Fergie Got Moyes The Everton Job

David Moyes, speaking with the Daily Mail, has revealed how he could easily have been lost to Everton if he had ignored advice from Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in 2000 when a Premier League club came knocking for the then Preston manager.

"I called Sir Alex and he told me to pop down to Carrington to have a chat, I can’t say I really knew him that well. You’d bump into him at games and reserve games and we’d had some dealings, initially when David Beckham came on loan to Preston and I was assistant to Gary Peters. We then went on to sign the likes of Colin Murdoch, Jon Macken and Michael Appleton so there’d been quite a bit of contact. But it was still good of him to give up his time and let me come to see him. We sat there and went through the squad — he knew every one of them — and he advised me not to take it and, instead, stay at Preston. Which is obviously what I did."

Oddly enough, Fergie had already interviewed David Moyes for the vacant assistant managers job at Old Trafford and turned him down, choosing instead to hire Steve McLaren.

"He did tell me someone else was in the frame, and the guy he gave it to went on to manage England, which shows that he gets those decisions right because we’ve both gone on to do OK. But I remember sitting there, jaw open just wanting to get there and start learning. He was telling me what the job would be, and what was expected, and an opportunity to work with him would have been hard for anyone to turn down.

"Even now, I’ll take any opportunity to learn from him. The Scottish Premier League invite Scottish coaches to a dinner every year and Sir Alex comes up and lets the coaches fire questions at him. And I’ll be among those asking him how he’s done things and why. He’s a source of inspiration for us."

Here's wishing David Moyes good luck for the future, but not on Sunday of course !!

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