David Moyes has finally become Sunderland manager, after being offered the role numerous times in the past.
“He was my number one managerial target for the last five appointment,” Black Cats’ chairman Ellis Short said upon appointing the Scot as Sam Allardyce’s successor.
Sunderland’s last five managers have been the current England boss, Dick Advocaat, Gus Poyet, Paolo Di Canio and Martin O’Neill. Which means that Short first attempted to get Moyes to the Stadium of Light in December 2011.
The Sunderland owner said that Moyes’ “desire to honour existing contracts” was the reason he was unable to appoint him in the past.
However, the former Manchester United manager gave a different, rather negative, reason when asked why he didn’t take the job last October when Advocaat resigned and Allardyce was appointed.
“The main reason was because I didn’t think they could stay up, so what Sam did was amazing,” Moyes said at his opening press conference as Sunderland manager.
Rather than cite wanting to honour his contract with Real Sociedad, the club Moyes was managing at the time, the 53-year-old didn’t think he was capable of keeping them in the Premier League.
An honest admission from Moyes, but surely a manager of his experience in the top flight should back himself to keep a team in the division with seven months remaining in the season?
Moyes’ ambitions for this season are pretty straight forward – remain in the Premier League.
“I would take fourth bottom this season if I felt I had brought players in who would help us move forward and give us a backbone,” the former Everton manager said.
“We’re even lower on numbers than in May — we need to get some players in to improve. I need competition for places. At the moment, we don’t have that.”
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