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23rd July 2016
11:55am BST

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome David Moyes to Sunderland, who was by far and away our first choice. “He is a man whose football pedigree speaks for itself and is someone I have long admired. I have spoken with him on many occasions and I have always been hugely impressed. "He was my number one managerial target for the last five appointments, but his desire to honour existing contracts meant we were not able to bring him to Sunderland previously. "To be able to finally welcome him as our manager is fantastic news for the club. “The fact that David has committed to a four-year deal is a clear demonstration of his belief in what he can achieve here. It is our aim to become a better, stronger and more stable football club and with a manager of David’s calibre and experience at the helm, we have a fantastic opportunity to begin looking upwards, rather than downwards every season."While it's clear they're very excited about the new man coming in, you can't help but notice a few things jumping out. The line that Moyes was the 'number one managerial target for the last five appointments' hints that maybe Big Sam was just a back-up man. Then the part about Moyes' "desire to honour existing contracts" could very well be a dig at Allardyce jumping ship fr the England job not even half way through his two-year Sunderland deal. And then the final line about it being a "fantastic opportunity to begin looking upwards, rather than downwards every season" could very well be a dig at how they saw Allardyce's tenure. Or maybe we're just reading too much into it, maybe... Listen to our new GAA podcast with Colm Parkinson. Click here to subscribe on iTunes.
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