David Moyes reacts during United's clash with Manchester City on Sept 22, 2013.
When he left, United hemmed, hawed, and defied all expectations by looking in a southerly direction and plucking someone from a middling club to fill his rather large shoes.
That was the tale, of course, of one Mark Bosnich. And it’s a little bit of history repeating.
When Peter Schmeichel departed Manchester United in 1999, cartwheeling into history at the end of that night in Barcelona, the Treble had been secured and Alex Ferguson was about to receive a royally bestowed prefix. The international hunt for a new goalkeeper was underway, and eyebrows if not hopes were raised when it ended in exotic Birmingham.
Bosnich was good for Aston Villa, no doubt; solid if unspectacular, capable of excellent saves and largely incapable of booting the ball past the halfway line. He performed adequately for one season in Manchester, the 1999-2000 campaign that saw United canter to the title by an 18-point margin.
Then he fell out of favour and irritated his manager by moving to Chelsea on a free, where he would develop an appetite for pharmaceuticals that got him sacked. He can now be found on Australia’s Fox Sports, providing capable analyses of English football and nimbly dodging questions about whether or not he wears a hairpiece.
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