The end of an era. David Moyes leaves Everton for the biggest job in World Football.
Moyes has been long touted as Ferguson´s eventual successor and without surprise, the Everton manager emerged as the leading candidate to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford following his fellow Scot´s announcement on Wednesday that he will retire at the end of the season.
Man Utd moved quickly. David Moyes held talks with Everton chairman Bill Kenwright on Wednesday evening, before announcing his decision to Everton players and staff on Thursday.
Everton then issued a statement Thursday afternoon, confirming that Moyes will depart when his contract expires this summer, ending an eleven year reign at the place he affectionately declared “The Peoples Club”
For many, especially the younger generation not used to trophy winning Everton side, it´s the end of a golden era at Everton. Gone are the days of seemingly perpetually threatened relegation. Ever since he took the role and brought about an instant victory over Fulham, we have looked up the table in anticipation of what we could achieve rather than down at the prospect of relegation as in the dark days of Smith, Walker et al.
But for the others brought up on memories of an all conquering Kendall managed Everton, Moyes has presided over a period of stagnation; a manager who benefited from the early emergence of Wayne Rooney and the wisely re-invested capital from his sale, a manager who has a tremendous ability in the transfer market but is tactically limited, liable to not bringing the best from his players when it matters most.
Yes, his Merseyside Derby record will be remembered as lacklustre, as will his inability to win a trophy or beat the top sides on a more consistent basis. But ultimately one fact remains – when he took over in 2002, we were in dire trouble and relegation threatened. In 2013, we´re all a bit annoyed because we´ve lost out on challenging for a Champions League place and angry because we´re not in an FA Cup final. That´s progress.
Whatever side of the Moyes debate an Evertonian falls on, one cannot deny his commitment to representing the club in a professional manner at all time. He constantly fought for the Everton cause in the media, brushing aside the often distributed “small club” attitude from the press and promoting us to the hilt.
Whilst most of the media will be salivating over discussing the retirement of the great Sir Alex Ferguson, it´s going to be a massive shame to see the fantastic 11 year reign of David Moyes at Everton glossed over as a fantastic achievement – yet such is the price for moving on to one of the biggest clubs in world football.
As a club, we have our fair share of Scottish heroes – Andy Gray, Duncan Ferguson and Graeme Sharp to name but three = and David Moyes will take his place proudly in that list.