Clarion call to all Manchester United fans: Let's back David Moyes' boys

Eric Cantona once said that Manchester United is more than a football club, it is a love affair. How else would you explain how majority of United fans were up till the wee hours of this morning, checking online for some updates.

Yesterday started with a prayer on the lips- “just sign a midfielder”- but by afternoon in India, the United faithfuls’ hopes were uplifted when they realized that not one but two quality midfielders were on the way. But, as the window drew to a close our agony compounded. Most of us went to sleep, feeling nothing but utter despair at our club’s inability to conduct business in the current window.

But, hope lies eternally in a Manchester United fan, so we woke up again and saw the news: Everton had confirmed. A midfielder at last, ‘welcome fellaini’ / ‘fergie time signing’ we typed across all social media networks.

This had been a tiring transfer window, we entered new territory by trying to sign top players who were well settled at their clubs, every bid was getting revealed and to make it worse, they were getting rejected in public. It was painful. But, as history teaches us when the pain ends, relief awaits.

Ever since, Sir Alex left, the vultures have been circling around Old Trafford. The world has always loved to see empires rise and fall. So, every defeat in pre-season was treated as a crisis, every failed bid the sign of a falling brand, and a wantaway striker getting lured by a rival depicted as a power shift.

Sir Alex always preached a siege mentality of “it is us against all of them”. Now, more than ever that holds true. The world will look at our inability to score in the last two games as a sign of a weakened attack, a toothless tiger they are calling us. We must focus on the fact that except for the Sturridge goal – we had a 180 minutes of football against two bitter rivals in which our defense was hardly tested.

Sir Alex never got the big decisions wrong, and his biggest and last decision was to get David Moyes to Carrington. From, what I have seen since he arrived at Old Trafford, Moyes is very much his own man. He has taken big decisions in getting his own staff on board (not to mention integrating two famed members of the Class of ’92 into the think-tank), he has stood up and handled the Wayne Rooney situation in the best manner possible, he hasn’t fallen prey to Mourinho’s mind games.

He has accepted SAF’s legacy rather than ignoring it, he has moulded into the traditions of Manchester United rather than tinkering with it.

A prime example of the latter being how Moyes has changed his managerial style to suit the ‘winger culture’ at Old Trafford. As Gary Neville rightly pointed out: “ManUtd, Ajax and Barcelona are the only three clubs in Europe who have a style of play which is embedded in history, managers have come and gone but the style remains.”

However, the best thing Moyes has done is not to disrupt a champion squad. He simply has identified an area of weakness and added to it. Some fans may argue that one isn’t good enough, but I urge them to look at the first team squad as a whole: 3 GKs, 5 centre-backs, 5 full-backs, 5 centre-midfielders, 5 wingers, 5 forwards, and if you look at the mean age of the squad, then that is as balanced as a squad can be. However, this being Manchester United, we always want more, don’t we?

So, have some patience with your beloved club. Yes, the new management has made some mistakes, but just like us, they have the club’s best interest at heart.

So, bring out the famous siege mentality in you, because the vultures are circling at Old Trafford. Like always, let’s swat them away. This is Manchester United, there will be glorious highs and unpredictable lows, but, hey isn’t that how love affairs are supposed to be?