Everton coach blasts Moyes’s Toffees tenure
EMBATTLED Manchester United manager David Moyes’s troubles deepened yesterday when he came under fire from one of his former Everton coaching colleagues, who accused the Scot of ignoring young players.
Kevin Sheedy, the former Toffees winger who now runs their under-18 team, made the claim and also criticised United’s playing style under Moyes in posts on Twitter that he later deleted.
“All of you out there, Moyes was never interested in our youth team or players,” he wrote. Sheedy added of United’s tactics in Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool: “Punt the ball up to [Marouane] Fellaini – great viewing.”
Moyes fast-tracked England striker Wayne Rooney into the first-team during his 11-year spell in charge of Everton, handing the now-United star his first-team debut when aged just 16.
His tenure at Goodison Park also saw him blood current Everton first-teamers Leon Osman and Ross Barkley.
But the 50-year-old has come in for stinging criticism this season, since being chosen to succeed long-serving and all-conquering United boss Sir Alex Ferguson last summer.
Moyes’s team lie seventh in the Premier League, 12 points off the top four, and must overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit tomorrow against Olympiacos to avoid exiting the Champions League at the first knockout stage.
Sunday’s defeat to their bitter north-west rivals has heaped further pressure on the United hierarchy to reconsider their hitherto firm support for Moyes.
European elimination to an unfashionable opponent and a negative result in next week’s derby against title-chasing Manchester City would only increase calls for Moyes to go.
Moyes was considered a success at Everton despite not winning a trophy, though his achievements have been cast in a less favourable light by his successor Roberto Martinez, whose outfit are one league place above United.