Having just secured a £30million, six-year contract with Manchester United, David Moyes has come a long way from the raw young Scot who took his first managerial job at Preston.
Identified by the hierarchy at Deepdale as having potential, the 36-year-old, still playing centre-half and coaching the reserves, nearly spluttered when he heard the terms on offer. ‘Are you kidding me? I’ll be working four times as hard for less money,’ was his first natural reaction.
Such was his desire to be a manager, and Preston’s impoverished state at the foot of the Third Division, he took the job. The rest is history.
Four seasons transforming Preston, on an initial salary of about £50,000 a year, led Everton to headhunt him and pay a record £1m compensation. Last week, he decided to take the next big step up.
‘David would coach all day and watch matches at night and expect his staff to do the same,’ said Tony Scholes, chief executive at Preston when Moyes was appointed in January 1998. ‘His success was no surprise to us. From the moment we saw him with the reserves, you could tell he had something. He was intense and driven, everything was about winning the next game. And he took people with him, the players liked him.’
After failing to make the grade as a player at Celtic, Moyes spent his playing career at the more modest end of English and Scottish football, taking his coaching badges at 22 and telling team-mates from Cambridge United to Dunfermline he was already planning to be a manager.
As former Celtic team-mate Frank McGarvey says: ‘Every set of fans has a whipping boy, and Davie was ours. It wasn’t fair but these things happen. That experience would have rankled with him, made him more determined to succeed as a manager. We did our coaching badges together and I was very taken with the routines he devised.’
His 11 years at Everton became a byword for stability and frugality as the Merseysiders regularly finished in the top six. And yet the comparisons that have been made between him and Sir Alex Ferguson — Glaswegian roots, club-building prowess — are too simplistic.
They may share an almost superhuman intensity and desire but there are differences, too, which makes United’s appointment of a supposed safe bet something of a gamble.
It is not just Moyes’s lack of trophies or Champions League experience that he will have to overcome at Old Trafford but a more naturally conservative nature than Ferguson.
Ferguson always believed a club like United should compete for the world’s best players and broke the British transfer record on several occasions, including an untried centre-half in Gary Pallister, a relegated midfield player in Roy Keane and high-maintenance striker Andy Cole.
He was not afraid to take risks and splash very big on Juan Veron, Rio Ferdinand and Dimitar Berbatov. His signings did not always work out but by winning far more than he lost, United stayed at the top.
Moyes will have to learn how to do that. Slaven Bilic remembers becoming frustrated at Moyes’s natural caution and perfectionist streak when discussing one of his Croatia players, Nikica Jelavic, at the 2010 World Cup.
Moyes needed a striker and knew Jelavic had many attributes but was worried if he was strong and quick enough for the Premier League.
‘It was almost as if he was zoning in on the player’s weakness rather than his strengths,’ said Bilic. In the end, Moyes passed on the player, who joined Rangers, only to sign him 18 months later when the striker had experience of British football.
Fans of Moyes say it is a positive that he is so careful with the club’s money and it may be a quality that attracted United’s incoming chief executive Ed Woodward.
But there have been grumbles from other managers, agents and players that seeking perfect solutions can also lead to indecision.
Likewise, the combative style of play adopted by Moyes at Everton would not necessarily sit well with the patrons at Old Trafford, who demand flamboyance and drama at their Theatre of Dreams. The defence is no manager on earth could get Victor Anichebe to play in the manner of Robin van Persie.
The other question-mark surrounds Moyes and his handling of big-name players and personalities. The young Moyes could not understand anyone who was not as intense and driven as him. An early touchline bust-up with the talented but temperamental Jesper Blomqvist at Goodison Park was a test case for his relationship with so-called stars.
He fell out badly with Wayne Rooney and Joleon Lescott when they did exactly what Moyes is doing now, moving on to a bigger club. Lescott complained ‘it all became about him’ when Moyes railed against the defender’s move to Manchester City.
To be fair to Moyes, he will point to his current age, 50, and say he has mellowed. His relationship with Rooney and Lescott has been repaired, the way he dealt with Marouane Fellaini when the Belgian elbowed Ryan Shawcross in a match against Stoke City in December would have impressed the United hierarchy.
Moyes condemned Fellaini’s actions immediately, which helped the player escape with a three-match rather than a possible nine-match ban, but also pointed out in a dignified way the provocation the player received, keeping the Belgium international onside.
In front of the television cameras on Friday for the first time since his United appointment was announced, Moyes was composed, clever and said just enough without saying too much. A sign he is confident of coping with the new challenge.
This afternoon against West Ham, he will say farewell to the Goodison Park faithful after more than a decade. He is virtually assured of a warm reception and last night moved again to quell the conspiracy theory that he had stalled on signing a new contract at Everton because he knew he was Old Trafford-bound.
‘I was talking with Bill (chairman Bill Kenwright) regularly. The chairman knew roughly what I would have liked to have done with the squad and what direction I want it to go in.’
While some clubs would have asked any manager to clear his desk right away when he’d decided to leave, Moyes is grateful to Everton he can finish off the final two matches and secure Everton another top-six finish.
‘I felt that I had come this far with the team and I just felt that I wanted to finish the season off. I would have hated if I had dropped out during the season,’ he said.
SCOT’S EXIT WILL GIVE EVERTON £10M WINDFALL
Everton could save £10million with David Moyes’s departure, giving their next manager extra clout in the transfer market.
Chairman Bill Kenwright is only likely to have to pay the Scot’s successor around half the Manchester United-bound boss’s £4million-a-year salary, which would make a significant difference over a five-year tenure.
Wigan’s Roberto Martinez, Cardiff’s Malky Mackay and Neil Lennon of Celtic are thought to be front-runners for the job.
Moyes will also be free to make bids for any Everton players when he joins United. Marouane Fellaini has a get-out clause allowing him to leave for £23m and clubs in Russia are keen. Leighton Baines would also interest Moyes but Everton’s £15m asking price for the England defender would make a deal unlikely, particularly if Fellaini is sold.
WHAT TO DO WITH WAYNE ROONEY
The pair say they get on fine, despite Moyes having successfully sued Rooney for comments made in his autobiography. But Moyes will need to be convinced the striker is the same hungry player he had at Everton.
THE RELATIONSHIP WITH SIR ALEX
There is little doubt Sir Alex views Moyes as his ideal successor but he wouldn’t be human if he didn’t take an interest in what happens to the club. The problem is not asking Sir Alex for advice but what happens if Moyes decides not to take it.
NEW PLAYERS
Ferguson knew when to push the board for signings, as he did with Robin van Persie even if they might be initially reluctant. Will Moyes have the clout to push new chief executive Ed Woodward into signing a player?
WILFRIED ZAHA
Zaha thought he was signing for Sir Alex. Now the Crystal Palace star will arrive to work with a boss who has traditionally rated his wingers for work-rate as much as speed. Moyes needs to show he can put an arm around the shoulder.
THE VIDIC-FERDINAND PARTNERSHIP
Neither is at their peak now and United have defensive options with Jones, Smalling and Evans. But it is still a huge call when to let them leave. The same conundrum exists for Evra at left-back.
BACKROOM TEAM
United’s training ground is flooded with former players. Brian McClair, Mike Phelan, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes all have coaching roles. Moyes encouraged the same thing at Everton but will need at least one figure who is personally loyal to him, rather than the club.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Sir Alex could get away with things because of past achievements and personal influence, not just in football but the country as a whole. Moyes won’t replicate Fergie’s regular banning of journalists but can’t be seen as a soft touch either. – Mail On Sunday