David Moyes Returns to Deepdale: A Journey from Preston to Premier League
David Moyes heads back to Deepdale on Wednesday night with a Premier League club at his back and a soft spot in his heart for the place that made him a manager.
Everton’s 63-year-old boss takes his side to Preston North End in the Carabao Cup second round (20:00 BST), returning to a ground where his coaching story truly began and where, by his own admission, he learned how to survive in the game.
‘A brilliant job for me’
Moyes stepped into his first managerial role at Preston in January 1998, replacing Gary Peters and inheriting a club that needed direction as much as results. Deepdale gave him both.
“It was a brilliant job for me,” he said. “I would be recommending it to all the young coaches.
“You are better off to earning your stripes and finding a way through the leagues than being thrown in at a club where it is difficult at the start.”
That line says plenty about how he views the modern coaching ladder. While some young managers chase the glamour post straight away, Moyes still points to Preston as the ideal proving ground: a club big enough to matter, grounded enough to teach you the hard bits.
Tea, tactics and Tom Finney
Deepdale also gave him something rarer: regular, quiet time with one of English football’s greatest players.
Sir Tom Finney, the symbol of Preston North End, played 372 games and scored 171 goals for the club between his debut in 1946 and his retirement in 1960. To Moyes, he was more than a name on a stand.
“He used to come in and have a cup of tea with me on a Friday before a game in the early days,” Moyes recalled. “He was legendary and he still is. He was the pillar of how I see Preston.”
Those conversations stuck. Not just for the stories, but for the simplicity of the advice from a man defenders could never quite catch.
“The biggest thing I used to ask him about was him being renowned for beating players and he would say: ‘Well, they would over-cover one side and I would just take them on the other side’.”
Moyes never saw Finney live – “Obviously I didn't see him play, I was too young,” he admitted – but the old footage and the old master’s words were enough.
“I've seen a few clips and he was a big thing for Preston.”
On Wednesday, Moyes walks back into Deepdale as the manager of Everton, but he does so as someone who still talks about Preston North End as a classroom, a launchpad and a place where, over a cup of tea on a Friday, one of the game’s legends helped shape how he sees football.
