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'There He is Behind Me. Ah, No... Shit!'

From headlocks from Big Dunc, to being booted by Tommy Gravesen and lapping Alex Nyarko, Alan Moogan enjoyed a proper Everton education in the early 2000s. An interview with the former Academy player.

It was too late. The words had left Alan Moogan’s mouth and the Everton academy graduate realised he was in trouble. Deep trouble.

“I shouted, ‘Will you fucking pass the ball properly?’ and, you'll know this, the look he gave me…”

Moogan, still a teenager, had provoked the ire of Duncan Ferguson and instantly regretted it. Training with David Moyes’s Everton in the early 2000s after coming through the ranks with Wayne Rooney, he found out quickly not to get on the wrong side of Big Dunc.

“I'm bombing around and with Moyes, the training was ultra competitive,” he recalls. “You’d have winners and forfeits for the losers. Dunc passed the ball but bobbled it into me. So instead of playing it first time, I've had to take another touch but then someone's robbed it off me. I've turned to Dunc and he's just looked straight back at me.”

The glare was a warning but Moogan, full of youthful exuberance and naivety, couldn’t help himself from questioning his towering team-mate. It was at that moment, he realised he had made a mistake.

“I've said this in front of everyone,” he remembers. “Dunc didn't say a word but stared at me. The game carried on but all I'm thinking is, ‘He's not going to have that!’ Moyes sent us in and, as I'm walking off, you know when you feel someone jogging behind you? There he is behind me… ah no, shit!”

Duncan grabbed Moogan in a headlock, ruffled his hair everywhere and mockingly teased, “Will you fucking pass the ball properly, you cunt?"

Luckily, Moogan quickly realised the retaliation was in jest but now knew his place.

“I looked at him and burst out laughing,” Moogan says, aware he was off the hook. “He must have seen I was shitting myself. He was great with stuff like that. If it was a senior pro, he wouldn't have taken it. He's probably thought, ‘Who's this little snotty-nosed kid?’ The fact he used to pick me up and drop me off probably helped!”

When Moogan made the jump to the first-team, he was living with his Mum and Dad in West Derby village.

“Big Dunc would drive past ours, everyday, in his big Range Rover,” he says. “He's seen me and started beeping. It then got to the point where he'd wave to my Dad and then he'd stop and ask, ‘Are you training with us in the morning? I'll pick you up at 9.’

“Growing up, I saw him score against Liverpool and Man Utd and he was my hero. He was a hard fella on the pitch, passionate and I played a little like that. I’d get stuck in but would cross the line now and again and get sent off. Sitting with him in the car, I was a little starstruck.

“Duncan was great with the young lads. He was an unbelievable footballer as well. His left foot... he used to take free-kicks in training, his passing and striking of the ball were brilliant.”

Moogan also remembers Big Dunc joking around in the Bellefield gym.

“He'd lift weights and do the (punch) bag. I'd grown up around the boxing scene so I'd do the bag too, then go on the weights with him. We were quite similar so I ended up having a good relationship with him.

“I remember him on the bag and he'd clock us watching him. I remember one day Unsy (David Unsworth) was in there and Dunc asked him, ‘Who's the hardest man in the Premier League?’

“Unsy's just looked at him (smirking) and said ‘Fuck off, you’,” Moogan laughs, recalling Unsworth’s reaction as he refused to fuel Ferguson’s ego, even if the Scot was only taking the mickey.

“They used to have mirrors right the way along one side of the gym, and Dunc would turn, look at himself and start laughing, ‘There's the hardest man in the Premier League,’ he would say. Everyone would laugh their heads off. He was just taking the piss out of himself.”

Moogan earned a professional contract in 2003 after helping the Blues reach the FA Youth Cup Final the year before, alongside the likes of Steven Schumacher, David Carney and another young lad, two school years below him, by the name of Rooney.

“I was very, very close to Wayne.” Moogan reveals. “He grew up not too far away from me and would come around to the house after training. He was a great lad and you could see his quality. He was head and shoulders above everyone.

“I went down to Bellefield pretty early at 18, Wayne would have been 16, and we were training with the first team together. Just to see him in that environment, it was unbelievable because he didn't change. It was like he was still playing with the lads in the youth team. His attitude, nothing fazed him. It didn't matter who he was up against, he fitted into the group and it was like he'd been there forever.

