I belong at the top
Moyes admits Celtic talks but wants to be a success in England
DAVID MOYES should not have been sat 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 six-year contract as the boss of Manchester United, preparing his side for Wayne Rooney’s testimonial and Wednesday’s visit of his former club Everton.
Moyes, eyes narrowing as the subject turned to the inevitable, made no attempt to mask the feeling of injustice and bitter taste left by the manner of his undignified sacking just 10 months after replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
This, at the Academy of Light yesterday, 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 there 10 months, yeah, I believe I was unfairly treated,’ said the 53-year-old. ‘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.’
By mitigation, Moyes almost certainly means the failure of executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward to deliver on the marquee signings talked about upon his arrival — Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Cesc Fabregas chief among them. But while there is evidently frustration and regret, there remains an unwavering belief in his right to manage at that elite level.
‘Managing Manchester United gave me an unbelievable idea of what it is like at the top,’ he said. ‘I believe that is where I can work and that is where I should be working.
‘My level is there because that is what I saw in the time I was at United. 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.’
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 Sam 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 sugarcoat 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 biggest average crowd — 43,000 — in the division last season. But, for now, he would take survival.
‘I think I would take fourth bottom this season if I felt I had brought players in who would help us move forward and give us a backbone,’ said Moyes, who has signed a four-year deal.
‘We’re even lower on numbers than in May and 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 sat here?
‘I’ve had many opportunities to take other Premier League jobs since I’ve been out of work,’ he said. ‘I’ve had opportunities to go abroad. But I wanted to come back to the Premier League now.’
He was heavily touted for the Celtic job and said: ‘I met Celtic and I know the people very well. They spoke to me several times before, but I had other clubs this summer who met me at the same time, so other jobs were being considered.
‘I think there is an exciting group of managers and I wanted to be in amongst that. I wanted 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 an awful lot 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 to get on with it. 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.’