The writing has been on the wall for months. It has been painful to watch the disintegration of David Moyes as he stumbled in Alex Ferguson's shoes like a toddler trying on Mum's high heels.
The parting of the ways finally came at 8.30 this morning when Manchester United tweeted that Moyes had left the club.
For the Press it was just as well: the sacking-to-be was the lead in every sports section and the splash in the Daily Mirror and the Manchester Evening News. Every front page, apart from the Financial Times, had at least a puff.
Besides the splash, the Mirror gave the story a spread on 4-5 plus four pages in sport. There were seven pages in the Mail, five in the Sun, Times and Telegraph, four in the Independent, three in the Guardian, Star and Express and two in the i.
Remember, these reams of newsprint were devoted to a story that hadn't happened.
There was a lot of axeing and a few "the ends". The Sun produced the worst heading of all with its toe-curling non-pun on the front.
The parting of the ways finally came at 8.30 this morning when Manchester United tweeted that Moyes had left the club.
For the Press it was just as well: the sacking-to-be was the lead in every sports section and the splash in the Daily Mirror and the Manchester Evening News. Every front page, apart from the Financial Times, had at least a puff.
Besides the splash, the Mirror gave the story a spread on 4-5 plus four pages in sport. There were seven pages in the Mail, five in the Sun, Times and Telegraph, four in the Independent, three in the Guardian, Star and Express and two in the i.
Remember, these reams of newsprint were devoted to a story that hadn't happened.
There was a lot of axeing and a few "the ends". The Sun produced the worst heading of all with its toe-curling non-pun on the front.
| There were some good spreads - notably from the Express,top right, and Star - and a nice clean graphic in the Telegraph, below.  |   |
Overall the coverage was fairly sympathetic. No turnip heads here. But there will be many who look at the papers and wonder at the amount of effort being put into this story in comparison, say, to the Korean ferry disaster.
This is not only football, but also very big business, so who manages Manchester United does matter. But there are far, far more people who don't care about United than do. This was demonstrated on Twitter with tweets showing people how to cut anything to do with Moyes from their streams.
Unfortunately you can't cut off bits of the radio and television broadcasts that you don't want and still see or hear the rest, and plenty were protesting about the amount of time given over to the story on the Today programme and World at One.
And supposing he hadn't been sacked? Well, there was at least one paper - the Scotsman, above - that would have been happier than it probably is today.
For those who are interested in the development of the story, here's Andy Dickinson's rather splendid Storify of the day:
This is not only football, but also very big business, so who manages Manchester United does matter. But there are far, far more people who don't care about United than do. This was demonstrated on Twitter with tweets showing people how to cut anything to do with Moyes from their streams.
Unfortunately you can't cut off bits of the radio and television broadcasts that you don't want and still see or hear the rest, and plenty were protesting about the amount of time given over to the story on the Today programme and World at One.
And supposing he hadn't been sacked? Well, there was at least one paper - the Scotsman, above - that would have been happier than it probably is today.
For those who are interested in the development of the story, here's Andy Dickinson's rather splendid Storify of the day:
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