David Moyes – how did it all go wrong for him, and can he resurrect his career?
On New Year’s Eve, Sunderland were hosted by Burnley at Turf Moor. After some hustle and bustle in the opening 10 minutes, the Black Cat’s centre-back Lamine Kone crashes into the advertising hoardings. Thus, John O’Shea, who has started in midfield, is forced to play centre-back. Shortly afterwards, upon being inexplicably tackled by own teammate Papy Djilobodji, O’Shea heads the ball into the path of Andre Gray. 1-0 to Burnley, albeit aided by a Vito Mannone error. After a few minutes of painful Route 1 tactics in windy conditions, a flash of brilliance by Januzaj, who goes past one player, and then another, and plays a quick pass to Fabio Borini who, crucially, has his shot blocked. And then Victor Anichebe, the key ingredient of Sunderland’s mini-revival earlier in the season, loses the ball, and while sprinting to retrieve it, pulls his hamstring. Half-time score: Burnley 1 – 0 Sunderland. Two injuries, two substitutions, two schoolboy errors, one inconsequential moment of brilliance and zero cohesion – a microcosm of Sunderland’s season. Final score: Burnley 4 – 1 Sunderland.
Where did it all go wrong for David Moyes, one might wonder. In 2005, he was the blue-eyed boy of English football, having led Everton to 4th place in the Premier League. The fans, press and even other managers were fawning over him, in much the same way they do over Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, today. Those who have slightly longer memories will remember that the current Leeds United manager, Gary Monk, was also a promising English manager, who led Swansea to 8th place in 2015 – but he was sacked as well. As with players, there is no guarantee that early managerial promise translates to later legendhood. In fact, due to the reluctance of English managers to move abroad, compounded with the lure of television money for foreign managers, it is unlikely that we will ever see another great British manager.
But even considering all of this, the problem with David Moyes is slightly more complex. Sir Alex Ferguson revealed much after the fact, that Moyes was the 6th choice for the post of Manchester United manager, and was nominated as the “chosen one” purely because the other five (Guardiola, Mourinho, Klopp, Ancelotti and Van Gaal) were all under contract or had promised to take up new positions the following season. In short, the unavailability of others led to Mr. 6th choice being anointed as the next United manager. We know what happened next – a scene gorier than the combined Saw movie franchise.