David Moyes appointed Utd boss

MANCHESTER United has confirmed David Moyes has been appointed to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as the club's new manager.

He will take over on July 1 after signing a six-year contract at Old Trafford.

Sir Alex, who is stepping down after 26 years in charge, said: "When we discussed the candidates that we felt had the right attributes we unanimously agreed on David Moyes.

"David is a man of great integrity with a strong work ethic. I've admired his work for a long time and approached him as far back as 1998 to discuss the position of assistant manager here.

"He was a young man then at the start of his career and has since gone on to do a magnificent job at Everton. There is no question he has all the qualities we expect of a manager at this Club."

Earlier, Moyes' current team, Everton, confirmed he would be leaving at the end of the season.

In a statement, the club said Moyes had been an "outstanding manager" who made a "massive contribution" to the club.

David Moyes, who spent 11 years keeping a reliable old family saloon roadworthy with spare parts and loose change, will get the keys to a huge red Rolls Royce loaded with cash. 

The 50-year-old's appointment as Alex Ferguson's successor as Manchester United manager represents a gargantuan step for the plain-talking Scot who failed to win any silverware for Everton in more than a decade of hard graft on Merseyside. 

While his record at Everton, who he steered to fourth in 2005, to the 2009 FA Cup final and regular top-eight placings is solid rather than spectacular, merely finishing above Liverpool will not cut the mustard at United where failure to win at least one trophy each season became almost unthinkable under Ferguson. 

Despite the obvious lack of tangible success on his CV, however, everything about Moyes's persona from a fierce work ethic to a brooding air of authority and his fixed Glaswegian stare mark him out as manager straight from the Ferguson mould. 

Ferguson himself has kept close tabs on the work being done by Moyes and is clearly comfortable handing over the wheel of arguably the world's biggest soccer club to a manager he rates highly. 

"What he's done at Everton has been miraculous," Ferguson once said of the man he tried to lure to Old Trafford as his assistant in 1999 when Moyes was player-coach with Preston North End for whom he made nearly 150 appearances. 

The fact Moyes turned down Ferguson's offer speaks volumes about his determination to forge his own identity. 

Tempting as it must have been to join the country's biggest club, Moyes decided to learn his trade with Preston, taking them to within a playoff final of reaching the top flight in 2001. 

When relegation-threatened Everton came calling in March 2002, Moyes accepted the challenge and quickly steered them away from trouble. Then, in his first full season, took them to seventh having briefly challenged for a top-four place. 

TEACHER & STUDENT: Moyes has big shoes to fill if he is to live up to the lofty expectations that Fergie has left behind.

Moyes suffered a crisis in the 2003-04 season when a fractured dressing room caused Everton to flirt with relegation but he survived and the following season they cracked the top-four cartel at the expense of Liverpool, only to lose in a Champions League qualifiying tie to Spain's Villarreal. 

Since then Everton, despite the financial strait-jacket imposed on Moyes, have finished an average of seventh in the Premier League and this season should finish sixth, above Liverpool. 

New role

So, 14 years after passing up the opportunity to work alongside Ferguson, Moyes will now find the 71-year-old Scot watching him closely from an upstairs boardroom in his new role as a club ambassador. 

The ambitious Moyes gives the impression of a man confident in his own ability and prepared to do things his own way, but stamping his own authority on a squad full of serial title winners assembled by Ferguson will test his mettle. 

Odds of 9-1 are being offered for Ferguson to appear in the dugout next season to lend Moyes a hand and while that scenario is unlikely, there is little doubt the old master will be keeping a close eye on his countryman. 

Former United manager Wilf McGuiness can relate to the task faced by Moyes, having stepped into Matt Busby's shoes in 1969 when Busby moved upstairs to become a director. 

"Following great people is a bit difficult," McGuiness, who lasted only a year, told BBC Radio Five. 

"I was very inexperienced and it didn't work, although we did reach three cup semi-finals. There is no reason why it shouldn't work this time and if it is David Moyes I'll be well pleased. He has the experience and he is a Scot, who seem to do well at Manchester United." 

The face of the English game has changed almost beyond recognition since 1986 when former Aberdeen boss Ferguson walked into Old Trafford to replace Ron Atkinson. 

With the club still in the doldrums and fans all misty-eyed about the Busby days, Ferguson was given time to bed in and begin building an empire. 

It was four years before he won any silverware but Moyes will be expected to deliver immediately - a daunting challenge with Manchester City expected to beef up their squad and Jose Mourinho likely to return as Chelsea manager having been briefly linked with the Old Trafford hot seat. 

As well as trying to convince Wayne Rooney, who he gave his first-team debut as a 16-year-old at Everton, to remain at United, Moyes will also need to prove he can manage a large transfer budget - a 'problem' that was rarely a concern at Everton whose net spend on transfers from 2007 to 2012 was 5 million pounds ($7.8 million). 

Moyes may raid Goodison Park for left back Leighton Baines and Belgian midfield enforcer Marouane Fellaini while he will also have to decide whether the likes of Nani, Anderson and Antonio Valencia fit into his plans. 

While some were surprised Real Madrid's charismatic boss Mourinho was not chosen as the new puppet master at The Theatre of Dreams, his abrasive personality and penchant for controversy may have sat uncomfortably with United's American owners.

Moyes, on the other hand, with likely input from United's old guard such as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and possibly even former Red Phil Neville, who he took to Everton and made club captain, offers continuity, stability and perspiration. 

Whether he possesses the inspiration to fill the void left by Ferguson remains to be seen.

Reuters