David Moyes' road to 750 Premier League matches, from Everton to West Ham and back

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The contest at the London Stadium also gives us a chance to look back at the career of the Premier League’s third-most experienced manager. Only Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson have taken charge of more games than Moyes’ remarkable 749 in the English top-flight across spells with Everton (two), Manchester United, Sunderland, and West Ham (also two). !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-pu99y']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r “I’m a bit closer (to Wenger and Ferguson) than I thought I was,” Moyes told his pre-match press conference on Friday. “I thought they were miles away. I’ve always said that I don’t want to be too grey or too far on the touchline, and I’m starting to become both, so that is a problem. “I am enjoying my football. I feel young, the players keep me young and as long as I keep up the energy, then I am happy to keep going.” A lot has changed since the now-62-year-old’s first Premier League match, which was a 2-1 win for Everton against Fulham in March 2002. Here, The Athletic looks back at 10 defining moments from his career. It did not take Moyes long to make a positive impression on Merseyside. “I am joining the people's club,” he declared in his first press conference as manager, after encountering children in Everton shirts on the way to their Goodison Park home. “The majority of people you meet on the street are Everton fans.” The Scot’s arrival from Preston North End in March 2002 galvanised a club that appeared to be drifting towards relegation. He was viewed as one of the country’s top coaching prospects — a ‘tracksuit manager’ who would play a hands-on role in training, and a welcome tonic after the bleakness of his predecessor Walter Smith’s tenure. Ironically, Smith had given his countryman a ringing endorsement when consulted on the potential appointment. Moyes’ new side beat Fulham at Goodison in his opening game, with David Unsworth scoring the opener after just 27 seconds. The new manager then led Everton to safety with four wins and a draw in his first seven games in charge. Everton were tipped as relegation contenders before the 2004-05 season, his third full campaign in charge. They had finished 17th the previous term, ending with a 5-1 defeat at Manchester City, and the club had to sell Wayne Rooney to stay afloat. But Moyes recruited well. Forward Marcus Bent was an unglamorous addition from Ipswich Town but offered work rate, while Tim Cahill added goals and bite from midfield, joining from Millwall. Everton were spurred on by criticism. In pre-season, captain Alan Stubbs printed copies of the Liverpool Echo’s response to the City defeat — the headline read “taking the piss” — and distributed them among the squad. Moyes used it to fuel an unlikely charge for fourth place. “We had a pre-season trip to Houston where we really bonded as a team,” former midfielder Lee Carsley told The Athletic’s Gwlad Tidings podcast in May 2020. “That team had character — a nice blend of players who had influence in the dressing room — and pride in playing for Everton. Togetherness and resilience. We never gave up.” Come August of the following season, Everton were unfortunate to encounter Spanish side Villarreal in the Champions League third qualifying round. Midfielder Mikel Arteta was said to have exclaimed “Oh no” upon hearing the draw. Everton were left to rue Duncan Ferguson’s late disallowed goal in the second leg, which would have taken the tie to extra time. They were furious that Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, who was brought out of retirement for the game, deemed Bent to have committed a foul in the build-up to Ferguson’s header. Villarreal went on to reach the Champions League semi-finals that season. It proved to be a Sliding Doors moment for Moyes and his squad, who took a while to recover. Everton have not reached the Champions League since. Everton scout Mick Doherty was watching his son Sean play for Irish side Sligo Rovers in 2008 when he noticed a raw but energetic Seamus Coleman. “The standard was crap, but I said to David: ‘Take this kid,’” Doherty told The Athletic. That £60,000 ($81,000 at current exchange rates) transfer is one of the best deals in Everton’s history — and across the Premier League. During his first spell on Merseyside, Moyes showed a keen eye for high-value signings. Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines — now a first-team coach under Moyes — and Joleon Lescott were all plucked from the Championship and became England players. Arteta and South Africa winger Steven Pienaar were given a fresh lease of life at Goodison. Moyes did most of the recruitment himself. He would often attend matches with chairman Bill Kenwright and watch potential targets up to 10 times before signing them. It earned him the nickname ‘dithering Dave’, but that savvy recruitment — often on a shoestring budget — allowed his Everton sides to regularly punch above their weight. Julian Alvarez and future Liverpool forwards Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz are some of the players Moyes missed out on signing during his second spell at West Ham. But he was at his best finding hidden gems in Europe and signing unpolished talents from the Championship. The end of Moyes’ brief Manchester United tenure — which lasted little over nine months from July 2013 to April 2014 — came