Source: team_talk
Moyes 'fortunate' after Adkins axe
David Moyes underlined how fortunate he feels to be boss of Everton after Nigel Adkins' 'very surprising' sacking at Southampton.
Adkins led Saints to back-to-back promotions and Wednesday's fightback to draw with Chelsea left them in 15th place in the Barclays Premier League table, three points clear of the relegation zone.
That was not good enough for the owners of Southampton, though, and on Friday Adkins was sacked and replaced by Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino, formerly manager of Espanyol.
Everton will be Pochettino's first opponents in Monday's league game at St Mary's, and Moyes said: "I'm very surprised. "I was talking to my staff during the week and complimenting how well Nigel Adkins had done. It was always going to be difficult after two promotions. Anybody who does that coming up, it's a long way up.
"He'd just got himself out of the bottom three and moved up and I don't think there would have been many people looking at Nigel Adkins to be sacked in that position."
Moyes will celebrate 11 years in charge at Goodison Park in March but the faith shown in him by chairman Bill Kenwright and the board is an increasingly rare commodity in football.
Some Everton fans have grown increasingly impatient with Kenwright's failure to secure more financial investment, but Moyes is in no doubt what he brings to the club.
The Scot said: "I don't know if we are scratching our heads any more, and that's probably the football world we're in. I'm not saying it's the right one, and I'm not just willing to brush it aside. But that's the way it looks just now.
"If you look at the clubs who have kept their managers for longer periods, I think that's tended to work better than continually changing managers.
"I do think I'm really fortunate because of the board I work for and the chairman I work for. At times they've had to show patience with me but I hope in the end people will look at it and say it's the right thing to do.
"I think stability brings a lot of good things. You have players who have been there for a while and you keep those players, it's not a constant change.
"And the money it costs to continually get rid of your managers and bring in new managers, you've got to be a pretty wealthy club if you're going to do that."
In the top four divisions of English football, 46 of the 92 managers have been in charge for less than a year, and Moyes added: "People don't just get a job becoming manager.
"You do your coaching badges, you've got to put quite a lot of money into becoming a Pro Licence coach, you put a lot of effort into trying to get jobs, so it's like training to become an electrician or a mechanic or whatever.
"Just to have it taken away from you all the time, I don't think that's very good.
"But there's a different breed of chairmen and owners coming in now who seem to want success instantly, or at least signs of it, and they're changing the manager.
"I think they do need to look and speak with people who have been in the game for a long time, be that managers or chairmen, and I think most of them would like to have a club that's stable.
"Clubs want progress, and you have to try to make some kind of small step forward, but that can only be done if you've got a club that's willing to help you make that progress."
Everton are enjoying one of their best seasons under Moyes and are hot on the heels of the top four. The Scot has no fresh injury worries for Monday's match but is likely again to be without Kevin Mirallas, Johnny Heitinga, Darron Gibson and Tony Hibbert.
