David Moyes insists he was unfairly treated at
Manchester United as he begins his new role at
Sunderland.
The Scot was sacked less than a season into a
six-year contract after succeeding Sir Alex
Ferguson at Old Trafford, with United finishing that
2013-14 campaign outside the European places in
seventh.
He then struggled at Spanish side Real Sociedad
as well -- but saw United make only limited
improvements under his successor Louis van
Gaal, finishing fourth and then fifth before the
Dutchman gave way to Jose Mourinho this
summer.
Moyes maintains he was the right man for the job
after Ferguson's departure, having led Everton
from the lower reaches of the Premier League into
European contention.
"I've said all along I was unfairly treated there.
When you sign a six-year contract and you end
up with 10 months ... yeah, I believe I was," he
told English newspapers.
"I didn't win enough football matches but you
must say there were mitigating circumstances.
And I think you could say there are maybe things
which have gone on since then that would actually
justify that even more so."
Moyes refused suggestions that he was out of his
depth at Old Trafford, and said his experience with
United only reaffirmed to him that he can be a top
manager.
"What my time at Manchester United gave me is
an unbelievable idea of what it is at the top. I
believe that's where I can work and that's where I
should be working, and my level is that.
"You don't get offered the Real Madrid job, the
Barcelona job, the Manchester United job, if
you've not had something to suggest there's a
reason for it," he said.
"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 in the
Premier League out of all the managers. If I can
even bring a bit of that to Sunderland, that will
make a difference."
The experience has not stopped
Moyes considering transfer moves for his former
United players Marouane Fellaini -- who also
played under him at Everton -- and Adnan
Januzaj.
Sunderland have yet to make a single addition to
their first-team squad since narrowly avoiding
relegation from the Premier League, with
departures and injuries leaving them worryingly
light on numbers with less than a fortnight to go
before the start of the new season.
Moyes thinks that is partially down to the Football
Association's pursuit of his predecessor Sam
Allardyce, but he said the club is in a better
position to compete than when he took over at
Everton.
"I think Sunderland have got more in place than
Everton, but we need to change from just bobbing
along at the bottom of the league," he said.
"I took over at Everton and the six years before
that they were always at the bottom. For four out
of the five years they were always in the bottom
six. So there's a wee bit of a similarity. Apart
from one year, when we were 17th, there was
always progress and in our last eight years we
were always in the top eight.
"So we turned Everton from being a club at the
bottom to a club at the top. But that was a
journey that took 10 years. I feel, if I can get
momentum going here, that people will start to
look at this part of the world.
"I want the good players to think they want to
come here and that's the manager I want to work
for. I can only do that when I get things going. If I
can get a good team, we can get the place
jumping a bit, that excites me.
"I think it's seven [managers] in five years and
really that's a scandalous statistic, it's not the
way to go forward and Ellis [Short, the owner]
wants stability."
Information from Press Associated Sport was
used in this report.
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