David Moyes has a "tough gig" compared to Manchester City's Pep Guardiola whose 1000th game in management received great fanfare and the Everton boss has nothing to prove ahead of his side's trip to Manchester United insists Pat Nevin
Everton manager David Moyes won’t be concerned that he’s never won away at Manchester United. And he deserves more credit for his longevity in the profession after the recent fanfare over Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game because the Manchester City boss has it easy in comparison.
That’s the verdict of Moyes’ fellow Glaswegian Pat Nevin, who played 150 games for the Blues between 1988-92, scoring 21 goals after signing from Chelsea for £925,000.
Despite steering Everton to nine top-eight finishes, including a highest-ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05 and being named LMA Manager of the Year three times during his first spell in charge, Moyes never won a Premier League away game at Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United during his original 11-year tenure at Goodison Park.
Indeed, the only time the Blues have won at Old Trafford since the opening week of the Premier League when they would triumph 3-0 on August 19, 1992, against Alex Ferguson’s side, who were destined to be crowned champions for the first time in 26 years the following May, was on December 4, 2013, when Bryan Oviedo’s 86th-minute strike secured a 1-0 victory for Roberto Martinez’s men against Moyes’ Man United.
Since returning to Everton, Moyes has had two more trips to Anfield and one to Stamford Bridge, which have all ended in defeat, but Nevin doesn’t think the 62-year-old will be losing much sleep over his record in such matches ahead of a return to action against Ruben Amorim’s side on Monday night.
He told CasinoHawks: “Here’s the truth, David Moyes won’t care. That’s the reality, managers don’t care about things like that. It’s just another game, it’s three points.
“They try and get a point or three points from that game. If they walk away with one point and they still haven’t won there, they don’t care.
“There are a million stats you can go and dig up about different managers at different times.
“Here’s a slightly more important stat, I think it might be his 700th Premier League game. I think a lot of the things that people say: ‘Has he got something to prove?’
“Well, obviously not. You don’t get to 700 games, and he’s managed something like 1,150 games in total, you don’t know how rare this is at a very, very high level.
“It’s absolutely extraordinary that you can keep on going and look to still have the hunger.
“To stay on point with the changes in the game, that’s so impressive. When Pep Guardiola reached his 1,000th game, there was ticker tape and everyone was so excited about it.
“Yeah, good, and he’s done well with his millions of trophies.
“But when you’ve been doing it without all the money and all the best players and all the best teams, it’s a tough gig to stay in there.
“So, he’s got nothing to prove. Would he secretly smile to himself? Yeah. But it would be momentary. In all seriousness, it would be momentary.
“He’ll look at that league table and think, number one: ‘When are we safe?’ Number two: ‘When can I start looking up instead of down?’ Because when he can do that, he can really enjoy it a little bit.”