15/30 Interview – Davie Moyes

15/30 INTERVIEW – DAVIE MOYES

Davie Moyes is the manager of Premier League club Everton. He was born in Glasgow in 1963 where he began his career as an uncompromising defender. He went on to play at (Adrian Hanauer’s other club) Cambridge United, Bristol City, Dunfermline and Preston North End.

In 1998, he began his managerial career at the same club, Preston, before Merseyside giants Everton requested his services in 2002. Everton finished 7th, then 17th, then 4th, and since then Moyes has established Everton as the likeliest challengers to the leading pack of clubs in England, despite competing with them on a fraction of the resources.

Last season, he took the club to fifth ahead of Aston Villa, and Everton’s consistency and high profile was acknowledged when MLS invited them to be the opponents to their All Stars this season.

Davie was in Seattle training with his squad in Seattle ahead of the match when Prost Amerika spoke to him.

PROST AMERIKA: As the season’s starting and you’ve seen the guys initially in training, what are your thoughts for the upcoming season for Everton?

DAVIE MOYES: At this moment we’ve just only finished a couple of months ago so there’s not a great deal to go on. I’m hoping that we actually start the way we finished. We finished the season in England really well – the last six to ten games we had a good run, we finished in the Cup final at Wembley. I’m quite positive and hopeful we can get back on again and start the way we finished.

PROST AMERIKA: You’ve had a lot of praise in Everton and the country for doing very well with limited finance against guys with a lot more money, and then you see another club, Manchester City with big money to spend. How do you plan to take on clubs with these budgets, with what you’re working on?

DAVIE MOYES: Well, we’ve done it every other year, and we’ll continue to work within our means and try and get the best we can from the players.

PROST AMERIKA: Now I want to ask you a bit about the Merseyside Derby – you’ve the experience of all the big ones, Glasgow, Fife, and Liverpool. Talk a bit about the derbies that you’ve experienced and how they compare, and what’s the best about the Merseyside one?

DAVIE MOYES: I think there’s a lot of similarities, especially the big cities, Liverpool and Glasgow, the similarities – the rivalry between the teams is great, the football means an awful lot to the people and that’s what comes out in the derby games. I’ve been fortunate enough to play in the Glasgow derby. I’ve also been fortunate enough to manage in the Liverpool derby, and for different reasons, there’s a bit more pressure from some teams, but in the end there’re always good games in there that are important to the people.

PROST AMERIKA: Coming from a line of Dunfermline fans, I need to ask this. What are your memories of the Fife derby, against Raith Rovers?

DAVIE MOYES: Like anywhere they are important to the supporters of that club, and at Dunfermline Athletic it was the same. I think when you become a player a derby’s an important thing, you like that rivalry, you know there’s a real competition. I enjoyed my time at Dunfermline. I enjoyed the games up there.

PROST AMERIKA: Back to the current squad. Who is the easiest player to manage of the current squad?

DAVIE MOYES: Well we’ve actually got a really good group of players to manage and I’m very fortunate that they’re all within–they’ve all got on very well with each other and I certainly manage them as a unit.

PROST AMERIKA: You avoided that one quite cleverly.

DAVIE MOYES: (smiles) I sure did!

PROST AMERIKA: Is there any player out there in world football you’d really love to coach?

DAVIE MOYES: The top players are always important. I think (Bareclona’s Lionel) Messi. Everybody would want Messi and Kaka but they’re just slightly out of our price range at the present time.

PROST AMERIKA: On that subject of being out of the price range, when the Scotland job came up your name was obviously in the frame, but the in opinions of many you’re just now too big to manage Scotland.

DAVIE MOYES: I hope someday when I’m a bit older. I’m not interested in international management at present time. If I’m fortunate enough ever to be asked at a time which suits me then I’d be delighted because obviously Scotland means a lot to me. At this moment in time I’m more interested in club football and interested in succeeding there.

PROST AMERIKA: Now we have the press officer who’s English standing by us so this is a tricky one. I talked to Michael Ballack last week and asked him who he thought were Germany’s rivals for the World Cup and eventually after naming just about every other team, he got round to saying England.

He added, “I have to say that because I live there.” Are you brave enough to say that England have no chance?

DAVIE MOYES: Well being a Scottish journalist, I think that question is probably also very difficult for you to ask as well, but I think (laughs) obviously. But we don’t want to say that because we know that the English media will have England winning the World Cup before it’s even started, and that was always one of the things that those of us from Glasgow thought was strange. But England have a good chance, they have a good team and they have good players. When you look at Brazil, Argentina and Spain however, the competition’s very very tough to win.

PROST AMERIKA: Now to the All-Star Game. Many fans who have not lived here don’t really have much knowledge of this type of game. Has Tim Howard been quite helpful in explaining the importance of this and what an honour it is for Everton?

DAVIE MOYES: We’ve been coming to America for a few years now and we’ve always recognised the All-Star MLS team. I’ve seen them play against teams in recent years, I think Celtic was one of them and I think West Ham and a couple of other teams over the years. I know that it’s a game which I’m sure the players will be honoured to be selected for the MLS, as well as regarded as one of the best players in the league, so we’ll use it as another preparation to start the season but we do understand how important the game is for people over here.

PROST AMERIKA: What does it say about Everton’s standing as a global brand that you’ve been invited to this?

DAVIE MOYES: I think our branding in America is getting much stronger. Obviously Tim Howard is helping us, we’ve brought in a couple of young American players for the future to have a look at so I think that we are trying to enhance that reputation. We’ve been coming for a few years now so hopefully we’ve nearly been everywhere in America so hopefully they all know us now.

PROST AMERIKA: One last question about your opposite number in the All Star match, Dominic Kinnear. When did you become aware that you were up against another Glasgow boy in the MLS All Star game?

DAVIE MOYES: Only about a week ago, I found out that this was the case so I think it’s quite good to have a couple of Scotsmen in charge of the two teams.

PROST AMERIKA: I’m told it’s the first time ever that two managers from the same foreign country have done this MLS All-Star game. What does it say generally about Scottish managers around the world?

DAVIE MOYES: I think the Scottish coaches and managers have done great but obviously Sir Alex (Ferguson) is the man who probably we mostly owe the cup to, but obviously you have to go back to Jock Stein and Sir Matt Busby. You could go on and on with the people who know the excellence, even George Graham in England time after time you can reel them off. I’m sure we’ll both enjoy being Scottish and managing in the game over here.