David Moyes admits he picked up his thirst for winning during his early days as a player at Celtic.
The experienced Scottish manager is well-known for stints in the dugout at Everton, Manchester United, current club West Ham among others, but it was in Glasgow his professional football career started. After a stint at Drumchapel Amateurs, he joined Celtic and spent three years there before leaving in 1983 and going on to represent Cambridge United, Bristol City, Shrewsbury Town, Dunfermline, Hamilton and Preston prior to hanging up his boots.
Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, the 59-year-old insists much of his success in a senior career which spans five decades comes from lessons learned at Celtic. He said: "The fundamentals were that I learned so much (in his playing career). But my early days, when I started at Celtic was probably engraved in me more than anything because Celtic has an incredible tradition of winning. Obviously, Celtic had to win with style as well. Celtic were the biggest club, with Rangers, in Glasgow and in Scotland, I should say.
"And because of that, Celtic had to win, it was always so important. I could see, there was the first team, there was the reserves, there was the youth team and all the managers were under pressure to win. Then, if you did win, it was well, what was the score? You won 1-0? That’s not good enough, you need to win 3 or 4-0, you need to win by more goals.
“And how did you play? Well, we scored an own goal, or it was a scrappy goal. That’s not good enough, you have to win with style.
"So I think my early days, I was brought up with brilliant footballers. People who showed me, I don’t know if you want to call it a philosophy because philosophy might be much deeper and might offer much more, but it gave me something where I had to say, well, I have to win.
"I have to find a way of winning. If I can win with style, that’s even better but more importantly, I have to find a way of winning. And I picked that up probably from my early days at Celtic.”
There were managers throughout his playing career that Moyes was not keen on. But he looked back to his roots in Scotland for guidance along the way, with the West Ham boss currently looking to guide his side away from the EPL relegation zone amid mounting pressure on his job.
He added: I wasn't there (Celtic) that long as a senior player. I moved on and ended up bobbing around the Championship and a couple lower leagues in England for a long time. I came across some really good managers and some which weren't so good. I always tried to be respectful as that came from my background and upbringing."
