2026-02-08 10:30:27
Nani believes that David Moyes’ “small-club mentality” meant he was doomed to fail at Manchester United.
Moyes lasted just 10 months at Old Trafford after succeeding the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson as manager and the former United winger feels that he didn’t have the experience to deal with coaching such a huge club after stepping up from Everton.
Speaking to FourFourTwo, Nani said: “When Moyes arrived, he came in with a mentality completely the opposite of what United required.
“After Ferguson left, that dressing room needed a manager who understood the club’s culture, someone strong-willed enough to handle players of that stature and used to winning with big teams. Moyes wasn’t.
“He arrived with a small-club mentality and made poor decisions.”
Nani cited Moyes’ “man-management” as one of his major flaws during his ill-fated stint at United.
The winger – who represented the Red Devils from 2007 to 2015 – said: “Above all, it was about bad man-management. When you have high-quality players, you can’t waste them by taking away their confidence or devaluing them – that happened to me.
“At first he told me one thing, shortly afterwards he changed completely. You can’t convince a player to stay by telling him he’s fundamental to the team, then behave in the opposite way.”
Nani continued: “He repeated that United depended on me, that things didn’t work without me, and the speech convinced me to renew my contract.
“As soon as I signed, his behaviour towards me completely changed. He stopped believing in me. Once I realised I wasn’t in his plans, I wanted to leave – but I’d just signed a five-year contract.”
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