Everton drew 4-4 at Manchester United on April 22, 2012, prompted Sir Alex Ferguson to lay into Blues boss David Moyes
David Moyes has now been back in charge of Everton for 15 months but admitted he was shocked to be offered the Manchester United manager’s job by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013 after Britain’s most-successful football boss accused the Blues of trying harder against his own side than when they’d faced Liverpool the week before.
After previously being in charge at Goodison Park between 2002-13, Moyes was hand-picked by Ferguson to be his successor at Old Trafford but he was surprised to be chosen by his fellow Glaswegian after the pair’s foul-mouthed disagreement a year earlier.
In 2012, Everton – who were on the brink of finishing above their rivals from across Stanley Park for the first of two consecutive seasons – threw away a half-time lead in their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool to lose 2-1 to Kenny Dalglish’s side. However, eight days later on April 22 – 14 years ago today – they battled back from being 4-2 down against Manchester United with just seven minutes to go to draw 4-4 and hand Manchester City the initiative in the title race ahead of the team Ferguson had dubbed “The Noisy Neighbours” winning the Premier League for the first time.
Following the end of his second stint at West Ham United in 2024, Moyes told The Rest Is Football podcast: “If I told you I’d been contacted at that time by – I don’t know – 10 teams. I’d been 11 years at Everton and there was part of me saying: ‘I don’t want to overstay my welcome’ and every year we just couldn’t break in because we didn’t have enough money to really go again.
“I didn’t want to stay the next year and one of the years where we’d end up at the bottom, so a lot of clubs had phoned me. The Man United one, I’d fallen out with Alex a little bit because we’d drawn four each with them the year before which let Man City win the league.
“Sir Alex had said to me that we’d tried harder in that game than we did against Liverpool in the semi-final of the FA Cup at Wembley. I said to him: ‘Do you know what I’d have done to beat Liverpool as Everton manager at Wembley in the semi-final of the FA Cup? I’d have given anything!’
“At that time we were actually a better team than Liverpool but we lost 2-1. The next week we drew four each and it was the usual as you go into Alex’s room and it’s great wine but he never looked at me, he kept looking at the racing on the telly and he said: ‘You should have f****** tried as hard as that last week.’”
Everton will be looking for another positive response to a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool after losing the historic first Merseyside Derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday. Like in 2012, when the Reds fielded Brad Jones with Pepe Reina and Doni both out, the Blues failed to take advantage of their neighbours being forced to play their third-choice keeper with Giorgi Mamardashvili having to be replaced by Freddie Woodman after being injured in a challenge when Beto equalised.
The Blues face Moyes’ previous employers West Ham United at the London Stadium on Saturday on what is the Scot’s 63rd birthday.