on May 7, 2026, 10:08 pm, in reply to "I think you've answered your question within your excellent post."
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When Moyes left us in 2013 there wasnt many great candidates as his successor (other than Tuchel) and we went with a candidate who ultimately just wasnt good enough.
This summer we have two potentially great candidates who will be avaiable and in the case of Iraola especially could easily fit in with our transfer team/strategy. He would be the head coach rather than a manager and he has demonstrated how he can improve players through coaching.
I know it seems like we are bashing Moyes, but his remit was to get us out of relegation and transition us safely to the new stadium. He has done that and it was never expected to be a long-term appointment.
Maybe he is a victim of his own success, but I expect us to finish around 10th this season. I said a few weeks ago that if we stick with Moyes, we will just continue to finish around 10th. Maybe 9th. Maybe 11th. Some may see that as incremental progress, but to me it's stagnation. And we've had too much of that.
If Moyes stays for another three years, so be it, but if Glasnner or Iraola indicated they would be willing to accept our offer, I would roll the dice.
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Yeah, I can live with that.
I completely understand why people may feel we need to gamble at some stage and that based on his and our history that Moyes may have a ceiling. Based on that same shared history, we're nowhere near reaching that point yet, and if history is our only guide, then we are pretty much guaranteed a few more seasons of gradual improvement amongst the stability.
What I can't understand, is the need some have to gamble right now. After seasons of upheaval where we begged for some stability, why are people so keen to throw the dice and gamble again so soon? There's a time and a place to gamble - and it's when you can afford to lose. Do it from a strong position; that way if you have to go back to go forwards you don't end up in a relegation battle or coach-sacking death spiral again. We're in a better position than we have been, but I reckon we'll be much stronger in 2-3 years. We've just enjoyed the longest period of steady improvement we've known since at least Ancelotti' departure in 2021, although I would argue probably since summer 2014. In that context, queuing up to put the boot into the fella who has achieved that seems rash at best to me. It's a no-brainer in my view to give him another 3 years. At that stage I suspect he and we would be ready to move on, but that gives us 3 years to sort a smooth succession plan as well.
Like I say, I can understand people want us to leap forward RIGHT NOW in a way that is unlikely with Moyes, but bear in mind our squad remains hugely unbalanced with key deficits, with which few managers have proved themselves capable of dealing. I also think we'll have much better options to twist in 3 years than we do now, and in the meantime I'd take the very likely scenario of calm, gradual returning of the ship to an even keel ready to give the next fella a really good starting point.
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