Imagine you are Malcolm Glazer, the owner of Manchester United who is the Howard Hughes of sport. Glazer, also the owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, never speaks to the media, probably doesn't even read newspapers.

On the recommendation of Sir Alex Ferguson, the Glazer family gave David Moyes a lucrative six-year contract as his successor. While expectations this season, even for the reigning champions, were probably no more than winning a domestic cup, nobody expected a slump of unprecedented levels.

Yes, an aging side needed some new blood, but to go from winning the title by 11 points to being 11 points off the Champions League qualification places and needing to win 10 of the remaining 11 games simply to equal its worst season since the Premier League was formed in 1992 . . . that was on no one's radar.