Paul Gascoigne, who celebrates his 59th birthday today, presented David Moyes with a transfer 'nightmare' when he first arrived at Everton
Paul Gascoigne during his time at Everton
Paul Gascoigne during his time at Everton(Image: Michael Craig/Offside via Getty Images)
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Superstars Paul Gascoigne and Wayne Rooney were arguably the most talented English players of their respective generations, but David Moyes had to deal with them both at opposite ends of the footballing age spectrum as a rookie Premier League manager when he first arrived at Everton.
Moyes replaced the late Walter Smith in March 2002, arriving as a 38-year-old from Preston North End with no top flight experience. Over the next 11 years though, the Scot steered Everton to nine top half finishes – including a club record fourth position in the Premier League in 2004/05 – feats that brought him a hat-trick of LMA Manager of the Year awards.
Although much of that was achieved through developing a squad of hungry young players, Moyes originally inherited a squad containing luminaries like Paul Gascoigne, who celebrates his 59th birthday today, and would exit in the Glaswegian gaffer’s first week plus David Ginola who departed at the end of the season.
Dealing with such established names proved a daunting task but despite his lack of experience at the highest level at the time, Moyes was determined to do things his way. Speaking in his episode of Goodison Park: My Home in 2024, he told the ECHO: “When I was agreeing the deal, and it was actually in the Haydock Thistle Hotel, when Bill (Kenwright) and I shook hands on a deal, Bill says: ‘David, I’m able to give you £5million a year to spend,’ and I said: ‘fine, but here’s my side of the deal, what I want.’
“My side of the deal was that you don’t sell any players without my approval and I can do anything I want with the players – I can take them to the best hotels, I can take them away – and we shook hands on that deal. So that was it.
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“On the back of that, if we sold players and I got money in, we could add that on top. But he can only guarantee me £5million every year so I was fine at that time.
“Paul (Gascoigne) was on his way out to Burnley, which was a nightmare for me. As I was introduced on the Thursday night, Gazza was going to sign for Burnley, who were due to play Preston (that Sunday).
“I didn’t want Gazza to play for Burnley against Preston. I was saying: ‘I’m going to have to keep Gazza here!’ They’d have gone mad at Preston if I’d have done it. (let him go straight away, Gascoigne would end up making his Clarets debut at home to Bradford City the following Wednesday).
“We had David (Ginola) and Paul, so there were a lot of things for a young manager to come in and take charge of, but we had a couple of early wins that really helped us.”
Although Moyes would go on to bring in a host of new faces in the years ahead, the biggest youthful talent of all was already at the club at primed to be unleashed on the Premier League when he first stepped into the building, but that in itself brought challenges for the manager. He said: “Wayne was an unbelievable player so we don’t really need to mention that too much because everybody knows that. But I think how you handle any 16-year-old is very difficult.
“I don’t think it comes with a book that tells you how to deal with it. He was a proper Scouser, he had his own ways and was a tough boy, his own pals and ways of going about things.
“Going into being a professional is a big difference. He was still playing in the streets with his pals which was great and he was still going out.
“I’ve got to say that recently I had dinner with Wayne and he told me some unbelievable stories which if I think if was a manager now, I’d die if I heard them! I was really fortunate though and I remember Walter Smith saying to me: ‘you’re really lucky David, there’s a boy in the academy who’s a really good player, a boy called Wayne Rooney.’”
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