David Moyes began his managerial career on this day in 1998, taking charge of Preston North End’s first team as assistant manager.
The Scot had previously been second in command to Gary Peters, but when Peters opened the door, Moyes was seen as the perfect replacement at Deepdale.
Moyes completed his playing career at Preston and took on a coaching role before taking up the role of assistant manager. He turned around the club’s fortunes by leading them to the Second Division play-offs in his first full season in charge.
Under Moyes’ leadership, the Lancashire club won the Second Division title in the 1999/00 season and the following season he took them to the First Division play-off final, but Bolton Wanderers beat them convincingly by three goals to nil.
His managerial record did not go unnoticed and Everton came in and gave him the opportunity to manage a Premier League club for the first time. He joined the Merseyside club two months before the end of the 2001/02 season.
In Moyes’ 11 seasons at Everton, they have only finished bottom of the table twice. The club finished the 2004/05 season in fourth place, their highest league finish since 1988 and qualified for the Champions League.
Moyes’ men narrowly missed out on the Champions League group stage after Spanish club Villarreal defeated the Toffees in the final qualifier.
When Sir Alex Ferguson finally decided to retire from Manchester United, he told the board to bring in Moyes as his replacement. He joined in the summer of 2013 but only stayed at Old Trafford for 10 months before being transferred.
After a year at Spanish club Real Sociedad, he returned to England to manage Sunderland. He finally joined West Ham United after serving as interim manager and won the Europa Conference League in 2023.
All this must have seemed impossible on January 13, 1998, when 1,618 hardy souls braved the cold at Macclesfield Town to watch Preston win 1-0 in the Auto Windscreens Shield!
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