David Moyes shares honest reflection on short Man United reign as he nears huge Everton record
The Blues boss discussed his own history with the Red Devils as he prepared for his first return to Old Trafford in his second Everton stint
05:00, 24 Nov 2025
David Moyes celebrates after Everton’s victory over Fulham. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
With a contract running until summer 2027, David Moyes (currently on 546 games) is on course to top Harry Catterick (592) and become Everton’s longest-serving manager of all-time during his current deal. As all those in his profession know, however, life is not always that straightforward.
Results will always be the determining factor for football gaffers. Moyes spent over 11 years as Everton manager first time around, steering them to nine top-eight finishes, including a highest-ever Premier League placing of fourth in 2004/05, the second season that he picked up one of his three LMA Manager of the Year gongs.
Yet, despite being hand-picked by fellow Glaswegian Sir Alex Ferguson to be his successor, Moyes got the chop at Manchester United just 51 games into a six-year contract.
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So, as he prepares to make his first return to Old Trafford as Blues boss with the hosts now on their sixth permanent manager since Ferguson, still without an addition to the 13 Premier League titles he secured, and having finished two places and six points below Everton last season, has anyone at the Red Devils ever suggested that Moyes wasn’t given long enough in the hot seat?
The 62-year-old said: “I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anybody really come out and say it directly. I’ve had plenty of people say it to me; plenty of supporters say it to me, and plenty of journalists say it to me.
“But I think that really at the time it just probably wasn’t right and it didn’t work for different reasons. I wish it had worked.
“But it didn’t work at the time and that’s it. In a way, it’s gone now, it feels so far away in the distance.”
So, almost a dozen years on, did Moyes expect United to be still waiting to get back to the top of the tree?
He said: “I always thought when I took the job that it wouldn’t be able to be fixed quickly.
“I saw that not long after I went in that it was going to take a bit of time.
“I think also you have to remember that it was not just to do with the strength of United.
“It was to do with the strength of other teams; Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal were all incredibly strong teams. They were all rebuilding and bringing in more all the time.
“So, I think that those clubs played as big a part in it as anyone else – that their quality had risen or was rising all the time.
“The history of Manchester United was not that (one of change). Manchester United had a great culture.
“They stuck with their managers, they brought through their own academy boys. They actually had some of the best characteristics of what you would want your club to have; good values.
“Sir Alex had great values at Manchester United, and over the years those values he established needed some time to come through as well.
“It was always a club with brilliant values with an understanding about bringing their young players through and developing them in the right way.”