in painful fashion, and on familiar ground. His final game was a 2-0 defeat at Goodison, with goals scored by Baines and Kevin Mirallas, two of those players he had signed for Everton. Sympathy was in short supply on Merseyside that day. He was given a rough reception by Everton fans, some of whom were unhappy with how he left for Manchester United and his summer pursuit of left-back Baines and Marouane Fellaini, the Belgian midfielder who moved to Old Trafford on deadline day. Moyes was out of contract at the end of the 2012-13 season, and the story went that he was anointed as Ferguson’s successor during a meeting at his fellow Scot’s house. After United’s final home game that season, a 2-1 win against Swansea, Ferguson famously told fans: “Your job now is to stand by our new manager”. United won the title by 11 points. But the coaches Ferguson thought would stay on to provide continuity — Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen, and Eric Steele — left when Moyes wanted to go his own way, and the scale of the club was a rude awakening for the new boss on the club’s pre-season tour of Australia. Back at United’s Carrington base, senior players who had been used to Ferguson’s way of working pushed back on Moyes’ methods — and results were poor. When United lost 2-0 away to Greek side Olympiacos in the Champions League round of 16 in February, executive chairman Ed Woodward took a photograph of the scoreboard and kept it as a reminder that United should not sink to such a low again. By the time Moyes returned to Everton in April, things had fully unravelled. A publicity stunt from a bookmaker saw a fan in Goodison’s Family Enclosure, dressed as the Grim Reaper, stalk Moyes’ every move during the 2-0 defeat. It was an omen for what was to come. He was sacked two days later, with United in seventh place in the Premier League and unable to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1995, bringing to an end a hugely disappointing spell. Patrick Boyland and Laurie Whitwell Moyes moved to San Sebastian side Real Sociedad in November 2014, seven months after that unceremonious end to his time at Old Trafford, aiming to rebuild his reputation. Two months in, he had a statement win. The Basque team welcomed a Barcelona squad featuring Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta and Xavi to their Anoeta stadium in January 2015, scored an early goal and clung on for dear life against the soon-to-be treble winners. “We scored a quick goal and it felt like the longest 89 minutes of my career as we tried to keep Barcelona out,” Moyes later told The Athletic. “Xavi came up to me after the game and shook my hand. They lose well.” Shutting out a side starring Messi (who had started that game on the bench) turned out to be the highlight of Moyes’ 12 months as La Real coach — when he charmed the locals with attempts to pronounce Basque words (calling midfielder Asier Illarramendi “Irramendi” aside), but did not get the team playing the football he wanted. In November 2015, a year after taking charge, he was sacked with the team outside the relegation zone on goal difference. The merciful end came three weeks after Sunderland’s surrender to relegation in May 2017. Ten unbroken years of Premier League football were over at the Stadium of Light and Moyes was unable to muster the enthusiasm required to rebuild an ailing club in the Championship. His resignation came without compensation, but that it was accepted so readily by Sunderland fans spoke volumes of their miserable time together. Moyes’ 38 Premier League games as Sunderland manager yielded just six wins and 29 goals. Fifteen of those came from Jermain Defoe, the one ray of light in an otherwise horrendous campaign that saw relegation confirmed with four games still to play. Moyes could justifiably point towards the deep-rooted shortcomings of a dysfunctional club under the ownership of Ellis Short — and the only wonder was that he lasted a whole season on Wearside. The then-club record £14million signing of Didier Ndong was disastrous, as were Moyes’ attempts to bring his Everton band back together with the signings of Victor Anichebe, Pienaar, Bryan Oviedo and Darron Gibson. Moyes even incurred an FA charge when saying a female journalist “might get a slap” during an off-camera exchange, which he later apologised for and said he “deeply” regretted. It was an inglorious end to a reign that was supposed to offer so much more. Moyes has fond memories of his time at West Ham, even if both spells ended in disappointing fashion after delivering some standout results. He returned for his second stint in December 2019 with a point to prove. In his first, from 2017-2018, he achieved the stated aim of keeping them in the Premier League, taking a side that was 18th and falling fast to a comfortable lower midtable finish. But the board went in a new direction, appointing Manuel Pellegrini — with the Chilean lasting 18 months, before the club came crawling back to Moyes. His four-and-a-half years in charge the second time round saw him help West Ham avoid relegation again, brought stability and three European campaigns in a row — one of which ended in the most glorious way possible (more on that later). But, by the end of the 2023-24 season, it felt like a natural end to Moyes’ time at the club, despite the board initially being keen to renew his contract. The team had shown signs of regression, not least in heavy defeats to Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Chelsea. “We beat