CRYING GAME
On eve of 1,000th game as boss, Moyes reveals his hidden feelings
KRCmGoENyeKsV5W0E0ST HAM 5.45PM, BT SPORT
From Tony Banks in Genk
DAVID MOYES admits he still feels like bursting into tears after he wins a match – and he has had 999 of them as a manager to get used to it.
Moyes can vividly remember his first league win in the dugout – with Preston in the third tier.
The rookie boss had gone seven league games without a victory when he turned up at Bournemouth on February 28, 1998.
Had that win, courtesy of goals from Simon Davey and Michael Appleton, not arrived, then tonight – as Moyes prepares to face Genk in the Europa League – may never have happened.
Tonight, in his 1,000th game as a boss, he joins the greats – men such as Bill Shankly, Jock Stein, Sir Matt Busby and his mentor Sir Alex Ferguson.
Moyes is proud of his achievements, because it has not always been an easy ride. He said: “After Bournemouth I nearly cried, I was so pleased. Maybe if I’d have lost a couple more games then I’d have said, ‘This isn’t for me’.
“Do the emotions still hit? 100 percent! We all put on a football face. But deep down we’re all emotional.We want to win.”
He admitted: “As a player you’re never sure what you’re going to do afterwards. But I believed I could be a better manager than a player.”
A centre-back, he played for Celtic, Cambridge, Bristol City, Shrewsbury, Dunfermline, Hamilton Academical and Preston, but took his badges early. He said: “I was a relatively unknown player. But I was always hoping that I could stay in football. Become a boys’ team manager, get a youth team job, run a social club.
“Did I think I’d get to 1,000? No, I thought if the worst comes to the worst I’d take some boys’ team and get 1,000. I never thought I’d manage at the top of the Premier League.”
The Scot, 58, admitted: “When you see the managers who have got to 1,000 games, it’s a big achievement. But I’ve never felt I cracked it. It took me 10 years to get an Everton team together. We’ve gone really quickly to this point here.We’re on the fast train to the top – and I don’t want to get off.”
The disappointment of his failure at Old Trafford lingers. “I was offered the job by Sir Alex,” he said. “I had to take the opportunity. Maybe I had another couple more steps to go. We all get wiser with age.”
Moyes maintains that his short stint at Real Sociedad after the Manchester United disappointment did him good. But he was unable to stop Sunderland being relegated after that.
He said: “You have to have bad times to get good times. Even Sir Alex had bumpy times.”
Moyes revealed that being let go by the Hammers three years ago after he saved them from relegation – they opted to go for a big name in Manuel Pellegrini instead – had been galling.
“That was tough” he said. “But the motivation is to show you don’t get offered the big jobs if you haven’t done something right.
“West Ham have given me a chance and I’m grateful. I’m going to keep throwing punches.”