Tribal Football

Moyes: I'm extremely privileged to be Everton manager for today's Goodison farewell

Paul Vegas
Moyes: I'm extremely privileged to be Everton manager
Moyes: I'm extremely privileged to be Everton managerAction Plus
Everton boss David Moyes is proud to be in charge of the team today.

Everton will meet Southampton at noon on Sunday to mark the club's final match at Goodison Park.

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Moyes wrote in his match programme notes: "I am extremely privileged to be the manager of Everton Football Club today, on an occasion which is historic and poignant.

"To be managing an Everton team in front of so many wonderful former players, with so many great staff in attendance and so many respected former Everton managers watching on is a great honour.

"It is 23 years since I first walked out onto the Goodison pitch as Everton manager. The nervousness might not have shown on that first matchday against Fulham but I can assure you that on my walk out onto the pitch, my hands were clenched tightly because I was so nervous and unsure where this journey would go.

"Thankfully, David Unsworth popped a goal in after 32 seconds which made me feel so much easier, and helped me quickly become accepted by the Evertonians."

 

The People's Club

Moyes also wrote: "In that first week I described Everton as the People’s Club, because I was quickly made to feel that everybody in and around the city seemed to support Everton.

"It didn’t take me long to realise that, after getting to know the Club, feeling the magic around the place, hearing the stories and reading the quotes on the walls from managers and players, that I had named it well.

"As the years went on we started to build on our own memories.

"Big games at Goodison came along more frequently, the longer I had been here.

"But initially avoiding relegation in that first season meant so much to me because the job I had been brought in to do had been achieved – not unlike this season."