2. Ed and Dead Wood
Sir Alex Ferguson was not the only high profile exit from Manchester United in 2013. The new season saw Ed Woordward take over boardroom responsibilities and draw much chagrin from fans as United seems to have struggled in the summer window before going for Fellaini in a move that had “panic buy” written all over it. A similar worry was raised at Arsenal when the long standing David Dein quit the board but they still had Arsene Wenger to steady the ship. Conversely, United have found that two major staff changes are a bit much to deal with.
Anderson, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia. These three players seem to be the easy targets these days for any fan of United to blame their woes on. Anderson seems to have fitness issues and can barely break into the first team, Ashley Young has lately been known more for his struggles with gravity than his goalscoring exploits and Antonio Valencia has suffered an absolutely shocking downturn in form. As Liverpool can tell you through their stellar acquisitions of Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam, having non performing players in your squad is about as bad for team spirit and form as it can get. Arsenal themselves sold a raft of players before this season, getting rid of the non performing Gervinho, the demotivated Andrei Arshavin and the non-existent Sebastian Squillaci (does he exist? I want to believe). At least to put the brakes on their horrendous form, United have to get rid of the players who seem to do nothing for them apart from contributing to the wage bill. However they will find out soon enough that moving players who are on astronomical (relatively) wages to clubs without similar financial clout is easier said than done.