Assistants, one of the most important tools in a manager’s armoury, someone you can trust, and tell your deepest secrets, a confidante and a counsellor, a conduit between player and manager…
The BBC reports that Moyes’ old club, Preston North End are planning to nab Everton’s Assistant Manager Alan Irvine – the grey haired, softly spoken assistant to Moyes – who will trudge out and speak to the press when Moyes is throwing his toys out of the pram and who will do the unglamorous grunt work like putting out the training cones and tying Yakubu’s shoelaces?
In all seriousness good assistants are bloody hard to come across these days so it should come as no surprise if Scotland’s Ginger Braveheart Davie Moyes turns up to Everton’s Finch Farm training fortress with a tear stained and miserable face; he’s lost his boo, his bff, his bessie mate…and it is times like these that we’ll see what kind of influence Alan Irvine actually had. People are still picking through the wreckage of Rafa’s split with Pako Ayesteran to try and determine what kind of effect it will have on Liverpool long-term so the question is:
Will Moyes be half the man without his assistant?