EYES ON MAN UNITED BOSS: The Real David Moyes Revealed!
Hours after
Everton's goalless draw with Liverpool on 5 May, then-Toffees boss David
Moyes was in a pub in Preston buying his dad a pint. He
bumped into former North End team-mate Ian Bryson and the two men
chatted for a while - just two old colleagues catching up. There was no
hint of what was to unfold in the next few days.
By the end of
the week Moyes would be unveiled as the new manager of Manchester
United, signing a six-year deal to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson after the
71-year-old announced his retirement after 26 years in charge and
recommended his fellow Scot as his successor.
It is a huge challenge, but one the new United boss has been preparing for all his working life.
Moyes's
first significant foray into coaching was a four-year stint as
assistant to manager Gary Peters at Preston in the mid-1990s - a side
captained by Bryson.And when Peters eventually stepped aside in 1998 to take over at the club's fledgling academy, he - much
like Ferguson 15 years later - recommended to the board that Moyes should succeed him.
"He was always pushing the limits and I could not recommend him enough," Peters told BBC Sport. "Long before I took him on as my assistant he was taking notes all the time, every session.
"Even if you had asked me three or four years ago, I would have told you the only person who could take over from Sir Alex was David."
Moyes, now 50, had a modest playing career as a committed and durable central defender. After spells at Celtic and Cambridge United, he was signed by Terry Cooper for Bristol City as a 22-year-old in 1985.
"I was looking for a big no-nonsense centre-half and my word did I get one," said Cooper, a former England international full-back best known for his years at Leeds United.
"He just loved heading a ball. There was a big car park near Ashton Gate and he would insist I went out there with him after training and drop-kick balls so he could head them."
Cooper's son Mark, a former Peterborough manager and caretaker boss at Swindon, was an apprentice back then.
