Gary Neville On David Moyes

Giving Moyes the job proves our system CAN work. I have talked many times this season about the madness of football, about the reduction of British coaches, about pathways being blocked, about the rush to follow fashions or make quick, seemingly easy changes. 

So I had a surge of pride and optimism this week when the club I supported and grew up with, a club who are one of the biggest two or three in the world, the Premier League champions, a club that could have their pick of managers, appointed David Moyes. It seemed like a return to sanity. 

What that means is that all those people on coaching courses that I have attended for the past seven years, people from Cheltenham to Chelsea, from Southampton to Southport, have been given an enormous incentive.

David Moyes had 24 games for Celtic before playing for Cambridge, Bristol City, Shrewsbury, Dunfermline, Hamilton and Preston. But it doesn't matter where you've played football. If you are a properly trained British coach who works hard and serves an apprenticeship - as he did at Preston - and then moves on to do such an impressive job at a club like Everton, then you can still be given one of the biggest jobs in world football.

That tells me the system can work. It is not an issue that he has not won a trophy. His body of work is credible over a long period. And if a club of Manchester United's stature go for that kind of appointment, it sends a message. He reaffirms their values of stability and continuity. 

From my brother, I know he is incredibly hard-working and will immerse himself in the club. He has done the hard graft of watching hundreds of thousands of matches, getting in at six and getting back at midnight. He is out of the same industrious and determined Glaswegian mould as Sir Alex. 

It will take time to understand how everything works at United and the scale of it. Everyone from outside is taken aback. Losing is almost like a funeral, everything is bigger. Many players struggle initially as they come to terms with the magnitude of the club. And there are challenges. There is a big difference in handling 24 very motivated and talented players, rather than a smaller core squad like Everton. 

But there will be no complications with David Moyes. He will bring it back to the basics: a bag of balls, a set of cones, a piece of grass and some human beings. He will coach and manage players to put his own imprint on the club. The message sent out with the appointment and the six-year contract is that United will give him time to meet the challenges and enough space to make his own impression.