David Moyes has no qualms about Everton departure and insists he didn't stab Toffees fans in the back

By Chris Wheeler

Published: 16:33 EST, 18 April 2014 | Updated: 18:20 EST, 18 April 2014

David Moyes’ favourite memory of Goodison Park is Duncan Ferguson heading the winner against Manchester United amid chaotic scenes on April 20, 2005 to put Everton within sight of the  Champions League.

Sunday marks the ninth anniversary of that meeting and Moyes will walk out at Goodison with his loyalties lying squarely in the other camp.

He has not been back once since bidding a tearful farewell last May to the club he served for 11 years. ‘I’ve just felt that it wasn’t the right time,’ he reflected on Friday. ‘Time is a big healer as well.’

Fond farewell: David Moyes acknowledges Everton's warm send-off during his final game at the club

Fond farewell: David Moyes acknowledges Everton's warm send-off during his final game at the club

Thanks for the memories: Everton fans hold a banner acknowledging Moyes' 11 years at Goodison Park

Thanks for the memories: Everton fans hold a banner acknowledging Moyes' 11 years at Goodison Park

Favourite Goodison memory: Duncan Ferguson scores a diving header against Manchester United back in 2005

Favourite Goodison memory: Duncan Ferguson scores a diving header against Manchester United back in 2005

 
 

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Safe to say, the relationship between Moyes and Everton supporters has soured. Many of them don’t believe his reluctance to sign a new contract was unconnected with the United vacancy coming up last summer, while his attempts to prise Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines from his old club did not go down at all well.

Everton fans vented their anger when their team won at Old Trafford in December, and there will be more of the same on Sunday. Privately, it has hurt Moyes more than he will admit.

No one knows better than him what Goodison is like in full cry, and, not for the first time since leaving his comfort zone on Merseyside, he will need a thick skin. Moyes is ready.

‘I’m the manager,’ he said. ‘I think people would be disappointed if I wasn’t the same because that’s what I am. I won’t change and I can’t change. I have great respect for Everton as a football club, but my job is to manage Manchester United. I’ll be going there to win. That will be my job.

‘I go there and I understand the Everton supporters have to get right behind their team. They have their own reasons for it. I think there was animosity because we tried to sign a couple of their  players, but overall I was doing my job for Manchester United. Lots of United players go to Everton, so it works both ways.

Times change: Moyes, now manager of Man United, has seen his relationship with Everton fans turn sour

Times change: Moyes, now manager of Man United, has seen his relationship with Everton fans turn sour

‘And maybe people don’t believe how leaving Everton for United happened. But that was exactly how it came about. It happened two weeks before the end of the season - my 11th year. You’d have to say it couldn’t have been done much better.

‘I left at the end of my contract. I’d done 11 years. It will be very difficult for many managers in football now to do 11 years at one club.

‘I had a great relationship with the players, the supporters and the board in my time there so I will go back with no problems. 

‘I’ve moved on normally anyway. I regularly hear from the players, they text me. I have good communications from them. It’s not as if I’ve not spoken to anyone.’

Home from home: Former Everton stars Wayne Rooney and Marouane Fellaini return to Goodison on Sunday
Home from home: Former Everton stars Wayne Rooney and Marouane Fellaini return to Goodison on Sunday

Home from home: Former Everton stars Wayne Rooney and Marouane Fellaini return to Goodison on Sunday

Reminders that he failed to win a trophy at Everton clearly rankle with Moyes, as do suggestions that his old club have prospered under Roberto Martinez while he has led the Premier League  champions into decline.

Martinez has already broken the club’s Premier League points record set under Moyes and  Everton lead United by nine points as they look to secure a Champions League place for the first time since that Ferguson winner.

Moyes can still catch his old club, but either way he feels that recognition is due for the job he did in building the current team.

New regime: Roberto Martinez has already broken the club's Premier League points record set under Moyes

New regime: Roberto Martinez has already broken the club's Premier League points record set under Moyes

‘You judge success by trophies quite often,’ he added. ‘But certain clubs you have to judge by how they’ve progressed and where they’ve got to.

‘At Everton we couldn’t make big steps, it had to be small steps. I did my job for Everton. We sourced the majority of the players and put them towards the team.

‘Roberto has done a great job. I think he’s picked up a really good group of players. There are some top senior players there and there has always been a chain of young players ready to go in the team, and I think that’s helped.

‘We had a great recruitment department, a brilliant staff, all around the club. It’s a well-run club.’

Success? Everton failed to win a trophy under David Moyes but did reach the FA Cup final in 2009

Success? Everton failed to win a trophy under David Moyes but did reach the FA Cup final in 2009

United’s two former Everton players, Wayne Rooney and Fellaini, have trained this week and are expected to be in the squad to face their old club. They are unlikely to take too much of the heat away from a hostile reception for Moyes, however. Martinez, for one, has no problem with that.

‘You need to understand that we have four games left in the season and we are facing Manchester United,’ said the Everton manager. ‘We are in a position where that brings huge rivalry and now the manager of Manchester United is going to be a person who is not nicely welcomed at Goodison. I think that is healthy.

‘I’m sure if David Moyes had had a sabbatical year, now he would be very much loved by the fans. He would always be more than  welcome at Goodison.’ 

Unfortunately for Moyes, things didn’t turn out that way. On Sunday, the fans who once worshipped him will let him know about it.

 

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Moyes talked down his time at Everton in the excitement of getting the United job - wanting to get out of OT alive, telling Everton they were holding back Baines by not selling him etc.

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Moyes has let himself down in the last year but evertonians should respect the steady job he did and refrain from vilifying the man. He has been like a rabbit in the headlights at Man Utd and I think it's effected his judgements and trying to poach 2players on the cheap lacked class. But Everton you got 27m for a mop so alls well that ends well I say!!

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I understand Moyes coming back for some of our players, cause they are his players. But at least show some respect, and don't say we are holding back their careers because you would never have put up with someone saying that if you were still here. Always on about the grass isn't greener, and he mentioned Fellaini and Baines quite a lot during that transfer saga from a man who always says "I don't talk about other players at other clubs" hypocrite...I'm not being funny but you are Manchester United the biggest club in the world, you can buy almost any player you want but you want to come to us and disrupt our team?? But I hope he gets a decent reaction he stabilized our club and we can thank him for most of our players. I feel bad for the season he has had. But then again I don't feel too bad for a person who would get his millions if he gets the sack...

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I and most evertonians realized this was a done deal 6 months before fergie announced his departure, hence moyes not signing a new contract, therefore no compensation. To say anything else which he did was treating efc fans as fools. fools we re not, screwed over we were

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No you didn't!

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He looks so young in that picture walking out for the last time, says it all really. I didn't want Fellaini or Baines (though wouldn't have minded the latter out of the two) but the way he went about it was a joke and for then to say if Sir Alex was still in charge then he (David) would find it hard to hold on to them which is such BS as he blocked potential moves when they were linked before he took us over. As a United fan I appreciate what he done at Everton on such a low budget but they never played attractive football that was good on the eye say like a United, how totally (not) random that Everton play class now and United don't. So random!

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Moyes - it is not what you did, or what you tried to do that alienates me, IT WAS HOW YOU DID IT. Nasty

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Moyes tried to buy Fellaini & Baines for a bargain but ended up overpaying for Fellaini. The CLUELESS ONE & his antics never fail to embarrass the club. His appointment was entirely the fault of the MU board & the disinterested Glazers.

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Go support your Changi beer football team. You plastic clown.

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