David Moyes may not have taken Sunderland job if he had known about potential club sale
Saturday 17 December 2016 16:27, UK
David Moyes admits he might not have taken the Sunderland job had he known the club would be put up for sale with limited transfers funds available.
Owner Ellis Short, who bought Sunderland in 2008, is actively looking to sell the club, with chief executive Martin Bain recently telling Sky Sports News HQ that they will be unable to significantly strengthen the squad in the January transfer window.
Moyes took over at the Stadium of Light in the summer, but they are bottom of the Premier League after 16 games this season and the Scot said he may have thought twice about taking the job had he known about a potential sale and change of owners.
"I did not know the club could be going up for sale. I was not made aware of that before. So that would probably be what I would say the difficulty is," Moyes said.
"I would have had to have thought a lot more about taking the job if I had known. Sunderland always had an appeal to me, but if I had known about the situation, I would have needed to look at it in a different way.
"I find that difficult because I have come here to improve the club. I don't want to be here and be a team at the bottom."
Sunderland could move off the bottom of the table with a win at home to Watford on Saturday but have also been hampered by injuries, with Jan Kirchhoff becoming the fifth midfielder on the sidelines after suffering a cartilage tear.
However, it has been made clear that Moyes' options in the transfer window in January will be limited.
"I didn't see us having no money. Even in the summer, I knew what we were spending was small in comparison [to others] and I said that to the owner, I said our spending was small," Moyes said.
"But I hoped it would be a short period and we would then have the next period [January] to get things done. That has shown itself not to be the case.
"I'm disappointed that I will not be able to do some work in January and try and build on what we've done."
