Manchester United chose Moyes, so we're keeping the banner up for now



The Stretford End Flags commission banners and flags at Old Trafford and is the organisation who put up the David Moyes 'Chosen One' banner. Andrew Kilduff is its spokesman.



It’s rare that we commission banners for a player or manager who has just arrived. Certainly it’s almost unheard of that we would do one for someone who hadn’t won or achieved anything with us. But we thought the David Moyes situation was different.

When he arrived, we had been urged by Sir Alex Ferguson to support him and this was just one of the ways we felt we could do that. Now we are under some pressure to take it down.

We choose the banners that hang at the Stretford End very carefully. All of them come from designs contributed by supporters, and once they are chosen we get them professionally drawn and then produced. They are all paid for by supporter contributions and, as you would expect, we are very proud of them.

Keeping watch: The David Moyes banner will stay up at Old Trafford for now

Contrast: Moyes (left) holds his head in his hands as the Manchester City bench go wild in the derby

The words ‘The Chosen One’ came from a rank-and-file United fan and we took it and ran with it. It was appropriate that it was first hung for the visit of Jose Mourinho and Chelsea at the first home game of the season. We knew the ‘Special One’ had wanted the United job and this was our way of telling him we had chosen someone else.

The feedback was largely good. A few people moaned that Moyes shouldn’t get a banner until he had won something but on the whole the banner proved very popular, both as a concept and in terms of the wording.

All in all it probably cost about £500 to make and hang and all that cash came from supporters. Some may donate a pound, someone else may donate £50. It’s the way it always is.

Over the course of the season there have been some moans and groans about results but the talk about removing the banner only really gathered pace on the Sunday and Monday ahead of the Olympiacos home game. People started to get in touch on Twitter and other social media asking us to take it down.

Discontent: One supporter looks angry as he passes Moyes and his staff

Game, set and match: Edin Dzeko bags his second goal of the night in a dismal showing for United

Too easy: City barely moved out of second gear as they smashed United 3-0 at Old Trafford

We did discuss it, the six of us at the top of the group. We won’t deny that. But the fact is that we didn’t want the focus of the night to be about the banner. That would have been wrong and it would have been very negative. We wanted the focus to be on the team and to be fair they got the result that night.

As we speak, there are still calls for us to remove it. There are polls saying that more than 90 per cent of fans want it down. But 90 per cent of how many? Is that truly representative of the average United fan? I’m not sure it is.

What we don’t want to do is anything knee-jerk. So the banner will stay for now. It will stay for the Villa game on Saturday and it will stay for Bayern Munich. As I said before, the focus should be on the team ahead of the Bayern game in particular.

Glimmer of hope: Wayne Rooney worked hard for United but gained little reward on the night

Salt in the wounds: Yaya Toure slides on his knees after rolling home Man City's third

There has been nothing particularly visible or verbal against Moyes during games at Old Trafford. No ‘Moyes Out’ flags or anything. So we don’t think it’s our place to initiate some kind of campaign for his sacking by taking his banner down.