David Moyes gave his virtual pre-match FA Cup press conference earlier today and this is what he had to say:
“Football is playing such a big part of a lot of people’s lives. Unfortunately, everybody’s at home at the moment we’re in lockdown, and I think the football is helping many. So we chose to come back last year, we thought it was the right thing to do to get football back. And from that point of view, I’m happy football is back.
But we have to remember that the players are the ones who are taking risks, every week, they continue playing, they have to go back to the families. So we have to see that the players are the ones who are really out there taking a lot of risks and even though they are tested, and we are all tested regularly, it’s still a big risk. They have to take part, travel, we have to fly to games, they have to stay in hotels, so all those things make it quite difficult for the players as well.
Manuel Lanzini has made a donation to a food bank, he’s apologised, is that enough?
Well, if you are going to take tough measures on players you might as well on the government people as well who broke the rules, because it’s certainly not just football players who’ve done it. And you’ve got to be careful, a lot of people are throwing stones in glass houses at the moment regarding this, and for that point of view we all know the protocols out, we all know we have to be ever vigilant and to make sure we’re doing the right things. But we can all make mistakes as well and Manuel Lanzini understood he made a mistake.
He’s apologised for it. He’s made a donation to the food bank for what he’s done and I think it’s a really good gesture. But I think you’ve just got to be careful. You know, I think there’s a lot of people out there who are claiming that things should be different. And I think that players are doing a remarkable job to keep the football going, keeping playing. And, you know, know that again, they will make mistakes. There’s no doubt about that.
Obviously, the transfer windows open. A couple of players have departed, Sebastien Haller has gone. Robert Snodgrass as well, first of all, what was the thinking behind letting them go? And can we assume that letting them go means that there will be replacements coming in?
I think that the Seb Haller situation was simply that we got an offer, we didn’t expect it, we weren’t planning to lose Seb this window, He’s done great for us, he’s won a few games recently with his goals, so we wish him well. I think it’s a really good move for him to go to Ajax and it was something which maybe if we didn’t take this offer now maybe we would not have got it at a later stage, so we just felt it was the right thing to do. But it certainly wasn’t planned.
Robert Snodgrass was going to be out of contract in the summer and with us having Yarmolenko and Jarrod Bowen playing in a similar position, it made it something which we wanted to help him with. Snoddy’s been fantastic for the club, he is a great character, he’s great around the club, we didn’t want to lose him for those reasons, but also at this moment in time, I couldn’t guarantee him that I was going to give him another contract for next year. So we felt the right thing to do, the fair thing to do was to allow him to move on.
Talking about Seb Haller there and you’re sort of suggesting it was good business for the club and a good offer but it wasn’t planned, which means for you, you’re down a player, we are seeing names being linked Eddie Nketiah, Josh King and what sort of stage are you with at the moment in terms of replacing a player that you hadn’t intended to lose? Are you at the talking stage or the bidding stage in terms of replacements?
One thing you need to do as a manager, you need to make sure that you have spaces to bring people in, if you don’t have spaces then all you do is gather players and it becomes more difficult. So, part of the job is to create room for it, we have now created room that we can bring players in. Are we ready for that? No, not really. But we will go along and we’ll do what we can and we will try and bring in what we think are the right players.
Obviously, you’ve got a game to prepare for as well. It has been difficult for a lot of clubs who have got to deal with testing and so on. How are your preparations going for Stockport and how has it influenced your thinking in terms of the sort of team you might field in a game in which is perhaps a potential banana skin if you don’t get things right?
Well, we are in great spirit, we’ve just come back from a win against Everton. We have been able to give the players a few days off because of the three games in six days which we had to we had to play so we’re in very good spirits.
We have a good squad of players at the moment who will be the squad of players who go up to Stockport, most people will understand that most clubs have not been able to use the young players because we’re not able to get them tested, they’re not able to train with us. So they’re outside the bubble. So for many reasons, there’s lots of reasons why we certainly won’t have a team full of young players, that’s for sure.
On Lanzini, you’ve made the point there that people in glass houses are throwing stones a little bit, but footballers do seem to get held up to this higher level of scrutiny is that is that something that you impress on the players as well because if they do something wrong, it will be highlighted.
We’ve just got to be careful that everybody isn’t picking on football players because I think we all know people who are breaking the rules in their own way. But we have impressed on the players, that’s they need to follow the protocol. Everyday to training ground they have to go through rituals to make sure that they get in the building never mind anything else. So the players are very much aware of what the job is and they’re like most human beings at times they can make their own decisions.
And just in terms of the protocols, when we have project restart, the Premier League released the figures and they were all quite low every week with the testing, they do seem to have gone up, do you get the sense that people have just maybe relaxed and taking their eye off the ball? Or do you think it’s just an indication of the way that the pandemic is taking more of an effect?
I’m guessing you’re referring to players rather than the general public there? Is that what you are referring to?
Well in terms of after project restart the numbers that the Premier League put out, positives amongst players were low, they are growing now but within the general population, cases are going up as well.
Yeah, that’s why I think that you have to look at it as a general population is going up so for example, we’re in parts of London where the numbers are extremely high and that’s certainly not down to football players who are doing that. But I do understand that the players are in a position where we have to make sure that we do the right thing but again the players take a lot of risks, the play on the weekends, they play midweeks they have to travel, to stay in hotels, they have to go by bus they have to be around these and what they’re trying to do is put on performances for supporters and people who are watching the games at home.
Have you had any players come to you and say we don’t actually want to do this?
No, not at all. They all want to do it and we you know the protocols, we know exactly what it is and the players have been very good and adhered to the protocols for the best part of a year now.
Transcript credit Tom Clark/Football London