It says a lot about just how far David Moyes' stock has fallen in the game that despite winning the LMA Manager of the Year award on three occasions - more than Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger combined - his appointment as West Ham manager on Tuesday was met with a largely negative response, and, moreover, that such a reaction is almost entirely rational.
Once viewed as the heir-apparent to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, the Glaswegian arrives at the London Stadium off the back of a self-imposed sabbatical that saw him quit as manager of Sunderland in May following relegation to the Championship. Indeed, out of work and with other big names linked with the post, Moyes can perhaps consider himself fortunate that he's been afforded the opportunity to turn his career around with an established Premier League outfit at all.
Reading between the lines of statement released by West Ham's joint-chairman David Sullivan, the fact that he has been granted this chance is at least in part to do with the job he did at Everton more than half a decade ago- and not his record at Sunderland, Real Sociedad and Manchester United in the period that followed.
"We need somebody with experience, knowledge of the Premier League and the players in it, and we believe David can get the best out of the players," Sullivan said. "He is highly regarded and respected within the game and will bring fresh ideas, organisation and enthusiasm. He proved with Everton that he has great qualities and we feel that West Ham United is a club that will give David the platform to display those qualities again."
Sullivan references Moyes' spell at Everton because there is little doubt that the former Celtic player's time at Goodison was a relatively successful one. An element of revisionism prevails on Merseyside with regards to his spell at the club that chooses to belittle his achievements and foreground the failure to make the final step. But this is unfair and not entirely accurate. Of course there were problems- namely against the top six and in the latter rounds of cup competitions - but on the whole, progress was made during his tenure, even if it hit the buffers towards the end.
Plunged straight into a relegation dogfight as a highly-rated young manager, he was able to drag Everton to safety, stabilise, and then achieve regular European qualification on a limited budget. Recruitment, on the whole, was strong, with the likes of Baines, Jagielka, Pienaar, Lescott, Cahill, Stones and Arteta all signed for small sums before going on to play a significant role both at Goodison Park and elsewhere in the ensuing years.
Since then, though, the Scot has failed at three separate clubs- and, worryingly, for a variety of different reasons.
At Manchester United, Moyes appeared to be a fish out of water. His inexperience in handling big names and even bigger budgets meant that he presided over a slump in the immediate post-Ferguson era. Significantly, as at Everton, his brand of conservative football was also rarely successful when it really mattered. In Spain, the Scot failed to assimilate both culturally and tactically, and ended up being a poor fit for Real Sociedad team that has since grown in stature. Finally, on Wearside, an unimaginative couple of windows in the transfer market left Moyes' Sunderland side as favourites for relegation.
Sure, the job at the Stadium of Light was something of a poisoned chalice given the chaotic nature of the club off the field, but the famed man-motivator was seemingly unable to spark anything in a group of players that gradually got even worse. Three managerial failures that have left an indelible mark on his record- and arguably far more significant than what came before at Goodison.
Particularly at Sunderland, Moyes appeared to be rooted in the early noughties tactically, offering solutions that would have yielded a degree of success a decade earlier with Everton. The problem is that modern football has since moved on and left Moyes behind. The success of managers like Pochettino, Guardiola and Klopp in the Premier League- and to a lesser extent Marco Silva at Watford-shows that instead of sitting deep and attempting to stifle the opposition, the trend is now to be proactive and press from the front. Many of Moyes' contemporaries in Alex McLeish and Malky Mackay have also experienced similar problems in adapting stylistically.
It begs the question: Is it right to herald Moyes as a guarantee of Premier League safety for 18th place West Ham? And does he have the tools at his disposal to roll back the years to emulate his early work at Goodison?
His first task will be to shore up what is statistically the Premier League's worst defence. A committed coach who plays an active role on the training ground, Moyes can point to the backlines built at Goodison Park as an example of what can happen when he gets things right- but, equally, there is a chance that, as at Sunderland, attacking thrust will be sacrificed to achieve that end. During his time at the Stadium Light, the 54-year-old was often caught between two stools; never effectively implementing one sole style or striking the right balance between attack and defence. The danger is that he no longer has the winning formula in a much-changed footballing landscape.
An additional issue is the potential for confrontation with joint chairmen Sullivan and Gold. Used to being granted free reign in terms of training, recruitment and team selection, how will Moyes react to interventionist tactics from two of the Premier League's most hands-on boardroom figures?
That aside, the one saving grace for Moyes is that in some quarters, the argument continues to be made that while no longer deemed to be anywhere near the elite level of the managerial spectrum, the Scot does provide an element of solidity and a guarantee over relegation. Yet even that aura of invincibility when it comes to keeping sides afloat was shattered last season at Sunderland. It thus appears to be the case that his arrival no longer provides a guarantee of safety, nor does it provide scope for the type of continued growth that a club like West Ham desire.
And so the feeling lingers that just like lowly West Ham, Moyes too faces an uphill struggle to succeed in an ever-competitive Premier League. Now, with their fates tied together, the three-time Manager of the Year will know that one final failure could spell the end not just of his Premier League career, but also his new employer's six-season spell in the top flight.
