Moyes appointed United manager

Big shoes to fill ... David Moyes will succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Source: Martin Rickett / AAP

David Moyes faces the daunting task of following in the footsteps of Alex Ferguson after being officially confirmed as the manager of Manchester United on a six-year contract on Thursday.

Ferguson's shock retirement announcement the day before left United looking for a new manager for the first time since the legendary Scot succeeded Ron Atkinson in November 1986, but the Premier League champions moved quickly to appoint Moyes.

The 50-year-old, who has been at Everton since 2002, will take over from Ferguson on July 1.

Ferguson, who has won 38 trophies during a record-breaking 26-year spell at Old Trafford, revealed that he had personally recommended his fellow Glaswegian.

"When we discussed the candidates that we felt had the right attributes, we unanimously agreed on David Moyes,'' said Ferguson in a statement.

"David is a man of great integrity with a strong work ethic. I've admired his work for a long time and approached him as far back as 1998 to discuss the position of assistant manager here.

"He was a young man then at the start of his career and has since gone on to do a magnificent job at Everton.

There is no question he has all the qualities we expect of a manager at this club.''

Moyes has only presided over two matches in the Champions League and has failed to win a trophy in his 11-year tenure at Goodison Park, but he is widely admired for having led Everton to six consecutive top-eight finishes in the Premier League despite operating on a shoestring budget.

"It's a great honour to be asked to be the next manager of Manchester United,'' he said in a statement released by his new employers.

"I am delighted that Sir Alex saw fit to recommend me for the job. I have great respect for everything he has done for the football club.

"I know how hard it will be to follow the best manager ever, but the opportunity to manage Manchester United isn't something that comes around very often and I'm really looking forward to taking up the post next season.''

Earlier, Everton confirmed that Moyes would leave the club at the end of the season, after he quickly emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Ferguson.

"The manager met chairman Bill Kenwright early yesterday evening (Wednesday) and confirmed his desire to join Manchester United,'' read an Everton statement.

"The chairman, on behalf of the club, would like to place on record his thanks to David for the massive contribution he has made to Everton since his arrival in March 2002. He has been an outstanding manager.''

Kenwright has confirmed that Moyes will take charge of Everton's two remaining matches of the Premier League season, at home to West Ham United on Sunday and away to Chelsea on May 19.

Moyes will lead United for the first time on their pre-season tour of Thailand, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong in July, with his first official game set to be the Community Shield against the FA Cup winners at Wembley Stadium on August 11.

Ferguson, 71, took training with the United squad as usual on Thursday morning, ahead of his final home game against Swansea City on Sunday.

Both he and Moyes have cancelled their scheduled pre-match press conferences on Friday, with Ferguson expected to address United's supporters directly after Sunday's game.

Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez was installed as the early favourite to succeed Moyes at Everton, but the Spaniard said he had received no contact from the club and was only thinking about his side's FA Cup final encounter with Manchester City on Saturday.

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VOCAL OPPOSITION:Detroit Emergency Manager May Have Tough First Day

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  March 14, 2013: File photo of the skyline of the city of Detroit. Kevyn Orr, Detroits state-appointed emergency manager, has yet to step into his Detroit office, but the acclaimed bankruptcy lawyer knows the clock already is ticking down on the future of the city.AP

A bankruptcy lawyer and turnaround expert tasked with reviving Detroit's beleaguered finances could be greeted by a crowd of protesters as he arrives at work Monday, then plans to spend his first day meeting with some city officials who for months fought against creating his job at all.

Kevyn Orr is under no illusions that he'll be treated as a hero when he begins his duties as the Motor City's emergency manager, an appointment that makes Detroit the largest city in the U.S. ever put under state control. But while there are plenty of sacrifices -- including Orr's resignation from a powerful law firm where he was a partner -- Orr says he is motivated by the opportunity to engineer one of the greatest fiscal turnarounds in U.S. history.

"I'm a worker bee. I'm not a honey bee," Orr, 54, told The Associated Press in an interview. "My set-in-stone plan is to get to the office ... and start meeting folks."

A review team spent two months scrutinizing Detroit's books and reported to Gov. Rick Snyder that the city was in a financial emergency, citing its long-term debt of more than $14 billion and $327 million budget deficit.

Snyder agreed and earlier this month announced Orr, a Washington attorney who represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring, as the man for an even larger fix-it task. State law allows emergency managers to negotiate labor contracts and deals with vendors. He can sell off city assets to raise money and cut the salaries of elected officials to save money.

Opponents, led by a vocal group of Detroit clergy and residents say the law snatches power from elected officials. Detroit is a heavily Democratic city with a predominantly black population Snyder is a Republican. A prominent national civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has called for mass demonstrations and protests outside City Hall.

Orr insists he has no immediate plan of action other than getting a sense of the city's priorities.

"You really want to look into the swimming pool to see if there is water in there before you dive in," said James Spiotto, a municipal bankruptcy expert at the Chicago-based Chapman and Cutler law firm.

But turnaround specialist James McTevia said he finds it hard to believe that Orr enters the job without any idea about what he intends to do. McTevia, who has closely followed the Detroit situation, suggests that one of his first steps should be an immediate freeze on debt spending.

"The first step in resolving a serious financial problem is to stop fueling the fire by spending money you don't have," McTevia said.

Early success could be crucial for Orr to win over citizens who are skeptical about whether an emergency manager really is needed, bankruptcy expert Doug Bernstein said. Such victories can be as simple as getting "street lights on and get police on the street," he said.

