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Piraeus, February 25. There were only seconds left of Manchester United’s wretched 2-0 defeat by Olympiacos in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie when David Moyes began remonstrating with the fourth official. Out of the United manager’s earshot, but loud enough it seemed for Steve Round, Moyes’s assistant, to hear, came a shout from a disgruntled player — “Send him off, we’d be better off”. On the substitutes’ bench, there were astonished glances. Had they really just heard that?

About 20 minutes earlier, his team trailing and flailing, Moyes had signalled his intention to bring on Marouane Fellaini up front, a final, desperate throw of the dice to salvage something from the game and avert more acute embarrassment. It was a gut…