I have no doubt he’s not a bitter or vengeful man but you can bet your bottom dollar that a small smile crossed David Moyes’ lips last weekend as he watched Manchester United lose to Swansea.

To be honest, the tiniest hint of one crossed mine too.

Not because I want to see United lose – I’ve grown out of that phase for now – but because when I suggested last season that their problems were down to the players, not the manager, I was laughed out of town.

Now, just 90 minutes into the new campaign, it looks like I may have been right. Even with a new man in charge, a man with a track record of success wherever he has been, the same problem remains – United’s squad is packed full of mediocrity.

Moyes may not have been the right man for the job. I can’t deny that. But at least he managed to beat Swansea in his opening game last season. 4-1. Away.

Van Gaal, in contrast, masterminded a 2-1 defeat at home, a result that’s even more dismal when you consider United hadn’t lost an opening day game at home since 1972 and Swansea had never beaten United in the Premier League.

Of course, you might say that this is nothing more than teething trouble and that within a few weeks the Dutchman will have got the team firing on all cylinders as they get used to his tactics and strategies. And there may well be an element of that in the equation.

But I suspect it has more to do with the fact that the players at Van Gaal’s disposal are just not of the required standard. And a woefully weak team didn’t get better with the de­par­tures of Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs.

Which leads me to my main argument. With the team’s deficiencies glaringly obvious last season, and armed with the knowledge that important players would no longer be available for selection, why have United been so slow to move in the transfer market?

By the opening day of the season, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera were the only new arrivals at Old Trafford. They have since been joined by Marcus Rojo. Three quality players who should make a difference once they have settled in.

But where are the rest of the signings? What happened to the £200 million spending spree that was supposed to take place this summer? (A spree, if you remember, that Moyes couldn’t be trusted to carry out).

Why did United not have their new team in place way before the league started?

If this was just a problem that occurred this pre-season they you could probably write it off as a consequence of Van Gaal being at the World Cup with Holland. But the truth is last summer United struggled to sign players and in January they only managed to bring in Juan Mata, a great player but not the one they needed.

So could United’s current predicament actually have nothing to do with Van Gaal, Sir Alex Ferguson (who should have seen this crisis coming after all) or Moyes but everything to do with chief executive Ed Woodward? Isn’t he the common denominator here?

Ever since Woodward was promoted to the role, around the same time Moyes became manager, United’s transfer strategy has become slow, questionable and largely ineffective.

Maybe his background in generating revenue for the club is making him unhappy about spending it. Maybe he is trying to drive too hard a bargain or being too reluctant to offer attractive packages.

Whatever the reason, Woodward needs to pull his socks up and quickly. There is just a week left of the current window and I would suggest United are at least three quality players short of making a decent top four challenge.

Victory at Sunderland this afternoon would buy him some time and ease the pressure on the club as a whole.

But it would do little more than paper over the cracks. United need new blood and lots of it. And they need it now, starting with Angel Di Maria. Woodward better get cracking because he no longer has a convenient, Moyes-shaped scapegoat to fall back on...

Fair? I think not

I understand that rules are rules, and that if we didn’t have them football would descend into anarchy. But equally there must be a point when they can be slightly bent if common sense suggests that is the right thing to do.

Earlier this month Legia Warsaw were kicked out of the Champions League for fielding a suspended player against Celtic, despite winning the tie 6-1. The Polish team played Bartosz Bereszynski for the last few minutes of the second leg, thinking he had completed a three-match suspension in the previous game. But a registration technicality meant he hadn’t, so Legia’s 2-0 second leg victory was turned into a 3-0 win for Celtic, who ended up going through on the away goals rule.

As glad as I am to see another British team in the Champions League, I can’t help feeling that this stinks, ethically, if not legally.

Why have United been so slow in the transfer market?

It’s not as if Legia did this on purpose. They weren’t deliberately trying to field an illegible player to gain an advantage. It was nothing more than a clerical error. Not only that, but the player in question came on for the last couple of minutes of a 180-minute tie, when Warsaw were already 6-1 up. He didn’t influence the result, he didn’t score a match-winning goal, he probably didn’t even touch the ball.

Celtic declined Legia’s desperate plea to support them as they appealed the decision and now have one foot in the Champions League group stage following their 1-1 draw with Maribor last week.

And while you can’t blame them for taking advantage of the situation, this whole saga leaves a bad taste in the mouth because maybe, if both teams had agreed, Uefa might have been prepared to bend the rules a little bit to see justice served.

Driven to the edge

Under normal circumstances I am all for the idea of young, brilliant sportsmen and women breaking into their chosen fields at a tender age.

Watching a teenager make their professional debut in sports like football, cricket, tennis or athletics is both monumental and exciting.

However, I am not so sure I feel the same way about Formula 1.

Last week it was announced that 16-year-old Max Verstappen – son of retired racer Jos – will be driving for F1 team Toro Rosso from next season, making him the sport’s youngest ever driver.

“We consider Max to be one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully,” team principal Franz Tost said.

I hope sincerely hope Tost is right because, frankly, the idea of 16-year-old hurtling around a Formula 1 track at speeds approaching 250mph is quite terrifying.

Verstappen isn’t even old enough to drive a car on the streets, yet he is being entrusted with a machine that most seasoned road drivers wouldn’t have a clue how to handle.

And that is the difference between someone breaking into, say, football, at 16, and this situation. If you make a small mistake on the pitch then the worst that is likely to happen is your team concedes a goal.

Make a mistake behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, on the other hand, and there is a distinct possibility of serious injury, maybe even death. And not just your own, but anyone else that may happen to come into contact with the multi-million-dollar car you have just converted into a shiny, sponsored, missile.

Yes I appreciate that Verstappen has been groomed for this very role for many years and has plenty of experience in the lower leagues of motor racing. And I understand that you could say it’s in his blood thanks to his dad’s career.

But it still makes me uneasy.

Hopefully I am wrong about this and he will go on to become a grand prix legend. Yet I can’t help but think waiting another couple of years to give him a drive with the big boys might not have been more sensible.

It can’t be mere coincidence, after all, that the sport’s previous youngest driver was just a few days short of his 20th birthday. Those four years can make a world of difference between in terms of a boy becoming a man.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade