| bbfan1991 |
14-07-2013 12:40 PM |
Quote:
There is a word that David Moyes conjures with that is pure Glaswegian: gallus. It relays a mix of cheek, front, a bit of chutzpah and belief.
The new Manchester United manager uses it in answering a question about Jose Mourinho’s return to the Premier League with Chelsea and whether he is prepared for any sparring. But Moyes is talking about himself. And how he is big enough; big enough for United.
“When you are a boy from Glasgow, you are quite gallus,” Moyes explains at the start of United’s extensive three-week pre-season tour, starting in Thailand.
“It means you have been through a lot in your time.” And also have that confidence to express it. While Moyes has struck an understandably deferential tone, on occasions, in discussing the scale of his new job, not just taking over at United but taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson, who anointed him, he will be his own man. It is the only way.
It is why in praising the professionalism, the desire to win, the technical height of the United players he has already delivered his first, blunt dressing-down. It did not take long. And there have been others since.
It came in his first week in charge and on the training field: a domain that Moyes, who loves to coach, intends to dominate just as he did for a decade at Everton and has done throughout his managerial career.
“I told them [the players] to get their finger out and give a bit more,” Moyes explains. “I have no problem with that. It was to let them know this is what is going on. I cannot call it the hairdryer – I think someone else has already done that.”
Like Fergie’s hairdryer; the rebuke had the desired effect. “When you work with top players, if they think they have not got it right it is ‘no problem, you are right, we’ve got the message, we did not do it that well’,” Moyes says.
“The top players are inspiring me. Good coaches see it – and see what the players need. The players see it. I have seen Ryan [Giggs] pull one or two and seen Rio [Ferdinand] say to some of them: ‘Come on, you have to do a bit better’ – settle down a bit’.”
So is the Glaswegian ‘gallus’, for the boy from Bearsden, also a weapon? “I remember getting the manager’s job at Preston,” Moyes recalls, “and people were saying: ‘It shouldn’t be David Moyes, it should be Joe Royle or Ian Rush’. I had to fight that, a wee bit. Not so much at Everton. There was a general feeling at the end they wanted more than they could deliver.
I think the [United] job will come with pitfalls. There will be questions what to do. Hopefully I am tough enough to stand up for myself, when required.” Those who know Moyes know the word “hopefully” was superfluous in that answer.
There is not just Ferguson’s endorsement, plus the endorsement of an impressive six‑year contract at United, and the reassurances of the club’s owners, the Glazer family, but also a sense that with a British manager given the top club job in the country, Moyes has become a standard-bearer.
“A lot of British managers were looking out and thinking the top jobs were not available,” he acknowledges.
“They wanted to feel there were opportunities and it was not a closed shop. Hopefully they will see there is a way. There was a good feeling to me getting the job, there is a route for young managers in this country.”
Moyes, who recently turned 50, certainly feels he is “more equipped and ready” to take on the “new environment, new level, new standard” that United represents. “Professionalism,” Moyes says when asked to sum up what that stands for.
“The players have been really good. How committed they are to their training. Competitive is the big thing; incredibly competitive; a winning habit in a small game or possession game. There is a will to win. I can see it right through the club. I can see something in the players; their mentality. They feel good with it. They are comfortable as winners.
“There is a noticeable aspect about their play I have seen in training. It is one of the big things. It is fierce. They are at it. That has been really impressive. They have not held back.
“The technical level is something. There are lots of good players at Everton but here is excellent. I have been wowed by Ryan Giggs’s technical ability.
"Of course, I knew how good a player he was but getting close quarters and seeing how good he is with the ball is something I am now privy to.”
Giggs, who will be 40 in November, will be a player-coach (and definitely still important, Moyes says) with the new manager having shaken up his backroom staff, bringing in five from Everton including Phil Neville.
Other alterations will be less obvious, however. Indeed one of the significant challenges for Moyes is that “there’s a balance for me not to change things but to move them on a little bit”. He adds: “It’s not a case of me having to go and say: ‘This is terrible, I have to change that’.
“This [United] is a machine that works and there are a lot things I have to learn about it. But the players have a new manager in and they are still expecting ‘what is it you do?’ So it’s a case of getting that balance.”
Communication has been crucial. Moyes is determined to talk in detail to all the players during United’s epic tour to the Far East and Australia. On the flight to Bangkok he sat with Ferdinand while he has already tapped into Gigg’s desire to coach and not given up on eventually bringing Paul Scholes back to the club as part of his staff.
The squad, also, will develop although there is a clear message from Moyes that while the finances at United mean no player is theoretically beyond their reach he remains firmly committed to youth development.
“Isn’t it great that the club says: ‘There’s no budget here, you go get who you want to get, just go and do it’,” Moyes says.
“I will not name anybody but certainly we are always looking at the best players, we are interested in the best players and I definitely am. I am not going to take the focus away from trying to sign good players who are hungry and who are thinking of climbing the ladder.”
The first major signing, Moyes acknowledges, will be a significant moment. “I do think that it’s important that we show people we are carrying on the traditions and trying to take the club forward,” he says.
“But with the same breath we’d like to add one or two players to make the squad stronger as well. They might not necessarily be the top-end of the market. Sometimes the jigsaw puzzle of piecing it all together doesn’t always come exactly the way you want it but I’ve got a picture in my mind of what I’d like and I’m hoping to work towards that.”
Strengthening the midfield, Moyes acknowledges, where the first-team squad is “short” is the priority while, he adds, there is “no pressure to sell” any players. Despite United’s spending power he concedes “it’s a tough market out there” and highlights the emergence of Paris St-Germain as another challenge in Europe.
“There is probably a group of elite, top players who tend to choose between six or seven destinations and it always mean that because they are in demand it’s hard to agree a price to get them,” Moyes says.
“At Everton I would think ‘look at all the players they [United] could go for’. Now I am here, there is a group of players and a group who are not gettable. However much money you have. There is also a valuation. That is why you run a good business. From that point of view all those things have to come together. We are working hard on bringing good players in.”
His ‘sales’ pitch will be simple. “Manchester United speaks for itself, that’s the first thing. Manchester United as a football club and what they have done in world football, their position.
"But I would say to people ‘this is the start of something new, this is something I’m looking forward to do’ and I want them to be part of it. So I’m hoping to bring players in who are hungry for success and I will be saying ‘hey, that can help me as well, let’s work together’. I do feel that’s the way forward.”
Moyes says he feels “comfortable” in the role and is determined not to try to reinvent himself.
“My focus is not to change the reasons why people thought I was the right candidate for the job because if I was going to change it would mean I am starting again,” the United manager explains.
“My style will obviously be different from Sir Alex, it will be mine, but hopefully it will bring the same success as he has.”
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An interview The Telegraph did with David Moyes. I believe in our new Manager and he knows that the priority is to strengthen our Midfield! |