Arsenal on December 28, at the Emirates, and that day the club had offered me a new contract,” he told The Overlap. “We then went on a three-game losing streak, lost to Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, and I hadn’t signed the contract as I wasn’t sure if I should stay. “The contract wasn’t a great contract but David Sullivan (the majority shareholder) withdrew the contract just off the back of those results. We then said we’d wait and make a decision at the end of the season.” Come May 2024, Moyes’ departure was not a surprise. But the poor replacements thereafter have undone most of his good work. Two years on and West Ham are battling against relegation to the Championship. "The years I was there, we had two seasons fighting relegation,” Moyes told his pre-match press conference on Friday. “I couldn't look at the results, didn't want to look at the league table when the results were coming in because I was so anxious about not getting relegated. I was desperate for it not to happen." It is in times like these where they could do with someone like Moyes… Of all the managers Declan Rice has played under, Moyes has arguably had the biggest impact. Rice became an ever-present at West Ham, developing into a £100million player and was appointed captain in 2022 after Mark Noble’s retirement. Rice was named the club’s player of the year in 2020, 2022 and 2023. “The first spell I was very young and was learning my trade and playing centre-half,” Rice said in March 2022, as quoted by The Sun. “Then, it was funny because when he came back for the second spell, he came over and said to me, ‘You’ve got better, haven’t you?!’ “I looked at him and started laughing, and from that moment on we’ve had such a good relationship. The confidence he puts into me is massive and means I can go out and perform when a manager believes in me like that. It’s good to be regarded in that way. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the manager.” Lifting that Conference League title in 2023 and his terrific solo goal against Belgian side Gent that same year were among his best moments under Moyes, who often reminds people that Rice was actually sold below his valuation, having joined Arsenal for £105million in the summer of 2023. It is one of the reasons why Arsenal supporters chant: “Declan Rice, we got him half price.” Rice commanding such a fee was down to Moyes unlocking his full potential. The 2023 Conference League title, West Ham’s first trophy since 1980, remains the crowning achievement of Moyes’ managerial career. He always wanted to win silverware, and gave his medal to his father after West Ham’s 2-1 win against Fiorentina in Prague. Moyes was teary-eyed when he spoke to the press after the game. Those joyful scenes in Prague were fuelled by the disappointment of the previous year, when West Ham lost to Eintracht Frankfurt in a fiery Europa League semi-final, a defeat that saw Moyes almost narrowly missing a ballboy when furiously volleying a stray ball at full time. That run was a huge bonding experience for that side, who would feast on fast food on those late journeys home from European trips. “The whole experience will live with me forever,” Rice told TNT Sports later in 2022. “We used to come back from places like Vienna (Austria), we'd have to stay in Stratford, get back at like 1am and we'd be eating McDonald's. Me, Nobes (Mark Noble) and Cress (Aaron Cresswell). “It just felt so special and the next day we'd have a laugh over breakfast. We were away a lot but it was really special. I look back at it now, and we'd go back to those days tomorrow.” The setback they experienced fuelled their determination for European glory the following season. Moyes organised a team bonding trip to Portugal in the build-up to the final and their unity began to shine through. After the final, the squad celebrated at the Mandarin Oriental hotel long into the night. Hours before that, Moyes had danced to The Proclaimers’ hit song I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) in the dressing room. It was done in a matter of days. Barely 24 hours after Sean Dyche had left his position as Everton manager in January 2025, Moyes agreed to a return following talks with the club’s new owners, The Friedkin Group (TFG). The following day, his appointment was confirmed. Moyes had come close to returning to Everton on three separate occasions, most notably in December 2019, when he was verbally offered the role, before Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli dismissal prompted a late change of heart from then-owner Farhad Moshiri. The Scot had rejected overtures from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City but could not resist the emotional pull of Everton. He met with Coleman and Baines before accepting the job and was convinced he could help the club avoid relegation, provided certain tweaks were made. Moyes initially harboured real concerns over Everton’s top-flight status, and they lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa in his first game back. But a run of four wins in his next five games saw them quickly move clear of trouble. This season, he has steered Everton into European contention, mirroring both his first stint at Goodison and the job he did at West Ham. At 62, the fire still burns. He is looking to cement his legacy on Merseyside by steering them back into European competition or ending the club’s long trophy drought, dating back to 1995. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms