Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
THE SCOTTISH CONNECTION As Moyes succeeds Ferguson, he can call on similar Glasgow roots
THERE is more than a little truth in the oft-repeated statement that David Moyes is hewn from the same Glasgow stone as Sir Alex Ferguson: both products of archetypal west of Scotland working-class families, both socialists, both brought up to know the importance of respect, discipline and a strong work ethic, both good but by no means top players, both renowned manmanagers.
Jim Wood, a Drumchapel stalwart who has known Ferguson and Moyes since their adolescent playing days – 20 years apart – at the famous amateur club, recognises strong similarities.
“David and Alex have the same manner, the same attitude and the same discipline,” he said.
There was one significant difference, however, according to former Scotland manager Craig Brown. “Alex was born with a plastic spoon in his mouth while big Davie had a silver spoon,” he said.
The two men were born almost exactly opposite each other on either side of the river, Ferguson south of the Clyde in Govan and Moyes to the north in the Thornwood area of Partick.
Ferguson was the son of a shipyard worker. Moyes’s father, also David, began as a highly-skilled pattern maker before moving into the teaching profession, as first a lecturer in engineering then deputy principal at Anniesland College.
Moyes was still a young boy when the family moved to middleclass Bearsden, ranked, as recently as 2005, as the seventh-richest suburb in Britain. Initially, though, at Thornwood he was the classic urchin-like Scottish laddie playing football on the street during the week and in the park on Sundays.
Moyes had been born into a football family. Moyes senior ran a Drumchapel under-age team which played in the morning and the Anniesland College team which kicked off in the afternoon.
Dad, who scouted for Rangers at the time, would spend hours on the phone in the evenings, arranging times, places, pitches, referees and opposition.
Like Ferguson two decades earlier, Moyes’s first taste of organised football came for the Boys’ Brigade. Ferguson played for the 129th Company, Moyes for the 101st on the legripping ash pitches at Whiteinch Park.
“There was nothing better than coming home and climbing into the hot bath your mum had run for you,” Moyes once recalled. “All the gravel cuts from the ash parks – aagh, the relief of that bath.”
At Bearsden Academy, the tall, brightly ginger-haired Moyes progressed through the Glasgow Schools side into a Scottish Schoolboy XI which included the likes of Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies. That was only the half of it. Every self-respecting teenage footballer played twice on a Saturday in those days, for his school in the morning and for an amateur side in the afternoon.
The Moyes family may have been Rangers fans but they were primarily football supporters. So there was not the slightest hint of reservation in Moyes joining Celtic Boys and graduating to Celtic itself as a youth.
There was also his association with Drumchapel Amateurs, which taught lessons in life as much as how to play a flat back four.
Even today, small white plaques underneath the numbered pegs in the rundown Glenhead Park dressing room create a rich tapestry of the Scottish international stars who passed that way. Archie Gem- mill and Pat Crerand played No 4. Ferguson wore the No 10 jersey, Moyes No 5.
“You couldn’t swear,” Wood said. “You had to wear your shirt and tie on match day and represent the club at all times. David Moyes Snr had his own team and was in charge of the youth set-up. David’s dad was very strict. Woe betide the player that turned up late or without his blazer or tie or failed to show respect to other teams.”
David junior would come and coach in his Celtic days. He would also take the pre-season training. This was probably the first sign of Moyes’ managerial ambitions. He was not even 20.
The teenage Moyes made 24 first-team appearances in his three years at Celtic, known primarily because of his heading ability. So what was Moyes the player like?
“David was an old- fashioned centre half,” said Iain Munro, another of the Drumchapel clan. “He was a good player but a great captain. He was terrific in the air. He had a slightly odd style of running on his toes and he was not quick.
“However, he read the game tremendously well. He had to in order to compensate for his lack of pace. As a manager, he was brilliant to have on the pitch, always knowing what to do when others around were getting tired and not thinking properly. He was also a hard worker, the hardest worker, first in and last away, always willing to do extra.”
Moyes eventually played 143 games for Preston before taking over as manager, an appointment Ferguson was involved in.
So what about Moyes the man- ager? He passed his coaching badges at the age of 22, and throughout his playing career filled notebook after notebook with techniques and tactics gleaned from his managers. He filled several during the 1998 World Cup in France.
There is a private side to Moyes which remains precisely that: private. A collector of art, a horse-racing enthusiast like Fergie, a reader of books like Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, a husband to Pamela, father to Lauren and David, Moyes is also deeply religious.
“I don’t talk about it too much,” he once told an interviewer. “I was brought up in a Christian family. I go to church whenever I can.” One thing is certain. If he fails at Old Trafford, it will not be for the lack of trying. – Daily Mail