Everton’s David Moyes, the manager who signed up Australian Tim Cahill into top-flight soccer, believes the majority of clubs have become short-sighted when it comes to the hiring and firing of managers.
The Scot admits he has probably surprised himself with the length of his stay at Goodison Park, where he will celebrate 10 years in charge next week.
And while he has done a good job in that decade he knows that without the backing of chairman Bill Kenwright he would not have survived as long.
“It doesn’t seem like 10 years. The fans used to sing ‘He’s got red hair and we don’t care’ – well it’s grey hair now and I do care,” said Moyes, who is the third longest-serving Premier League manager behind Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.
“The wrinkles are getting a bit deeper but if you come into football management you have to expect that – but what I probably didn’t expect when I came in on that first day was to be standing here 10 years on.
“In today’s society we look to change managers around very quickly.
“I am very grateful I was given a chance to manage at Everton and I am incredibly thankful they have stuck by me for 10 years. But you look at some of the longer-serving managers – Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene – and it should be more of the norm than not.
“I didn’t aspire to [be like] them because I wanted to be my own man, to compete against them and beat them and that has obviously been very difficult over the years.
“But if you look at how well they have done, moved their teams on, and you get sad when you look at clubs getting rid of their managers very quickly,
“You think ‘Is it really going to make it that much better?’.
“A lot of credit has to go to Bill Kenwright, first of all for giving me an opportunity and having the foresight to pick a young manager who was in the lower leagues trying to find his way in the game and take a chance on him.
“I think the manager-chairman relationship is really important. If anyone thinks it is a love-in then far from it, that is not the case.
“But over the 10 years Bill has never been critical of anything we have done, he has only ever been supportive, and because of that it has made the relationship easy to work with.
“No-one needs to criticise me because I criticise myself more than anyone else would ever do.”
Moyes said a supportive chairman would be one of the first things he would look for at a club.
“I do a lot of work with the Pro-Licence groups all over Europe and the first thing I say to them is you have to get a good chairman,” he added.
“Someone who is not going to get too high when you are winning and not too low when we lose, not phoning you every five minutes to see what you are doing.
“You need someone who is reliable, consistent and realises the job you are trying to do and I have been fortunate to have a chairman like that.”
Moyes’s relationship with Kenwright was forged on a Wednesday night back in March 2002 when he, as Preston boss, he received an unexpected phone call from the Everton chairman.
“It was a Wednesday night and I was driving down to see Bristol Rovers play,” recalled Moyes.
“I said ‘I’m not coming to see you now Bill, I’ve got to do my work for Preston’.
“So we watched the game, then drove up to London about one o’clock in the morning.
“They made me a bit of dinner and we sat and talked. I probably got back in the car about three or four in the morning to drive back to Preston knowing in the next two or three days I could be Everton manager if they could agree something.
“Ever since that day I think it has been a good relationship; hopefully for me with the chairman but also me with the club as well.”
Moyes has been credited with discovering some good players on a budget and turning them into better ones. Here are five of his best.
Nigel Martyn (free, from Leeds 2003). Rated by Moyes as his best signing. Made 100 appearances in three years and was pivotal in them achieving highest Premier League position of fourth, qualifying for the Champions League, in 2005.
Tim Cahill (STG1.5 million from Millwall, 2004). Regarded by many as the manager’s best signing. The Australia international has provided goals and drive from midfield and continues to excel.
Mikel Arteta (STG2 million, from Real Sociedad, 2005). The Spaniard was the major creative force in Everton’s midfield for a long time and it was a real wrench when he left last summer.
Phil Neville (STG3.5million, from Manchester United, 2005). His arrival possibly did not have fans leaping out of their seats but in the intervening period has proved his worth to the club, which he now captains.
Leighton Baines (STG6 million, from Wigan, 2007). Baines has probably been the most consistent performer over the period he has been at the club and has developed into one of the Premier League’s best left-backs.