David Moyes: Everton could play without a manager

David Moyes and Roberto Martinez

Manchester United manager David Moyes goes head to head with his old Everton side on Wednesday night, and believes that his old side are so organised that they could play without a manager.

Moyes concedes that his replacement Roberto Martinez has done a good job – Everton sit three places above United in the current league table – and went on to talk about his memories of the club and how he left for Old Trafford, report Sky Sports.

“He is doing a very good job”, said Moyes of Martinez. “He has very good players there. I always told them they could play without a manager because they are very well organised.”

“But Roberto is doing a really good job keeping it going.”

“I had a great time at Everton, it was a great club for me at the time in my career when I left Preston North End. They were fabulous to me – they gave me a chance to succeed the best I could at the club.”

“We had one or two early years at the start when it was a bit up and down but overall we had a pretty good level of consistency after that and tended to finish pretty well in the division.”

“I don’t think it’s any advantage there’s a new manager there and he’s got his own players in as well.”

“I do know a lot of them, I probably brought most of them to Goodison, if not them all, except for the recent ones. They’re all really good players and I’ve got a lot to thank them for because they helped me to win games.”

Moyes went on to discuss the whirlwind nature of his move to Manchester United, and his hopes for a good reception from the Everton faithful:

“I was running out of contract. I only found out about this Manchester United job about four weeks before the end of the season. If someone said ‘how would you leave a club?’ I don’t know if I could have done it better – I don’t know if anyone could have done it any better. At the first right opportunity I spoke to Bill Kenwright and that’s how we handled it.”

“I think [the reaction ] could be mixed at times but I think they know their football and they know where the club’s gone. I think more importantly they’ll understand the players in the team, the majority I brought in and I think they’ll understand there were a lot of good players brought in. But it’s football and you just never know.”