The unselected one

Trading places is a fond literary and cinematic conceit - The Prince and the Pauper, The Man in the Iron Mask, hey, there was even a 1980s movie offering called Trading Places.  Manchester United fans must feel like the fall guy in A Tale of Two Cities as they go from champions to seventh place while bitter rivals Liverpool go from seventh to champions-elect.  Sir Alex Ferguson made 'knocking Liverpool of their perch' one of his motivating mantras, but now the Reds are back on it.  This is one of the reasons why pressure on David Moyes led to his removal as manager.
Moyes had been Sir Alex's personal choice, inspring the banner 'The Chosen One'.  This association goes back more than a decade as in a Guardian photoshop competition had Sir Alex as Dr Evil (from the Austin Powers franchise) with Moyes as his Mini-Me, a riff accompanying the juxtaposition about two obsessive, not sunnily possesed Scots.
Moyes though shrunk in the role rather than growing and even from a neutral perspective I felt Moyes had to go after the crushing home defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool.  The humbling of the mighty had ceased to be funny.  I would have given him until the end of the season however.  If one was being cynical, Moyes was a patsy, designed to soak up the shadow of Sir Alex so that Moyes' successor would be afforded brighter comparisons with the predecessor.  Ironically, it was Ed Woodward, who bears almost as much responsibility for Man Utd's on-field decline after two failed transfer windows, who told Moyes his reign was at an end.  Even terminating Moyes' contract was conducted shambolicallyby Woodward.
Louis van Gaal has emerged as the favourite to occupy the Old Trafford hot seat, primarily because of his imminent availability after the World Cup, but he has his flaws in a glittering career.  Currently in charge of the Dutch national side, it was 13 years ago under him that the Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, a mere four years after finishing fourth at France 1998 and two years after reaching the semi-finals of the 2000 European Championship.  A second stint at Barcelona sums up his erratic mercurial career - despite having an immaculate Champions League record, winning 12 out of 12, in La Liga he won only four games and was sacked with Barca just three points above the relegation zone (the caretaker coach who took over subsequently guided Barca back up to finish fifth and in some form of European football).  Having missed out on Moyes, Tottenham Hotspur look set to miss out on van Gaal, yet in both cases they might brief a sigh of relief.
Where Moyes goes now is almost of as much interest.  Apparently Newcastle United are odds-on favourite to snag him, with Alan Pardew on a dreadful run after his team secured another season at the Premier League top table.  But the reason for the poor form is that the tiny squad have decided that if the owner shows no ambition, why should they?  Would Moyes want to submit to a capricious mean-spirited chairman who only wants to take millions out of the club and paring the squad to its barest minimum so that he can do so.  Pardew is not a great coach, so hands-on that he can't organise two matches in the space of a week, but he's being forced to play with one hand behind his back while taking all the brickbats for the silent owner.  Why would Moyes want such grief?  Spurs, Celtic and maybe Southampton and West Bromwich Albion are in the frame but it would be best to go abroad and rebuild his reputation there.  Russia and the Ukraine, typical under the radar leagues, are off-limits with the recent Moscow-inspired tension.  In the West, there are some middling leagues where English is spoken relatively well - the Netherlands, Belgium, the Nordic leagues and Switzerland.  Steve McLaren prospered in the first, Roy Hodgson in the latter two (i.e. five).  Don't be parochial David; be bold as you failed to be at Old Trafford.