Just like one of those old cowboy stories where the hero knows from the circling vultures up ahead that something bad has happened - the homestead sacked, the stagecoach waylaid - we the public have been able to tell from the sententiously regretful newspaper articles about the Manchester United manager's debut season that something bad was going on behind the scenes at Old Trafford. And now we have ridden around a bend in the draw to find the denouement laid out before us - yesterday David Moyes was "to be sacked"; today the tense has changed to "has been". The owners announced it on Twitter.
So United turn out to be just like any other club. The illusion fostered during the long years of Fergie's success that Man U were somehow different - the trope that the boardroom had stuck with the irascible Glaswegian during three years of mediocrity, had reaped the benefits of that stability and were going to pursue the same policy with the new man - is now gone. As is glassy-eyed Fergie Lite. Now United are going to be scrabbling around for someone with the Midas touch just like everyone else. How Jose Mourinho must be laughing this morning.
Whose fault is all this? Not much of it is David Moyes'. He inherited a squad whose young players (many of them fostered by Ferguson) weren't good enough, and whose good players were getting too old. Rio Ferdinand is so slow now that Moyes himself could probably run faster. The fear that used to inhibit opponents and referees went when Ferguson did. There have been perhaps more injuries than usual. Some players haven't stepped up, which is unprofessional and an insult to the fans.
None of these things could be laid at Moyes' door.
There have no doubt been individual decisions Moyes got wrong, although no-one will ever be able to prove that. The summer failures in the transfer window might be partly to do with him, although surely the board must take some responsibility for failing to spend big when it was so evidently needed. But that's been true for several years now.
Which brings us to the Glazers. The Americans borrowed massively against the security of the club in order to buy it, and have transformed it from one with negligible debt to one massively in hock to the banks. It beggars belief that that change in ownership had no effect on United's ability to buy world beating new stars.
Actually David Moyes inherited a club that desperately needed an infusion of new talent. That's the fault of its owners. The same people who sacked the manager this morning. As I was saying, that's the vultures you can hear Twittering.
PS - As for the much-hyped managerial credentials of the journalists' darling Ryan Giggs, I would bet a hefty sum that when he turns to management he'll be as rubbish as so many other former stars. Giggs strikes me as a bit thick, which won't help, but doesn't preclude success in the dugout. No, the reason I think he'll fail is for the simple statistical fact that most people do. Individuals like David Moyes, humiliated as he now is, are exceptional in being able to do the job at all. People like Mourinho and Ferguson are rare as hen's teeth.
