The sight of 60-year-old David Moyes galloping down the touchline and shaving off a couple of decades or so in the process to celebrate Jarrod Bowen’s last-minute winner that secured his first major trophy was one of sport’s true magic moments and that has been reflected by how Merseyside football fans – poignantly both Everton and Liverpool supporters – have reacted to congratulate him.
Afterwards he quipped: “I couldn’t do a full Mourinho knee slide as the grass was a bit dry and I’d have ended up on my belly,” but boy did he enjoy the experience – and quite rightly so. These are the special occasions that dedicated football people like Moyes put in all the hard yards for to be rewarded with and in truth it’s been a long time coming.
West Ham United’s 2-1 victory over Fiorentina was the culmination of a lifetime’s work for the Glaswegian who has put in over a thousand matches as a manager to get to the point where he has got his hands on one of the game’s big prizes (nobody really counts the 2-0 Community Shield win over Wigan Athletic in his first fixture as Manchester United boss as that’s a piece of silverware which at times has been shared). The significance of the achievement in Prague was obvious in Moyes’ body language from the aforementioned dash with his arms raised, the hugs for captain Declan Rice with the trophy and changing room video footage that showing him dancing to the Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).
On top of that there was also the clip of the Hammers gaffer being embraced by his 87-year-old dad and a photographer placing his son’s medal around David Moyes senior’s neck for what will surely become a treasured family snap. Reflecting upon the mood of football fans of all clubs, Crystal Palace supporter Dan Cook tweeted from his HLTCO account: “You’d have to be dead inside not to smile at that.”
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Moyes’ upbringing and the values of hard work and decency instilled in him by both his parents, David senior and Joan (nee McAllister) – whose grave with a commemorative plaque on a seafront seat in her native Portrush, Northern Ireland he still regularly visits – have made him into the man he is today. David senior has spent even longer in football than his son and was a coach and then president of fabled Glasgow institution Drumchapel Amateurs, a club where both David junior and Sir Alex Ferguson both came through the ranks.
When Moyes was hand-picked by Ferguson to succeed him as Manchester United manager a decade ago, his dad said: “So many people have said to me I must be proud of David and I am.
“But not because he did a great job at Everton or that he is going to Manchester United. I’m proud because he has been such a fantastic son to me and his mother. He is a great dad and husband and has always had time for people.
“David has never forgotten where he comes from and hasn’t changed one bit through his career. He has grown into a great citizen and that’s what makes me really proud.”
It’s that striving for decency that shines through with Moyes, whether what he’s attempting to do works out or not, he always tries to do the right thing from a principled point of view. That’s why he’s probably too polite to say this himself but this triumph is sticking a big two fingers up to all those who have mocked him over the years.
Many don’t share his class and in April 2014 wacky banter merchants Paddy Power got a spectator to dress up as The Grim Reaper for Moyes’ Goodison Park return and wave an inflatable scythe at the Manchester United manager who was duly sacked 48 hours later just 10 months into a six-year contract after a 2-0 defeat to former club Everton. Then the following weekend the Irish bookmaker erected a mock 11-foot statue of the at-the-time unemployed boss with a plinth inscribed with the words: “Services to Liverpool Football Club.”
In truth, while Moyes was in fact a big rival to the Reds over his 11-year tenure across Stanley Park, starting from the moment he coined his “People’s Club” tag for Everton on the day of his appointment to finishing above them on three separate occasions – including in a season in which they won the Champions League – many fairer-minded Kopites don’t begrudge him this long-awaited success and have joined their Blue brethren in offering him their heartfelt congratulations. Most Evertonians seem made up to see their most-consistent manager of the Premier League era finally break his silverware drought but for them there is also a mood of wistfulness that their own longest-ever wait goes on.
A month before he took the Blues to their first and to date only cup final since their last success in 1995, he said: “Everton will win a trophy soon, that is for sure.” Over 28 years on from Paul Rideout’s headed winner against Manchester United though, the cabinet remains bare.
Back in 2009 when Moyes made his confident prediction though, having disposed of both Liverpool and Manchester United en route to the final, Everton found themselves up against it when facing a star-studded Chelsea side. Despite going ahead through Louis Saha after just 25 seconds – the fastest ever goal in FA Cup final history until Ilkay Gundogan’s 13-second strike for Manchester City last Saturday – the Blues were beaten 2-1 with future manager Frank Lampard netting the winner, an act he apologised for after his own appointment at Goodison Park.
Perhaps the best chance of glory for Moyes’ Everton was the UEFA Cup in 2007/08. After coming through another tricky two-legged affair against Ukrainians Metalist Kharkiv to reach the group stages, the Blues powered through to the knockout section with a 100% record that included a 3-2 win in Alkmaar to end the longest unbeaten home record in European competition which had seen AZ undefeated across 32 matches over 30 years while they also defeated a Zenit St Petersburg side that would lift the trophy the following May, 1-0 at Goodison.
This was an era in which Middlesbrough got to the final two years before and Fulham repeated the trick two years later but despite Norwegian champions Brann then being smashed 8-1 on aggregate, despite a dominant display in a last 16 second leg at home to Fiorentina – Moyes lamented: “We battered them” – Everton were eliminated in a penalty shoot-out. There must have therefore been a certain sense of poetic justice for him then that this triumph over 15 years later came against the Florentine outfit.
With its long-winded title, many have dismissed the UEFA Europa Conference League as something of an unwelcome distraction but when the top end of modern day club football in the Champions League is increasingly dominated by the regular cartel of sportswashers and tycoons, including the megalomaniacs behind the abhorrent circus of the European Super League plans, this final between a couple of success-starved clubs with passionate fanbases provided welcome relief. Moyes has just delivered West Ham’s first major prize since they became the last Second Division team to lift the FA Cup on May 10, 1980 – the week the SAS stormed the Iranian Embassy in London and Dexys Midnight Runners’ Geno was topping the charts.
In doing so has given every Irons fan under the age of 50 the greatest night of their footballing lives. Now that – rather than anything loyal but long-suffering Evertonians have experienced for a generation – is a true representation of “good times.”
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