Inheriting the hairdryer

I have long suspected that when Sir Alex Ferguson hung up his hairdryer it would be sudden and without warning. A short, sharp shock was always going to be the best way of limiting disruption at the club, especially after what happened last time he said he was going to retire.

An act that would be incredibly difficult for anyone to follow

But I still wasn’t prepared for just how taken aback I was when the dramatic day finally came. Like millions of people around the world, last Wednesday’s announce­­ment left me totally stunned.

Just thinking of anyone other than the Scot being in charge at Old Trafford feels surreal. After all, when Fergie took over at United I had just entered my teens. Now I’m heading towards middle age.

Yet for some, this transition will be even more difficult to come to terms with.

There is a whole generation of United fans who were born when Sir Alex was already in charge, people who have never known anything other than life under Fergie. How weird is it going to feel for them having a new man in their dugout?

Which brings me to the new man in question, David Moyes.

Whoever took over from the greatest manager of all time was always going to have some impossibly large boots to fill. And that makes this an appointment that is both brilliant and terrifying at the same time.

On the one hand, it’s a position no manager in his right mind would turn down. You are, after all, talking about the most famous football club on the planet, and when the opportunity to manage that club comes around, saying no is not an option.

Yet on the other hand, Sir Alex leaves behind a cabinet that he has stuffed with an outrageous amount of trophies over his 26 years. An act that would be incredibly difficult for anyone to follow.

Moyes has proven himself a solid manager over his decade at Everton and a man more than capable of working on a sensible budget. He’s Scottish and likes his teams to play attractive football. He’s widely liked within football and not afraid to give youth its chance. And he won’t have been overly expensive.

All of those will have been factors in the decision to appoint him, a decision in which Sir Alex himself played a pivotal role.

Personally, I can see what United have tried to do here, which is give themselves an element of continuity. Moyes is a bit like a younger version of Ferguson, which should ease the pain of this traumatic transition. A sort of ‘Fergie Lite’, if you will.

However, you sense that Moyes is going to need to make a flying start to his new career if he wants to have anything like the longevity of his predecessor. I’m sure the Old Trafford faithful will give him a fair chance, but they are used to success and it won’t take long for them to get restless if the trophies don’t start rolling in.

After all, Moyes has not won a single proper trophy in his career, in stark contrast to the man whose shadow will be cast over him from the Old Trafford director’s box. Sir Alex spent most of his career trying to conquer Europe. Moyes has barely dipped his toe in the swimming pool of European football.

Of course, like all great stories, this one has some brilliant sub-plots, not least of which is the revelation that Wayne Rooney asked to leave United for the second time a couple of weeks ago.

Normally, when a new manager comes in, the slate is wiped clean and it’s a fresh start for all concerned. However, Rooney joined United from Everton, where Moyes was his manager. And it’s fair to say the two didn’t part ways on the best of terms, Rooney slamming his former boss in his biography and Moyes suing him in return.

How Moyes deals with this issue could be key to whether he is a success or a failure at Old Trafford because another of the doubts hanging over his head is whether he has the experience to deal with genuine superstars of the modern game. Or, indeed, the personality and reputation to attract them to United.

Ultimately, and I’ve said this before, there is a very real chance that whoever took the job now would turn out to be a rebound manager, someone to fill in the gap until the club is ready to make its next major appointment and the fans are ready for a new hero.

And the word ‘hero’ brings me back to Sir Alex.

The tributes that have poured in last week have shown just what a mark the 71-year-old Scotsman has left on the game of football, not just in England and Scotland but around the globe.

There isn’t a country on the planet where his name isn’t known. There isn’t a football supporter alive who hasn’t, at some point, even if only fleetingly, wished Sir Alex was the man in charge of their team.

He is true superstar of the game, a man who has earned the respect of supporters and opponents alike.

When he leads out his team at Old Trafford this afternoon for the final time, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.

But it won’t just be Old Trafford that is united in its display of admiration and respect for a man who is as much a gentleman as he is a legend, it will be football as a whole.

The game as we have known it for the past quarter of a century is about to change forever.

It’s not just football that puts Germany on top

The more I hear about the way German football is run, the more I believe English football should be ashamed of itself.

With this year’s Champions League final an all-German affair, the Bundesliga has been thrust into the European spotlight like never before.

And frankly, it would seem English football could learn an awful lot from the Bundesliga.

When it comes to making clubs live within their means, the Germans aren’t afraid of getting tough. They don’t allow billionaire owners to deter them from laying down the law. They have strict financial rules, and if a club doesn’t follow them properly, they are punished. So the clubs follow them.

What this has done has created financial security throughout the top flight and, in fact, last season only four teams from Germany’s top flight were in the red. In contrast, just three Premier League teams were debt-free during the same period.

I think that gives us a clear indication of which league is run the best, doesn’t it Richard Scudamore? (Mr Scudamore is chief executive of the Premier League)

This financial security has meant clubs can afford not to charge their fans ludicrous amounts to watch games and, in fact, the Bundesliga is the cheapest of the big four European Leagues for ticket prices.

Last week I read an example of this when it was pointed out that a season ticket for runaway champions Bayern Munich starts from £67 (€79) while a season ticket for Arsenal can cost you up to £1,955 (€2,315).

Fair enough, that’s cheapest against most expensive and not an ideal comparison, but it nevertheless shows that one league sees the fan as someone to be respected, while the other looks at them as something to milk.

The Premier League loves to think of itself as some sort of international role model for how football should operate. And in terms of generating revenue for its members, maybe it is.

But in just about every other facet it most certainly is not.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade