After the disastrous reign of Moyes 'The Chosen one' who it turns out was only 'chosen when Ancelotti, Pep, José and more than likely others had been sounded out by United, the arrival of LVG who had a great run with Holland in the World Cup, looked like the man who was going to put us back on track.
He arrived late but set Woodward to task buying Herrera, Shaw, Rojo, Blind, Valdes, Di Maria and Falcao (loan) although a couple of those the work was done by Moyes.
Not bad names on paper but leaving us were Rio, Vidic, Giggs (ret) Evra, Kagawa, Welbeck, Fletcher, Zaha, Anderson, Büttner and other lesser known players, plus Hernández on loan.
It soon became clear that our now thin on the ground defence was not good enough, add the constant string of injuries to our defence and we soon found ourselves dropping points left right and centre... it would have undoubtedly been more if it was;t for the amazing David DeGea.
A decent and promising preseason soon vanished into insignificance thanks to LVG's stubborn philosophy of 3 at the back, even though others had come to England and had tried to reinvent the Premier League wheel and failed... LG thought he knew better.
Anyway, after messing around with the formation several times LVG did manage to scrape us 4th place in 2014/15 which I think most United fans would have taken at the start of the season.
Now to a new season, a season without the hangover of Moyes looming overhead. Target achieved and time to crack on and focus on some trophies. All we need is for LVG to address our defensive issues, find a creative midfielder and a striker....
LVG tells us that the only central defender he is interested in is Sergio Ramos.... Then follows the carnival that we all knew would result in Sergio finding the angle to prize that final long term lucrative contract out of Madrid.
Schneidelin as expected arrived along with the surprise of Bastian Schweinsteiger. Also to arrive were the fairly unknown names of Depay, Martial and Darmian... but further names were seen as surplus to requirement and Cleverley, Rafael, Evans, RVP, Hernández, Nani and of course Di Maria were sold...
So, more experienced and accomplished players leave, our defence is weakened even more when it should have been a priority to strengthen it and we start the season with the bare bones of a squad half full of unproven talent.
We talk about a rebuild but when you look at the players in against the players out it looks more like a dismantling of a club rather than a rebuild.
Here we are half way through the season and we have already dumped ourselves out of the Champions League and the League Cup plus we are 2 places and 4 points worse off in the league...
Worse than that though is that LVG is either to stubborn or too stupid to realise that his so called philosophy is not working.
I have followed football for a long time and I have no idea what his end game is. What is he trying to achieve? How can playing slow, dull, unimaginative, predictable football that creates one or two chances per game be any kind of stepping stone to greater things?
Scholes is right, our players look like they have had the life sucked out of them. Both Memphis, Martial and Darmian looked keen and eager to impress on their arrival yet 6 months into their United life they all look little more than bang average.
I also believe that Scholes is right when he talks about square pegs in round holes. Thanks to LVG's unwillingness to even look at a central defender we have Blind, an exciting winger that has vision and the drive to get forward playing next to Smalling.
We have Darmian playing on the right at the back, then the left, then not at all. We have Young who has looked like one of the most useful players in our squad playing left back, right back, left wing, right wing and then dropped for a few games.
LVG still doesn't seem to trust Rooney as a striker. Wayne either has to come into midfield hunting for the ball or he stays up top essentially adding to the official number of supporters by the count of one.
Martial clearly is better through the middle yet I don't recall he has started 3 games in a row in that position.
Herrera one of our most exciting midfielders spends as much time on the bench or back home as he does on the pitch, Mata who has no pace plays on the wing........
Do you know what, I can't even be bothered to go though every single one of LVG's eccentric decisions on team selection and formation. I have NEVER seen anything quite as ridiculous... I never thought I'd say it but right now LVG is even more clueless than Moyes.
Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of Moyes at United but Moyes did qualify to the knockout stages of the Champions League and after 20 games he did have more points than LVG has now... (34 as opposed to LVG's 33)
For me, LVG has ripped the heart out of United with the players that he dumped because they didn't fit in to his philosophy. His purchases have potential but little in the way of immediate impact, in fact they are going backwards. As far as results go he is taking us backwards, he is officially doing worse than Moyes.
The worst thing is though, there is no sight of change. No sign that anything is going to improve at all. There was a brief blip where we looked more urgent for two games but yesterday against Sheffield he reverted to his slow dull tactics with almost every player playing out of position... basically he played a defensive game against a team that came to defend.
Would I give Giggs between 4 to 8 games? YES IN A HEARTBEAT... Would I offer an interim contract to José until the end of the season with an option to continue (based on results and behaviour) YES. Would I get Benitez in until the end of the season... Do you know what...... I probably would...!!!!
For me in recent weeks it was one of two things.. LVG has to change or he has to go. He is never going to change.....
He's lost the fans, he has the press and the pundits on his back. In fact I don't think I have ever seen so many pundits attack a manager as much as they are (rightly) attacking LVG.
I believe he lost the players some time ago but unlike certain players at other clubs, our players are still doing their very best to play for the badge and the honour of the club.
Let's get shut of him, stick someone in until the end of the season and then decide if Giggs is ready or we have a real push for someone who is going to put the United back into United by playing the right football, allowing the players we have to play to their strengths and someone who can attract the stye of players we need....
When a manager gets booed off the pitch after he has just won it says everything to me...