"Public safety is paramount," said Bernstein, managing partner of the Banking, Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights Practice Group for the Michigan-based Plunkett Cooney law firm. "This is such a hot area where people are passionate about whether there should or not be an emergency manager. It would likely go a long way to convince those who are against, or otherwise opposed to the concept, that this can lead to something good or rehabilitation for the city."

Beyond public safety, a host of other problems await Orr -- including health care costs, pension concessions, privatizing services if necessary and, finally, weighing whether the only real solution is municipal bankruptcy.

"Maybe he means he doesn't have the details of it yet, but I hope he has some idea what the major issues are," Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said of Orr. "Mr. Orr has to deal with the threat of bankruptcy. This is a more immediate issue and he has to make a decision fairly quickly whether to put the city into bankruptcy or not."

Then he has to match revenue and spending.

"This is the idea of downsizing the city so that the costs more closely match the amount Detroit brings in," Henning said. "On the revenue side, something has to be done to stabilize the tax base. That's all easier said than done and will take years, probably well beyond Mr. Orr's term."

Pamela Amato, a former emergency financial manager for tiny Three Oaks in southwestern Michigan, said when she took the job in 2009, she did not jump straight into the finances. Three Oaks had a $600,000 deficit and was nearly devoid of cash. It took less than a year to turn the village around. Amato says listening to officials and residents was the key.

"I wanted to get a sense from the people who lived there and who were in governance as to what was going on and used that information to chart my own course," she said. "I let them know that we either succeeded together or we failed together."

Orr has met with people in Detroit's business and foundation communities, attending some dinners and receptions. He plans to commute between Detroit and his home in the Washington, D.C., area during the time it takes to fix Detroit.

"I was very comfortably placed in my private law practice at my firm that I adored," Orr said, pointing out that he had been picked to go to open a Miami office before the offer to become Detroit's emergency manager came from "out of the blue."

Jevonsha Johnson, 28, said she wants Orr to keep in place efforts under Mayor Dave Bing to level as many of the city's 30,000 or more vacant houses as funds allow. There are two adjacent to Johnson's newer wood-framed bungalow in the city's north end and another across the street.

"It don't make you feel safe," Johnson said. "The other new houses over here have been broken into several times. My neighbor next door told me a couple times that they broke in while his wife and daughter were there."

Although Orr said he likes what he has seen in parts of the city -- downtown, resurgent Midtown, the strong cultural and central business districts -- he acknowledges other neighborhoods are "in need of some TLC (tender loving care)."

Amid all these problems, he acknowledges there's a risk of being unable to solve them, though he insists he will within the 18 months dictated under Michigan's emergency manager law.

"Failure is not an option," Orr said. "It's just a question of designing the architecture around what can be creating a future -- and a sustainable future -- for the city."

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Reading sack manager McDermott

Brian McDermott ... paid price for Reading's poor recent form. Source: Andrew Matthews / AAP

Reading have sacked manager Brian McDermott as the Barclays Premier League strugglers look to breathe new life into their bid to avoid relegation.

McDermott led Reading into the top-flight as nPower Championship winners last season, but he has paid the price for failing to lift the Royals away from the bottom three.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	28	23	2	3	37	71
2	Man City	28	17	8	3	27	59
3	Tottenham	29	16	6	7	15	54
4	Chelsea	28	15	7	6	26	52
5	Arsenal	28	13	8	7	21	47
6	Liverpool	29	12	9	8	20	45
7	Everton	28	11	12	5	9	45
8	West Brom	29	13	4	12	2	43
9	Swansea	29	10	10	9	4	40
10	Fulham	28	8	9	11	-5	33
11	Stoke	29	7	12	10	-8	33
12	West Ham	28	9	6	13	-9	33
13	Newcastle	29	9	6	14	-10	33
14	Norwich	29	7	12	10	-18	33
15	Sunderland	29	7	9	13	-9	30
16	Southampton	29	6	10	13	-12	28
17	Aston Villa	29	6	9	14	-26	27
18	Wigan	28	6	6	16	-22	24
19	Reading	29	5	8	16	-21	23
20	QPR	29	4	11	14	-21	23

A 2-1 home defeat against fellow strugglers Aston Villa last weekend  proved the final straw for Reading owner Anton Zingarevich and just 48 hours later the club released a statement confirming McDermott had been dismissed.

"Reading Football Club has announced today the departure of manager Brian McDermott,'' a statement on the club's website read.

"Owner Anton Zingarevich wishes to place on record his thanks to Brian who had achieved great success with the club since taking over as manager in December 2009.

"Brian gained promotion to the Premier League last year for only the second time in the club's history thanks to a remarkable run at the end of last season. However, in our current situation, owner Anton Zingarevich felt that a change was necessary.

"The search for a successor will start immediately and it is hoped that a new manager will be in place as soon as possible to lead the fight against potential relegation.''

Whoever takes over at the Madejski Stadium will have to work quickly to save Reading, who are currently second bottom of the table with just five wins from their 29 league games this season.

With nine games remaining, they are four points from safety.

The Royals have lost their last five matches in all competitions and face Manchester United and Arsenal in their next two games.

Former Arsenal midfielder McDermott, 51, took over as Reading's caretaker manager in 2009 before being named full-time boss the following year.

It was his first significant managerial role and although he enjoyed success in the second tier, he was unable to make an impact among the English's game elite. 

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