Will David Moyes last the season as Manchester United manager?

Moyes signed a six-year contract as Sir Alex Ferguson’s replacement at Old Trafford, although Matthew Glazier of Bettingpro.com wonders if he’s the right man for the job

David Moyes has not enjoyed the best of starts since swapping Merseyside for Manchester, with the 50-year-old finding it hard to watch parts of the derby as City wiped the floor with the Red Devils, while his team could only draw 1-1 with Southampton on Saturday.

“I’ve made the players aware of how I expect them to respond,” said Moyes after the derby. “If there was any group of players I would expect that from it would be Manchester United players. It is the way they have been brought up.”

However, the response has not exactly been spellbinding, with the champions having taken just a point from home games against West Brom and the Saints, suggesting that a difficult season is on the cards.

Manchester United’s title odds on the drift

It’s still early days in the season and United have admittedly had a tough opening set of fixtures, travelling to the Etihad and Anfield, while Chelsea have also visited Old Trafford. Moyes had made his feelings clear about this difficult start, although the positive spin might have been this afforded the Red Devils a chance to bloody the nose of their title rivals.

They can now be backed at 10/1 to win the Premier League title following the latest setback against the Saints, with Dejan Lovren’s late goal meaning that United trail Arsenal by eight points at this stage of the season. The supposedly lethal partnership of Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney hasn’t clicked and there’s a distinct lack of creativity.

Will Moyes pay the price for failing to attract new signings?

Marouane Fellaini arrived from Everton for an inflated price on transfer deadline day, although there is a long list of players who weren’t lured to Old Trafford during the summer. It has just emerged that Gareth Bale was the subject of a bid, while Cesc Fabregas, Sami Khedira, Thiago Alcantara, Ander Herrera, Daniel De Rossi, Leighton Baines and Mesut Ozil all slipped through the fingers of Manchester United by either moving to another club or staying put.

Perhaps the blame for this transfer disaster only lies partly with Moyes although it’s hard to remember Sir Alex Ferguson having such a frustrating time of things in the transfer market, while the signing of Fellaini was very much a case of settling for second best considering some of the other names on the list.

Keeping Wayne Rooney was a big plus although when you compare the lack of spending at Old Trafford compared to title rivals City and Chelsea, there is frankly no comparison and Tottenham’s investment of over £100million on quality signings also shows up the champions.

While the bookies still make United odds-on to claim a top four spot in the Premier League this season, a place in next season’s Champions League looks far from guaranteed this term based on the opening performances. There are also five other clubs whose basic aim is to finish fourth or higher this season.

Matthew Glazier is the Managing Editor of www.bettingpro.com, an award-winning sports, news and betting website.