31st December, 2015
Former Manchester United boss David Moyes says the club should stand by under-pressure manager Louis van Gaal.
Van Gaal’s side have slipped out of the Premier League’s top four and exited the Champions League during a run of eight games without a win.
“What Manchester United stand for is that they keep their managers, they’ve always supported their managers,” Moyes told BT Sport’s Clare Balding Show.
“They don’t want to become a club which continuously changes their manager.”
Moyes took over as United boss from Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2013 but was dismissed after just 10 months in charge.
Van Gaal was appointed as Moyes’ replacement at Old Trafford in May 2014.
“I hope they stick with Louis van Gaal, he deserves more time,” said Moyes, who was sacked by Spanish club Real Sociedad in November.
“It’s still a work in progress for him, he’s made some signings and from my experience in Spain it will take time for players from abroad to settle in. So, I think they should stick with it.”
Moyes was sacked by United in April 2014 with the club seventh in the Premier League with four games of the league season remaining.
“My understanding was that I was going to a club which always looked after their managers, even when they were in trouble and it wasn’t going well, you got your time to sort things out,” said Moyes.
“I was under that illusion when I was there. I had a great group of players – they had recently won the Premier League under Sir Alex.
“But it was going to take time for that to change, evolve and of course there was going to have to be a changeover of players in time. It couldn’t be done in 10 months.”
On the subject of whether he would take the Old Trafford managerial job again, he added: “Of course I would. There are very few managers in the world who wouldn’t want to manage Manchester United.”