West Ham manager David Moyes has spoken of how close he came to joining a Premier League rival before his Hammers return in 2019.

Moyes revealed in an interview he was offered the Everton job merely days before re-signing for West Ham for his second term.

The swift change of Moyes signing for West Ham instead of Everton happened due to the sudden availability of Caro Ancelotti. Moyes stated that, “Carlo Ancelotti got sacked that night and (Everton) changed track and took him. I was due to sign the papers the day before and because of that they took Carlo,” it was reported in The Sun.

Moyes also revealed in the interview that West Ham owner David Sullivan phoned Moyes midway through his interview with then-Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, though Moyes had told Sullivan that he “can’t speak now”. In fact, Moyes had claimed that it was “absolutely done” at one point with Moshiri in their meeting in Germany until his telephone ran out of battery.

Once Moyes had been made aware of the decision to appoint Ancelotti over himself,, Sullivan had phoned him to take the West Ham job and he thought, “definitely”!

And the rest, as we know, is history! David Moyes was announced as West Ham manager on 29th December 2019, on an initial 18 month deal. The Scottish manager would then sign a new 3-year deal in June 2021, ending any speculation he had over a move away from the club.