Decline and fall How it all went wrong for Scot

Inheriting a mess

With hindsight, Sunderland were a terrible choice, given they had been battling against relegation for five years, but Moyes claimed he had been promised money to radically improve the squad, which never materialised.

Gloomy prediction

Moyes was asked after his first home game in August whether Sunderland were in a relegation battle and insisted they were. It set the tone for a miserable campaign, and his negativity seeped through the club.

The blame game

The size of the task got the better of him as he persistently moaned about the quality of the players he had inherited. He complained about their failings and avoided responsibility for bad results.

Poor choice of targets

It was always going to be tough coming into a Premier League job in July without the time needed to assess his squad properly or to identify replacements, but Moyes spent almost £30million badly.

No money to strengthen in January

There was still some bullish optimism at the start of the season, but it disappeared when he was told in November that there would be no money to improve the squad in January. Without that, Sunderland were simply too poor to stay up.

Feeling the strain

He claimed he meant it as a joke – albeit one in poor taste – but when Moyes threatened to give a female reporter ‘a slap’ for asking whether he was under more pressure because owner Ellis Short was at a game, it exposed a man who was fraying round the edges.