I still belong at top table, insists Moyes
I believe I was unfairly treated at Old Trafford
DAVID MOYES should not have been sitting in a small auditorium in front of a handful of reporters answering questions as the new manager of Sunderland. Instead, he maintains, he should have been halfway through a sixyear contract as the boss of Manchester United.
Moyes, eyes narrowing as the subject turned to the inevitable, has his work cut out as manager of Sunderland.
At the club’s training ground yesterday, it was the first time he had spoken as a Premier League manager since that April day in 2014 when, after news broke 24 hours earlier, he was seemingly the last to know of his impending — and brutal — dismissal.
‘When you sign a six-year contract and you end up being there 10 months — yeah, I believe I was unfairly treated,’ said the 53-yearold. He has chosen Sunderland as the club where wounds can be healed and new life can prosper.
‘That is life in football. Ultimately, the key is to win football matches. I didn’t win enough. But you must say there were mitigating circumstances. And I think there are maybe things that have gone on since then that would actually justify that even more so.
‘Managing Manchester United gave me an unbelievable idea of what it is like at the top. I believe that is where I can work and that is where I should be working,’ he added.
‘My level is that, because that is what I saw when I was there. You don’t get offered those jobs if you’ve not done something to deserve it. I am a better manager now for that experience.’
If Moyes sees himself leading out teams in the Champions League in the future — and he clearly does — his choice of club on his return to these shores is leaving him with a bigger mountain to climb than the Alpine range which formed the backdrop to last week’s training base in France.
For there, in the picturesque resort of Evian, the outlooktl k was somewhat bleak. Moyes surveyed only 16 senior professionals at his disposal and, by the time they returned to the North East, five of those were nursing injuries.
Sunderland are yet to sign a player this summer and, with his sole striker Jermain Defoe sidelined with a thigh problem, Moyes is pondering whether to start the season at Manchester City with 17-year- old Swedish rookie Joel Asoro in attack. The new manager has confirmed an interest in signing Marouane Fellaini and Adnan Januzaj from United.
His most telling line from yesterday’s official unveiling — delivered with a sardonic smile — was this: ‘ I think Sam Allardyce did brilliantly to keep Sunderland up, an incredible job.’
Moyes was in charge of Real Sociedad in Spain last October — he was sacked the following month — when he rejected the advances of Sunderland owner Ellis Short prior to Allardyce’s appointment. Why?
‘The main reason was because I didn’t think they could stay up, so what Sam did was amazing,’ he added, refusing to sugar-coat his assessment of a squad which, without significant investment, are in serious danger of ending a 10- year stay in the top flight. Moyes, though, sees the bigger picture at a club which still attracted the sixth highest average crowd in the division last season — 43,000.
For now, he would take survival, despite having insisted they can no longer celebrate finishing 17th each year.
‘I would take fourth bottom this season if I felt I had brought players in who would help us move for- ward and give us a backbone,’ said Moyes, who has signed a four-year deal. ‘We’re even lower on numbers than in May — we need to get some players in to improve. I need competition for places. At the moment, we don’t have that.’
It is hard to see the positives, at least in the short term. So why is Moyes sitting here?
‘I’ve had many opportunities to take other Premier League jobs since I’ve been out of work. I’ve had opportunities to go abroad. But I wanted to come back to the Premier League now,’ he said.
‘There is an exciting group of managers and I wanted to be in among that, to compete against them. But it’s the potential of Sunderland that, to my mind, has never reached the heights.
‘They’ve had seven managers in five years — that’s a scandalous statistic. It’s not the way to go forward. But they’ve got an owner who reminds me of Bill Kenwright at Everton and I had 11 great years with him. Bill allowed me to manage a club, to build a club.
‘I didn’t have a great deal of money at Everton — £5m a year was all I was ever allowed — but I would argue that I had the best recruitment in the Premier League’s history.
‘The owner here has given me carte blanche. He’s told me, “Whatever you need to do to get it turned around, we’ll do it”.
‘We turned Everton from being a club at the bottom to a club at the top. But that was a journey that took 10 years. Football has become less patient since that time, so I hope I get the opportunity to put my vision in place.’
He might not get 10 years, but Moyes will be hoping for longer than 10 months.