David Moyes insists Sunderland will reap the rewards of his Manchester United axing
Black Cats boss feels the two turbulent seasons Louis van Gaal endured at Old Trafford is proof his own sacking was “unfair"
DAVID MOYES is still bitter over his Manchester United sacking — but he insists Sunderland will reap the benefits.
The new Black Cats manager is back working in the Prem for the first time since being shown the door by United in April 2014.
And Moyes feels the two turbulent seasons Louis van Gaal endured at Old Trafford is proof that his own quick-fire sacking was “unfair”.
But even though he claims United is still his “level”, the straight-talking Scot insists Sunderland will profit from the tough ten months he spent at United.
Moyes, 53, admitted: “I’m a better boss now. United gave me an unbelievable idea of what it is like at the top.
“And I believe that’s where I should be working, and that is my level, after what I saw in the time I was there.
“You don’t get offered those jobs, you don’t get offered big jobs, if you’ve not done something.
“You don’t get offered the Real Madrid job, the Barcelona job, the United job, if you’ve not had something to suggest that there’s a reason for that job.
“I’ve said all along that I was unfairly treated. When you sign a six-year contract and end up there ten months, yeah, I believe I was.
“Ultimately, the key is to win football matches and I didn’t win enough football matches. But you must say that there were mitigating circumstances.
“And you could say there are maybe things that have gone on since then that would justify that even more so.”
Moyes also insists he can draw on his experiences managing Real Sociedad in La Liga, despite that spell ending with him being axed again in November. He won just 12 of his 42 games in Spain, although did enjoy a famous 1-0 home victory over Barcelona in January 2015.
Moyes said: “I had a great time in Spain. I got a chance to see a different culture and a different type of football.
“I came up against arguably the best football teams in the world and arguably the best players in the world.
“I hope to be able to use that. It was a great experience and I’ve always wanted to manage abroad.
“I always thought we don’t export enough British managers to Europe — and we’re quite happy to bring them in.”
Now Moyes will be pitting his wits against the Premier League’s army of foreign bosses once again.
And he is relishing the prospect of testing himself against superstar bosses like Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola — and doing his bit for the Brits.
Moyes said: “I think the Premier League has an exciting group of managers and I wanted to be in amongst that. I wanted to compete against them.
“Sometimes we are down on the British managers too quickly. Quite often the progress of our managers gets hindered by people coming in.
“But I am fair game for a fair fight — no problem. If that’s the way it is, bring it on!”
Moyes was clearly not short of confidence in his first Sunderland press conference, despite his last two job failures.
He insisted: “I don’t think I have anything to prove to anybody else but I am always proving to myself that I want to keep my standards high. I think I’ve got the fourth-best win record out of all the managers in the Premier League.”
“If I can even bring a bit of that to Sunderland, that will make a difference.
“I’ve had a lot of great wins, things that have really excited me in my career, but I’ve also had a lot of bad times. In this business that’s just the way it is.”
Moyes knows he has his work cut out at Sunderland to make sure his latest managerial role does not go pear-shaped, too.
When asked what he made of his Black Cats squad, he damningly claimed predecessor Sam Allardyce had done an “incredible job” to avoid relegation last season.