David Moyes signed Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata during his short stint as Man United boss (Image: Getty)
Phil Jones says he knew ’ days as manager were numbered when his signings were questioned by the squad. The now-retired centre-back had been with United for ’s final two seasons in charge.
He was far from an established star in the dressing room aged just 21, but he’d earned the approval of his senior team-mates – who weren’t so sure of Moyes and the players he brought in. The Scot only signed Marouane Fellaini for £27.5m on transfer deadline day in his first window.
Juan Mata was then bought for £37.1m in January before Moyes was sacked after just 10 months in charge in April 2014. Jones was asked at what point did he know Fergie’s successor was staring down the barrel of the sack during his appearance on the podcast.
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He replied: “I think when the lads maybe questioned the signings we made. I think that was sort of the lads basically saying ‘that’s not where we’re at’. Felly come in and do you know what, Felly was brilliant.
“He played every game under [Jose] Mourinho, and you don’t play in Mourinho’s team unless you’re a good player, you just don’t. Felly was a top player, used his abilities well and at the time, it was probably what we needed, we needed something different.
“But obviously players would question signings, and you could start seeing fractious relationships around the dressing room. I’ve seen it before – it’s just a downwards spiral from there, it just doesn’t happen.”
Phil Jones revealed how Fellaini defied the dressing room’s expectations (Image: Getty)
Jones explained how the Red Devils squad who had been used to a winning culture struggled to come to terms with their new reality. He reckons they needed to put their egos aside to get past that.
And he thinks Moyes needed to identify that breakdown of unity sooner to have stood a chance of surviving past his first season. “I think it’s egos, and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way,” he continued.
“Everyone’s got their own ego and their own personality of who they’ve been and the player they’ve been and the levels they’ve got to. It’s more of looking at other people in the dressing room and you’re thinking well ‘I should be playing, this is what I’m about, move’.
Jones sympathised with the uphill task Moyes faced replacing Sir Alex (Image: Getty)
“It’s trying to understand where those relationships are forming in the dressing room and catching them early, because if you don’t catch them early, you’re done. The one thing I’ll take away is it only needs one person in that dressing room to make things bad, to make the situation a whole lot worse for you than it should be.
“That causes relationships to break down, people sitting at the table at dinner time separately. People might think ‘what the f***’s that got to do with it?’ – it has everything to do with it.”
Jones saw four more managers come and go before he left United following ’s first season in charge, uniquely witnessing the club’s downfall first hand. United have signed countless big-name stars over the last decade, but behind-the-scenes issues have blighted their progress – be it in the boardroom or in the dressing room.