‘Excited’ Moyes thanks West Ham… and wouldn’t ‘fight relegation’ again

New Year’s Honor winner David Moyes has described his former West Ham players as “magnificent” and suggested he will not work at the top or bottom of the Premier League again.

Moyes won the Conference League with the Hammers in 2023 but has put his 44-year professional career on hold since leaving the London Stadium at the end of last season.

“I had a great time at West Ham, big thanks to the people who helped me get an OBE,” said Moyes, speaking to BBC Sport over his reign of more than five years in two spells.

“The players there were magnificent and to win a trophy there was special. We’ve had some brilliant coaches in this league, but not all of them run the course.

“Some of the best managers in the world have not been able to stay in the Premier League, for different reasons.”

👏 David Moyes has been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year’s Honors list!

“I’m delighted to be in this position,” he says. pic.twitter.com/1kt2oeU1yH

— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) December 30, 2024

Moyes OBE ‘amazing’

Former Sunderland, Real Sociedad, Manchester United, Everton and Preston North End manager Moyes has followed in his father David’s footsteps by receiving an honour.

“It’s an incredible honor, it really is,” he said. “I don’t think it’s something, when you start in life, that you expect to be rewarded with this kind of thing.

“I’m delighted to be in this position. The first thing I thought about was the journey I’ve made and the people who have helped me, whether it’s people recently or at the beginning, like the school teachers who allow me to go to training with Celtic one day a week when I was 15 and let me out of school.

“It’s the vision and belief that people have to have in you to achieve things. After all, if I had to thank anyone, it would be my family and my wife for their incredible support. My father has an MBE and is very pleased that he now has a son who has an OBE.”

Congratulations to our former player and manager David Moyes on receiving an OBE. 💙#pnefc pic.twitter.com/i6sLFF5VyW

— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) December 31, 2024

Moyes is not done yet

Now 61, Moyes experienced one of the most pressured jobs in football during his brief spell in charge of Manchester United, the most successful team in the history of the English top flight, as the successor to legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013/14.

He steered Preston, Everton and West Ham out of danger after being appointed but suffered relegation at the end of his season with Sunderland in 2016/17.

“I don’t consider myself finished yet, but I’m certainly enjoying some time off,” said the Scot. “Football is in my blood, it has been since I was a child.

“If there’s another part to come, so be it. I wouldn’t want to get into something that’s very, very difficult.

“It’s very, very difficult, probably, to be a top team, (and) I don’t want to be at the bottom of the relegation and fighting the relegation, which I’ve had a few times.”