Story highlights
David Moyes has been fired less than a year after taking the job of team manager
Manchester United is on track to its worst finish in Premier League history
Failing to qualify for Champions League will cost club more than 30 million pounds
Moyes lasted 10 months of a six-year contract
Manchester United, the world’s most famous soccer team, fired manager David Moyes on Tuesday, less than a year after hiring him to replace football legend Sir Alex Ferguson.
Here’s a look some key numbers for the club under Moyes:
Seventh place: Manchester United is on track for its lowest finish in Premier League history. With four games to play, the team cannot finish higher than fifth in the table. This will be the first time it has finished outside the top three since the Premier League began in 1992.
57 points: With 34 Premier League games under his belt, Moyes has won 17, drawn 6 and lost 11. Soccer commentators have been pointing out for months that Moyes is actually doing slightly better than Ferguson did in his first season as manager, starting in 1986, but Ferguson was taking over a 20th-place club on the way up. Moyes took over the team that won the Premier League last year.
1.64: Average number of goals the team has scored per game this year, down from 2.27 last year.
31,300,500 pounds: Manchester United will not qualify for Europe’s top soccer competition, the Champions League, next season. That’ll cost the team more than 31 million pounds ($52.6 million), since it will lose the broadcast revenue it gets from being in the Champions League.
Two: The number of times Manchester United hasn’t been in the Champions League, including next season.
Ten months: The length of Moyes’ tenure as manager. Ferguson led the club for 27 years, but to be fair, in today’s Premier League, 10 months is a much more common tenure than 27 years.
Six years: The length of Moyes’ contract when he was hired last July. The Daily Telegraph reported he’ll probably get a one-year payoff, not the full five years’ salary, because he failed to meet performance targets. Under U.S. stock market rules, the club will eventually have to reveal Moyes’ terms.
$19.18: Manchester United’s highest share price on the New York Stock Exchange in May last year. That’s the highest it’s been in the past year, and it plunged in the wake of the announcement of Moyes as manager. It hit its lowest point, $14.26, in February as the team suffered one defeat after another, but recovered to $17.72 by the time Moyes was fired.
1996: The last time a defending Premier League champion finished as low as Manchester United now ranks. (Trivia buffs: It was Blackburn Rovers, who won the league in 1995 and finished seventh in 1996.)
READ: Manchester United calls time on David Moyes’ reign as manager
READ: David Moyes’ imperfect storm: From the Chosen One to the Sacked One
CNN’s Ursin Caderas, Chris Eldergill, Mark Thompson, Irene Chapple and Sarah Chiplin contributed to this report.
