10 years at Everton: David Moyes still man of the people’s club

A DECADE ago, David Moyes walked into Goodison Park and declared that Everton were “the people’s club” of Liverpool. He couldn’t really go wrong after making such a perceptive comment – and he hasn’t.

Moyes has not only survived to become the club’s second-longest serving manager in a single spell, he has prospered. Everton fans relished the new manager’s immediate awareness of how they like to define themselves in a city where those periods since the 1970s when they have managed to break free from their status as second team have been brief, if glorious.

Moyes was only 38 when he took over at Goodison Park on 14 March 2002 – ten years ago tomorrow – after making his managerial name with Preston North End. Moyes would be the first to admit that his moderate playing career meant he had no reason to expect anyone to know who he was.

A centre-half, Moyes played for Cambridge United, Bristol City and Shrewsbury Town after leaving Celtic, where, contrary to popular belief, he fared well enough, playing a sufficient number of games to win a championship medal in 1981-82. In 1990, Iain Munro paid £50,000 to bring him back to Scotland with Dunfermline, where he first met Ian McCall.

Although they are still firm friends, the pair could hardly have been more different. Moyes, even then, came across as driven, determined, ambitious. And McCall? By his own admission he is not the most meticulous of men, either as a player or manager. But then, when set against the example of Moyes, who is? “I remember years ago Clive Middlemass [chief scout at Preston North End] telling me that he had to tell him [Moyes] to stop going to so many games – he would go to about eight a week,” recalled McCall to The Scotsman last week. “That’s the type of thing he does. It’s not the type of thing I was ever good at, but he got to know everyone and I think that’s what helped get him a good job.”

McCall, it must be noted, set off at a slightly brisker pace in his managerial career than Moyes, taking over Clydebank in his early 30s. Indeed, Dunfermline had proved a fertile breeding ground. “The car that went through from the west was myself, David Moyes, Billy Davies and Tommy Wilson, who is youth coach at Rangers,” said McCall. “Billy Davies has a pretty good pedigree as a manager. I was very much the black sheep.”

McCall, a year younger than Moyes, is a long-term friend of the Everton manager. Another Scot, Alan Irvine, is a more recent one. Confirming the view that Moyes abhors the ‘jobs for the boys’ culture in football, Irvine was phoned “out of the blue” by the Everton manager and invited to become his assistant in 2002. They had come across each other only sporadically at matches and coaching courses. Though Irvine left to manage Preston North End in 2007, he is now back as head of the Everton youth academy.

“I think the values of the club and the values of David are aligned – hard work, integrity, determination and desire to do things well, and the knowledge they can improve,” Irvine replied, when asked why Everton and Moyes have been such a good fit for each other. “Bill Kenwright, the chairman, and the board deserve credit. It’s not always been a smooth path. They stuck by David in tricky times in the second season.”

Indeed, season 2003-2004 is the only time Everton have failed to finish outside the top ten in Moyes’ reign, when they finished just a position above the relegation places. He has guided Everton to seven top-eight finishes in his nine full seasons at the club. Prior to his arrival, that had happened only once in the previous 12 campaigns. Moyes was confronted by an intimidating dressing room full of seasoned pros, from David Ginola to Duncan Ferguson. He has admitted to some apprehension but steeled himself and got on with it.

“I’d be very disappointed to see him go, he is one of the main reasons I came back,” said Irvine. “But I am surprised that one of the bigger clubs has not tried to come in for him. But perhaps this has already happened, who knows?”

It was reported that Alex Ferguson tried to take Moyes to Old Trafford as his assistant shortly after he took charge at Preston. There are some who believe he is destined to end up at Manchester United before long in any case. Something else which pin-points just how highly he is regarded is the speculation linking Moyes with Chelsea, following the sacking of Andre Villa-Boas. Yet it would seem like a breach in nature to see Moyes, the rugged-looking, serious-minded operator leaving a club of such high tradition to take charge at Stamford Bridge, where a nouveau riche philosophy has seeped into the club like a poison.

One major disappointment for Moyes at Everton has been his inability to give the fans more success against Liverpool: just four wins in 21 meetings over a decade. It undoubtedly hurts someone who recently revealed he fled the city the morning after Liverpool’s Champions league victory in 2005 on the pretence of locating some pre-season training venues abroad.

Tonight’s meeting counts as game number 22 against the old enemy from across Stanley Park. Irvine is sure the record niggles Moyes a bit, although it probably accurately reflects the difference in investment levels at both clubs. “It’ll be something he won’t be happy about,” said Irvine. “He’d have preferred it to be 21 wins out of 21. No matter what the record is he will want it to have been better. That’s the way it is with David.”

At Anfield this evening, on the occasion of the 218th Merseyside derby, Moyes has an opportunity to begin rectifying this record. Perhaps it will be his last chance? If it’s not to be Chelsea, then there is talk of Spurs, who Everton defeated on Saturday thanks to a first goal for former Rangers striker Nikica Jelavic, coming calling in the event of Harry Redknapp’s departure to England.

Whatever happens, the Scot has sealed his place in the annals at Everton, in a land now known as Moyesey-side by the same people he so astutely identified a decade ago.