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Personal
Fullname: David William Moyes
aka: Davie Moyes, David Moyes
Born: 25 April 1963
Birthplace: Bearsden, Dunbartonshire
Signed: 1 Jan 1980
Left: 28 Oct 1983
Position: Defender/Central Defence
Debut: Hibernian home 15 August 1981 4-1
Internationals: none
Biog
He made his debut as a substitute in a 4-1 League Cup victory over Hibernian at Parkhead on 15th August 1981 and almost made a sensational start to his Celtic career when, with his first touch, he thundered a header from a corner goalwards only for Frank McGarvey to divert his goal bound effort over the bar.
On September 26th 1981 Danny McGrain received a bad leg injury against Partick Thistle and this kept him out of the European Cup second leg in Turin against Juventus four days later. Davie Moyes was thrust into the side as Danny’s replacement, a position he was not used to. Although Celts lost 2-0 and went out on aggregate by 2-1, the young Moyes had given a great account of himself.
He stayed at right back until McGrain returned on December 5th and in this period he faced some of the best wingers in Scottish football such as Cooper (Rangers), Weir (Aberdeen) and Scanlon (St Mirren). He had a fine game against Rangers on 21st November in a 3-3 draw when he had a hand in two of Celtic’s goals.
The following April, again against Rangers, he had a fine game as Celtic’s injury ravaged team rose to the occasion to win 2-1. These performance merited Davie Moyes a league winners medal and he was an unused sub at Parkhead on May 15th 1982 when Celtic beat St.Mirren 3-0 to clinch the championship.
He won a prime place in the side when he replaced the suspended Roy Aitken against Ajax on September 1982, Johan Cruyff et al, at Parkhead in the European Cup. He came on for Paul McStay in the second leg in Amsterdam as Celtic recorded a fantastic, if highly unexpected, 2-1 win to go through 4-3 on aggregate.
Moyes was now an established member of the Celtic squad and it was with some surprise that new Celtic manager Davie Hay allowed him to depart to Cambridge United in October 1983 for a fee of £20,000. Moyes later said of the move:
“Davie Hay made it clear I wasn’t wanted at Celtic Park, I left Celtic when I didn’t want to. Nobody wants to leave Celtic and it’s something I sometimes regret having done”.
Post-Celtic
Moyes after playing became a successful manager and was a long standing manager of Everton in the English Premiership and was seen as a potential future Celtic manager. However, Celtic could not compete with wages compared to the clubs down south. In turn, Manchester United turned to Davie Moyes (in May 2013) to be their new manager for the daunting role to take over from Alex Ferguson, their most successful manager. Notably, Alex Ferguson took his first steps by taking a role as manager from an ex-Celt (thereabouts) and now was being replaced by an ex-Celt. Sadly, it didn’t work out, and Moyes left the role after less than one season.
Davie Moyes was the favourite for the vacant Celtic role in 2016, but it went to Brendan Rodgers. An interesting situation as it saw the former Everton/Man Utd (i.e. Moyes) & former Liverpool (i.e. Rodgers) managers battling for the coveted role. Fast forward a year, and as Brendan Rodgers was picking up manager of the year awards and guiding Celtic to unprecedented domestic success at Celtic, Davie Moyes resigned as manager of Sunderland after finishing bottom of the English top tier with their neighbours Newcastle being promoted back to the top tier having just won the second tier. A painful time for Moyes. Unintentionally rubbing salt into the wounds, Sunderland then played Celtic a month or so later and were soundly defeated.
His name popped up again for the Celtic job when Brendan Rodgers left, and Davie Moyes was seen to be fishing for the role attending matches, but again the board went for someone else (Neil Lennon). This time likely were to regret it as Lennon’s spell in charge ended in a disastrous run after a fine first full season, whilst Davie Moyes was dumbfounding the critics with a relatively more positive time at West Ham in season 2020/21.
In January 2020, Davie Moyes called for Celtic and Sevco to compete in the English League Cup, with the bizarre proposal which thankfully all scoffed at:
“We’ve just come out of one of the worst periods of Brexit. Why can we not actually bring Britain together and have a British Cup instead of a League Cup?”
His name was once again raised in 2023 for the Celtic managerial role after Postecoglou left, in a season after his West Ham side had just avoided relegation. However, they had at the same time become the winners of the UEFA Conference Cup, the first team from the UK to win that new tournament (it had only started the year before).
That European title victory kept him in the West Ham role, with the curious situation that a number of Celtic fans were happy that a recent European competition winning manager was not to come to Celtic as manager. It wasn’t that he was disliked (not at all), just there was concern over his footballing style & philosophy of play.
[….]
Quotes
“A future Celtic captain I’d say”
Andy Roxburgh (future Scotland manager)
“Davie Hay made it clear I wasn’t wanted at Celtic Park, I left Celtic when I didn’t want to. Nobody wants to leave Celtic and it’s something I sometimes regret having done”.
Davie Moyes
“Ange will never get more pressure than he did managing Celtic Football Club.”
Ex-Celt (& currently West Ham manager) David Moyes on Ange Postecoglou (Jul 2023)
Playing Career
| Club | From | To | Fee | League | Scottish/FA Cup | League cup | Other | ||||
| Preston | 20/09/1993 | 31/05/2001 | Free | 142 (1) | 15 | 10 (1) | 2 | 5 (0) | 1 | 13 (0) | 1 |
| Hamilton | 01/08/1993 | 20/09/1993 | Signed | No appearance data available | |||||||
| Dunfermline | 01/08/1990 | 01/08/1993 | Signed | 105 (0) | 13 | 5 (0) | 0 | 7 (0) | 1 | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Shrewsbury | 30/10/1987 | 01/08/1990 | £ 30000 | 91 (5) | 11 | 3 (0) | 1 | 4 (0) | 0 | 5 (0) | 0 |
| Bristol C | 10/10/1985 | 30/10/1987 | £ 10000 | 83 (0) | 3 | 5 (0) | 0 | 6 (0) | 0 | 15 (0) | 0 |
| Cambridge Utd | 28/10/1983 | 10/10/1985 | Free | 79 (0) | 1 | 1 (0) | 0 | 3 (0) | 0 | 3 (0) | 0 |
| Celtic | 01/01/1980 | 28/10/1983 | Junior | 19 (5) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 7 (1) | 0 | 2 (1) | 0 |
| Totals | £40,000 | 519 (11) | 43 | 24 (1) | 3 | 32 (1) | 2 | 38 (1) | 1 | ||
| goals / game | 0.08 | 0.12 | 0.06 | 0.02 | |||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||||
Honours with Celtic
Scottish Premier League
