David Moyes left for Tokyo on the third leg of Manchester United's pre-season tour of the Asia-Pacific on Sunday with his first win under his belt and the enormity of the job on his hands confirmed.
The 50-year-old, who took over when Alex Ferguson retired at the end of last season, has been astonished by the passion for the club both on the first stop of the tour in Thailand, where United lost, and in Sydney, where they won 5-1 on Saturday.
More than 20,000 turned out to watch the English champions train on Friday night and tickets for Saturday's match against an All Star XI picked from the local A-League sold out in eight minutes with 83,127 packed into the Olympic Stadium.
"It was a good game for us," Moyes said afterwards. "(But) more importantly to get 83,000 at the game - and I'd say all Manchester United supporters - is incredible and I thank all of them for coming to the game.’’
"It was a great night and a very special night to get my first victory as Manchester United manager,’’ he added.
With great support also comes great expectation and every day in the job makes it clearer and clearer just what a monumental task he faces to get anywhere close to his most hallowed predecessors - Matt Busby and Ferguson.
"The enormity of the job sunk even more yesterday (Thursday) when I saw an incredible video about Manchester United, seen Sir Matt Busby followed by Sir Alex Ferguson," he said on Friday. "If I didn't know it before, I certainly knew it when I saw what those two gentlemen had done before me.’’
"It's a great job, it's a fantastic club - a football club that everybody in the world knows the name of and I'm very fortunate and privileged I was given the opportunity to manage.’’
"And I hope I can come as close to the success that the two gentlemen before me enjoyed,’’ Moyes said.
Moyes's task over the six years of his contract is to ensure he is being bracketed with the two illustrious Scots and not with Wilf McGuinness, Frank O'Farrell, Tommy Docherty, Dave Sexton and Ron Atkinson, who were less successful in the job.
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