Blue blood

David Moyes is one of the most respected managers in British football.

Born in 1963, he made 24 appearances for a title-winning Celtic side, before moving to Cambridge United, and then to Bristol City, Dunfermline and Preston North End. After retirement, Moyes became manager of Preston in 1998, leading them from Division Two (then the third tier) to the 2001 Division One (now Championship) play-off final – which they lost 3-0 to Bolton.

Taking Preston to within 90 minutes of the Premier League raised Moyes’s profile, and in 2002, he became Everton’s manager. He was Blues boss until 2013, when he left to join Manchester United following the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.

After spells at Sunderland, Real Sociedad and West Ham United, where he won the 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League, Moyes has returned to Everton, the club rejuvenated by their move to the stunning new Hill Dickinson stadium.

In the summer, Christopher Ward joined Everton in Atlanta as part of the Premier League’s Summer Series. At the team’s hotel, David Moyes sat down with Christopher Ward CEO – and Everton fan – Mike France to talk about his life in football, the people who inspired him and how he’s planning to help Everton get back to the upper echelons of English football.

“You had to win, but you had to win with style”

Mike France: Hi David! Do you like bringing Everton to the US?
David Moyes: Yeah! We used to come to the States a lot, probably before it was fashionable, but we were coming to play MLS teams, not Premier League sides. We could train the players, and then we could say to them, “Go out if you want to.” And nobody bothered us.

MF: Not many people knew the players then
DM: Yes. So it was a little bit easier. But it's amazing how far it’s come in 10 or 15 years. They know so much more about the Premier League now.

MF: You’re quite a private person. But I’ve been doing some background investigation! Tell me about the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden.
DM: We moved to Bearsden when I was about 12. My dad was a teacher, who’d previously been a pattern maker for the shipbuilding trade in Glasgow docks. Then he got a job as a college lecturer. My mum worked in a couple of clothes shops.

MF: Having a lecturer for a father is unusual for a footballer…
DM: Yeah, it was. My dad was in charge of the college football team at Anniesland College, and he also ran Drumchapel Amateurs. I found myself going to football in the morning watching Anniesland College, then Drumchapel Amateurs in the afternoon. Dad would bring the dirty strips back home, mum would wash them, then put them on the washing line. He didn’t do it for money, he did it because he loved football.

MF: What about school?
DM: I went to Bearsden Academy, which was a good school. We had a decent school team which I was involved in. I was usually the captain. I might have had a bit more to say for myself than others!

MF: You went to Celtic Boys Club. Were you set on being a footballer?
DM: I didn't really have anything else. I wasn’t hugely educated – as you can tell by my interviews over the years!

MF: You’re doing yourself down…
DM: No, I’m not. I had great teachers who were really supportive. In my final years, before I became a full-time player with Celtic, they used to let me out on a Friday. I think the school saw there was a chance I might do something a bit ‘handy’. I also played for Scottish schoolboys, which was great, and I was building up a bit of a reputation. Celtic were a fantastic football club, brilliant people.

MF: Who was manager at the time?
DM: Billy McNeill [who’d lifted the European Cup for Celtic in 1967] was the manager. And he was very good to me. He’d been a central defender, and because I was a young central defender I related to him. He helped me a lot. 

MF: There’s a surprising link between you and Iceland, isn’t there?
DM: Actually, the Westman Islands, which are just off the south coast of Iceland. My dad used to take football teams out there – he later got the Icelandic equivalent of a knighthood for this. When they came to Glasgow, my mum and a few others would cook all the food downstairs in the kitchen. I was asked if I’d go coaching there with some kids – I’d have been about 16 – and that played a part in where I am now. 

MF: That led to you taking your coaching badges early, didn’t it?
DM: I was 21. They used to send you to Largs, which is the equivalent of Saint George's Park [England team HQ]. It was run by Andy Roxburgh, who was the manager of the Scottish under-18s team, which I was captain of. I really enjoyed it. A lot of people like Sir Alex Ferguson, [ex-Dundee United manager] Jim McClean and [former Everton boss] Walter Smith gave up their time to coach the coaches.

MF: Why did you get your badges so young?
DM: I thought it would make me a better player. I left Celtic and came south into England to play. They had their own coaching courses, and I was worried they didn’t recognise the Scottish ones, so I did the English badges, too!

MF: When you played football, what kind of a captain were you? Did you have a big voice?
DM: I think I did. At the time, Scotland was an aggressive coaching country. You’d look at the floor when the manager spoke because you didn’t want to catch his eye. So there was maybe a bit of that in my captaincy.

MF: Football science and management has always been of a real interest, hasn't it?
DM: Absolutely. I had a great playing career, but it wasn’t at the top, I wasn’t winning trophies. But when I went into management, I knew I was going to have to try and see if I could be better. For example, at Everton, we’d sit down every Thursday afternoon after training and sift through videos of the opposition. “What could we do to beat them up? What are they going to do to cause us problems?” Then I’d say, “What game are we going to on the way home?” And we’d drop in at the last minute. At that time, Tranmere or whatever games were on, and those matches gave us great knowledge of the lower leagues. My style came from my early days at Celtic – you had to win, but you had to win with style.

MF: Onto the present day. Everton have got a brilliant stadium: can the fans play their part?
DM: We need the support probably as much as ever. If we don’t get ‘Goodison’ inside the ground, we might find ourselves in difficulty, so they [the fans] have to play a huge part. And we need to give them a team which they can be proud of. I’d like to see us challenging for Europe.

MF: You’ve got a unique relationship with Evertonians…
DM: My family was really embedded in Everton when I was first here. You know, my son is here [in the US] just now. My brother was up in New York watching the games. My dad was scouting for Everton, he moved down to Preston where we were living. Obviously, I’ve had to work for other clubs, but I think if they were all being honest, my family were always Blues.

MF: Finally, how do you look at your career from now?
DM: I’ve had longevity as a Premier League manager, but I’ve not won enough trophies and I’ve not challenged for enough trophies. It hurts, it gets under your skin. In my first time here, we had a great period of 11 years of regularly qualifying for Europe. So what we need to get back is that feeling of competing with the big sides. And I have to say, if you look at our results last year, and if we can keep that up this season, we’ll be in a very healthy position.