Moyes will be public enemy No 1 at Goodison, claims Stubbs after United's 'derisory' bid for Baines and FellainiThe careers of Alan Stubbs and David Moyes are inextricably linked. Stubbs played for Moyes twice at Everton, was given his first coaching job by the Scot and was with him when news officially broke that Sir Alex Ferguson was retiring, thus paving the way for Moyes to go to Old Trafford.
Having twice defeated cancer – the first time after a random drugs test after the 1999 Scottish Cup final showed up he had testicular cancer, a story outlined in his forthcoming autobiography How Football Saved My Life – Stubbs knows who his friends are, and counts Moyes as one of them.
But as he relaxes on a sunny day at Formby beach just north of Liverpool, Stubbs can’t hide the fact that as a dyed-in-the-wool Evertonian, he is peeved with his former manager’s initial offer of £28million to sign Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini, a valuation described as “derisory” by Everton.
United man: Alan Stubbs was one of the first people to hear about David Moyes' departure from Everton
Merseyside derby: David Moyes and Alan Stubbs of Everton celebrate victory over Liverpool in 2004‘I had no problem with David leaving for Manchester United. As managers, you have to be ruthless and make decisions that are not going to make people happy,’ said Stubbs.
‘I think Everton fans wished him all the best. Now he’s come back for two of our players, he is public enemy number one. That’s football. He’ll have to accept that.
‘He’s said in the past Everton don’t sell cheap and then comes in with a £28million bid for I think the best left-back in the country and one of the best midfielders.
‘We all play a game, managers and clubs, when it comes to signing players and obviously it was a first offer. But it wasn’t the right first offer.
‘There is a way of going about things. You have to be careful how you negotiate and don’t pee people off. Being realistic at what other players cost, you can start talking £35million and move from there.
‘But it might take a bit of pressure off Wayne Rooney when he comes back to Goodison because he won’t be public enemy number one anymore. So he’ll be happy!’
Stubbs reveals that as one of the inner sanctum at Goodison he had an early inkling Moyes would be heading to Manchester United.
‘We played Liverpool on the Sunday (May 5), only afterwards did we know the manager had met Sir Alex on the Thursday before that game. He thought Sir Alex wanted to buy Fellaini and Baines. Then Alex says “I’m retiring, the job is yours if you want it”.
Toffee: David Moyes takes charge of an Everton training session in 2005
Defence: Alan Stubbs is unveiled at Everton after his move from Celtic in 2001‘He (Moyes) told us that story on the Monday and later in the week it started to come out. He was still shocked when he told us. He said he couldn’t really say too much about it.’
Stubbs was also with Moyes at Everton’s Finch Farm training ground preparing for a day’s work when the Sky Sports ticker delivered the bombshell on that Ferguson was to retire.
The pair had first met 11 years earlier when Moyes was appointed Everton manager, aged 38, and Stubbs was the club’s vice-captain. He later re-signed Stubbs after the defender had played for Sunderland. Then, after Stubbs retired at Derby, Moyes welcomed him back to manage the under-21s, a post he still holds today.
Stubbs, now 41 and clear of cancer for more than 10 years, remembers a young Moyes walking into an Everton dressing-room packed with strong personalities like David Ginola, Duncan Ferguson, Nigel Martyn, Lee Carsley, David Weir and himself, with a young Wayne Rooney also emerging. It’s an experience he thinks will hold Moyes in good stead with the big names at United.
‘He had the unenviable task of dealing with big players who weren’t afraid to speak their mind,’ revealed Stubbs.
‘If we didn’t agree with the manager, we’d tell him. Not to be awkward but because we had top senior players who stood behind what they thought was right.
‘He (Moyes) wanted to bring in breath testing on Monday mornings because he knew the lads would go out at the weekend. We were really against it, adamant that it wasn’t right and more or less said to him “You have to be able to trust us”.
‘It was probably something that he wanted to bring it in but he went with us. And after that initial first period, he tried to involve the players in what he did. He’d have a discussion with three or four players to explain “I’m thinking about doing this.”
Nurtured: David Moyes has a word with his young striker Wayne Rooney in 2002
Characters: David Ginola was one of the big personalities in the Everton dressing room when David Moyes arrived'I think he dealt with it really well. At first he was hard work and just say “that’s the way it is”. Maybe he was trying to prove a point. But if you set down guidelines and don’t care about the players, you can create a problem before you’re in the door.
‘I think he learned that very quickly at Everton and that experience will help him at United where he’s also got Phil Neville and Ryan Giggs who will know the dressing-room.
‘David will be strong on doing things his way, not an imitation of Sir Alex Ferguson. But he’ll be able to bring the big players with him.’
Stubbs, born and raised in Kirkby on the Merseyside-Knowsley border, is one of the survivors of Moyes’ regime starting a new era under Roberto Martinez. Eventually he’d like to be a manager himself, and was interviewed for the Everton job.
‘I’m lucky to have had good coaches; Moyes, Kenny Dalglish, Walter Smith. Early on at Celtic I had Dr Josef Venglos. He would have us running round training grounds holding our breath for 60 seconds. We’d be thinking “what on earth are we doing here” but he was way ahead of anyone.
‘Over the last six or seven years, we have seen a huge influx of sports science. But I think your eyes will always be the best sports scientist you’ve got. If you know the game, you can see when someone is tired. You should never get away from that'.
