Ex-Preston North End, Sunderland and Everton manager confirms stance over next job

Former Preston North End manager David Moyes does not plan to jump straight into another job, after leaving West Ham by mutual consent.

The Scotsman guided the Hammers to the Europa Conference League title in 2022/23, having returned in 2019 for his second spell in charge of the club. Moyes, 61, started his managerial journey with PNE in 1998 - making the transition from player to coach. He left for Everton in 2002, spent 11 years there and then succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Moyes left Old Trafford in 2013 and went on to manage Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham. He has managed more than 1,100 matches over his 26-year career in the dugout. For now though he isn’t sure what the next challenge will be - as he plans to spend some welcomed time away from the game.

“I’m going to take a break, I’m not going to jump into anything,” said Moyes, on the Rest of Football podcast. “I’ve had some really nice phone calls already asking me what I want to do. But what I want to do right now is take a bit of a break. I want to stand back and look at it again.

“There’s loads and loads of young coaches out there just now and some exciting stuff. Some trends might go away, we’re seeing some things and we’re talking about it. We’re seeing it over here for the Euros as well, so I’m just going to take my time.”

Moyes, on the podcast hosted by Gary Lineker - who is joined by Alan Shearer and Micah Richards - also reflected on his time as boss at Deepdale. The Scot always had aspirations to move into management, but didn’t expect things to work out as well as they did, so soon.

"I honestly never thought there would be a situation where I would be a manager,” he told the podcast. “I hoped I would be good enough to get a boys' team or something, I just wanted a chance somewhere. But I sort of fell into it and I started to get offered an awful lot of jobs while I was still playing.

"I ended up at Preston and we had John Beck, who you will all remember with the long ball, this and that, but he was actually a really good coach, really detailed, really thoughtful. Maybe he didn't play the way people liked it. The players didn't like it, but we had to do it. John left and the assistant Gary (Peters) got the job and then I was below that, so Preston kept it going.

“There was a great chairman at the time, Bryan Gray, who was very good and the people around him gave me the chance to get the job there. We had no staff. There was me, an assistant manager, a goalkeeping coach and a physio. The physio would normally take the warm-up with me, so I was actually taking the warm-up.

"The Friday night before the first game, I couldn't sleep and it was more because I was deliberating: 'should I take the warm-up or should I not take the warm-up?' It was worse than thinking about the team.

“I was thinking they're going to be laughing at me being out there stretching but it got me the job, so why should I change it? Being out there you had a feel for the players, a feel for the conditions so it gave you a little bit of an insight. Even now I still like getting out onto the pitch before the game, but that was a huge decision."