment for him, but that have also worked under his predecessor. More potential for the "that's not how Ferguson did it" whispers to start, and less of his own, more trustworthy stalwarts. One need look no further than one of Manchester United's own heartlands to find the perfect example.
So in Pyongyang, we can see a far better plan to run the club by the actions of their number one fan, Kim Jong-Un. It’s classic dictator stuff, a time-honoured tradition since the Roman Empire and long before: The new man takes the mantle, and he goes about replacing his predecessor’s favoured men with his own. Slowly at first, so as not to give the game away before it’s too late for anyone to do anything about it, but quietly replacing people with his own hand-picked, possibly tall and Belgian, lieutenants. If there aren’t enough loyal men about, then simply give the positions to people who are desperate for them, and await their gratitude.
Moyes may have signed Marouane Fellaini and attempted to get Ander Herrera too, but he missed the part about replacing the existing order with them. Of course, nobody fears that Moyes will awake with a dagger in his back, but the idea that United are a special club with a more patient culture, and that a few pleas from Ferguson will assuage all doubts should be treated as the obvious nonsense there are. No manager ever had more to fear from a dressing-room than the man replacing Ferguson.
This could very easily be the lowest point United reach all season, and there are far worse places to be. But the fact cannot be altered that they are in a low point, and they need to get out of it quickly. They have a good opportunity to do that with a string of easily-winnable games approaching, but the margin for error is getting increasingly slim.
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Martin Demichelis is out for five weeks, making an excellent opening gambit to his career in the Premier League, which looks likely to be one of comic relief and comparisons for price and salary. It's a great start to a job we hope he does well in.
Few people can sum up the phrase “stealing a living” quite like him. It is, in hindsight a miracle that Bayern Munich ever won a single football match with him acting as partner to Daniel van Buyten. He has looked like the weak link in every team he ever played in, his trademark ‘stepping up into midfield’ providing vital tactical options for opposition forwards who look to take advantage of unguarded space.
On top of this, he is blessed with a style and temperament that is probably better-suited to the continent. But 32 isn’t too late to adapt to a new style of football, right?
Anybody who isn't a Manchester City fan should pray that some set of circumstances sees him partner Javi Garcia in defence this year. Things of that nature don't come along very often.
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