I stand United
MOYES: ONLY ONE JOB FOR ME NOW
THESE days there is only one United for David Moyes.
Of course, that’s West Ham United, not Manchester United…rendering all current talk regarding who will be the next Old Trafford manager utterly irrelevant to the Scot.
There is no envy, anger or bitterness at the way his own spell in charge of the Premier League giants – as Sir Alex Ferguson’s immediate handpicked successor in July 2013 – ended with the sack only 10 months later.
For, although, it may have
taken several years for
Moyes (below) to recover from that torrid time – and the inevitable deep damage it did to his elite-coach reputation – he is now more than content to be supremo at high-flying West Ham.
Asked if he feels any personal pang of jealousy and sadness whenever the Manchester United managerial post is making headlines, Moyes, 58, said: “No, I had my chance. “I didn’t quite reach where I’d like to – or get the results I’d like to have done – but that’s been the same with a lot of managers there…some really top, top managers.
“It was an honour to be offered the job. But I see this one here at West Ham as something I’m good at.
“I can build clubs, I can take them in the right direction. I can get them playing at a level. At Everton, over 10 or 11 years, most of my teams were challenging in the top six, seven or eight every year.
“West Ham would like to be a club doing that every year, trying to break into the top four or top six and to be in Europe.
“We’ve moved quickly to being close to that club. If we can make it into Europe two years in a row, it would be incredible.”
However Moyes, whose side are level at 1-1 with Lyon going into Thursday’s away leg of their Europa League quarter-final, is urging caution over the Irons’ remarkable, rapid rise up the ladder.
And he reckons the first-leg stalemate against the French outfit at the London Stadium proves why.
“We built a team to avoid relegation, to get out of the bottom three.
“With a near-enough similar group, we’re now in the Europa League and competing in the top six,” he added before today’s league trip to Brentford.
“We need to play much, much better. Technically we need to be much, much better.”