Real Salt Lake: Everton manager considered one of sport's best

PARK CITY — Everton captain Phil Neville spent 11 years under arguably the greatest manager in modern football, Sir Alex Ferguson, when he played in Manchester United's senior team from 1994 to 2005.

So the 32-year-old midfielder knows more than many about what makes a truly outstanding manager tick, considering he got to witness Ferguson operate on a day-to-day basis for more than a decade. When asked about his current boss, David Moyes, Neville said he sees some similarities between Moyes and the best managers in the world, managers like Ferguson or Arsene Wenger of Arsenal or Rafa Benitez of Liverpool or Jose Mourinho of Inter Milan.

If you look at "the top managers in world football and look at their qualities, David Moyes has similar characteristics," said Neville. "They have unbelievable work ethic, and I think that's the thing that stands out more than anything. Forget knowledge, forget anything — their work ethic is second to none. They're the first into the training ground and they're the last to leave the training ground.

"And," added Neville, "that work ethic goes a long way."

It's certainly gone a long way for Everton FC, which will face the MLS All-Stars at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday, in the seven years that Moyes has been at the club. Everton, winners of nine English league titles in its proud history, was facing the alarming prospect of relegation when Moyes was appointed manager from Preston North End during the 2002-03 season.

Known as one of Great Britain's best up-and-coming managers at the time, he's lived up to that billing — and then some — in his time with the club. The 46-year-old Scot guided the Blues to safety in 2003, and he's has gone from strength to strength ever since. Despite not having the financial resources of many of the clubs in the top half of the Premier League table, Moyes' sides have qualified for Europe three of the past four years. "When he joined the club, the club was fighting relegation. They had lost probably the prestige they had in the early '80s, and they weren't challenging for anything," said Neville. "He's come into the club — took him three or four years to get the team that he wanted — and the last four or five years we've been the best team in the Premiership outside of the Top (4). And it's (because of) his drive, his determination. It's the reason I joined the club, to be honest with you."

As Moyes pointed out, he's been lucky to have had the support of Everton's owners along the way. Seven-and-a-half years after his appointment, Moyes is the third longest-serving manager in the Premier League behind only Ferguson and Wenger.