“I was an 18-year-old, up against the likes of Thomas Gravesen, who had played x amount of times for Everton, x amount of times for Denmark and I'm thinking "Shit!", whereas, with Wayne, you could have put Zinedine Zidane in front of him at 16 and he'd have just looked at him and not been interested, just ready to play the game. He had that carefree nature about him.

“He wasn't very loud, but his demeanour and the way he carried himself, he walked onto the pitch like it was a park in Crocky. You could see his quality and he didn't look out of place, if anything, he was the best player.

“Wayne was an ox, strong as anything. He was that strong he was throwing the likes of Alan Stubbs and Unsy about at 16. He wasn't bothered one bit. He was fiery and aggressive, and did boil over at times, but in training I never saw that, he'd shrug things off.”

Moogan recalls Rooney paying a visit to The Western Approaches in L11 after scoring that goal against Arsenal. This was just a normal, down-to-earth lad who boasted supreme ability and was living the dream.

“Wayne was chilled out and he's quite quiet until he's comfortable around you. He was never, ever big-headed. Everyone liked him.”

Thinking further back, Moogan was in awe of what his fellow Scouser could do with a football.

“I’ll always remember training with him at Littlewoods in Netherton. He would have been coming in from school. One game, I've hit a diagonal ball 50 yards, switching the play to Wayne. I think he's just going to control it but 40 yards out, he's just let it come down and – I’m not messing, I’ve drilled it, so on the move, probably one of the hardest techniques to do – he's whacked it on the volley, at 15 years of age, into the top corner.”

Moogan couldn’t believe it, “What the Fuck?”. Everyone was stunned. “If you scored, you then kept possession from your goal, so everyone looked at each other but then had to quickly go and get another ball. You didn't even have time to say ‘Oh My God!’ because we were just playing again.”

Boasting such audacious skill, Rooney wasn’t really one for passing.

“At the time, I thought he was a bit selfish,” Moogan admits. “He was so good, he'd just stay on the ball.

“I remember another game against Derby County, at Littlewoods again. I've played a ball and ran past him wanting to be played back in but he’s completely ignored me and hit it from the halfway line. I stopped running and thought ‘What are you doing, lad?’ but then I've looked up… ‘Fucking hell, it’s going in!’

“It hit the crossbar and bounced outside the box, that's how hard he hit it! He was 15! The stuff he would even try... it was frightening but wouldn't bother him.”

While Rooney became England’s all-time top goalscorer, Moogan, who is now 37 and working as a coach in regional scouting for Liverpool, would go on to play for Burscough, Southport and Telford, after an ankle avulsion fracture during a Merseyside derby with the reserves on the eve of a loan switch to Notts County scuppered a possible career in the Football League.

Released by Everton in May 2004, he departed Goodison Park without making a first-team appearance despite being in the squad for a full season. He very nearly featured in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury when Niclas Alexandersson was taken ill and even saw his shirt hanging up in the dressing room. However, on the morning of the fixture, the Swede declared he had recovered and netted in the 2-1 humbling.

Moogan was denied his big chance and remembers another team-mate who he is adamant should have made the grade.

“We had a keeper called Andrew Pettinger who was superb. He was very similar to Jordan Pickford now, only bigger. He was left-footed and his kicking, handling and shot-stopping were unbelievable.”

However, Pettinger, who made the bench for an April 2002 fixture at Southampton, left the club 3 months later and would go on to make just 3 league appearances for Grimsby Town before turning out for Ossett Town and Gainsborough Trinity in non-League.

“I just dont think he realised how good he was,” insists Moogan. “I don't think he could handle pressure, which is obviously a big thing. He got released but should have been someone who had a long career. He was a brilliant goalie.”

Someone else who could, and should, have made an impact at Goodison Park was Alex Nyarko. A £4.5 million signing from Monaco, the Ghanian was compared to Patrick Vieira on his arrival in 2000. However, his most memorable moment came when he was apprehended by a disgruntled topless fan on the pitch at Highbury who insinuated Nyarko wasn’t fit to wear the shirt.

Moogan couldn’t believe how good the midfielder was in training but quickly realised why he probably wasn’t excelling on matchday.

“Unbelievable footballer,” he says instantly of Nyarko, full of praise. “The best player. He was 6ft-2in, didn’t get tired, and his technique was absolutely brilliant. However, this sums him up… we were doing this run in pre-season and Andy Holden used to put hurdles around the outside of the pitch. You'd do laps – 4-minute runs with the hurdles. You're really pushing yourself. The next thing though, I'm lapping Alex!”

Moogan was completely bemused. “After we’ve stopped running, I've gone over and said, ‘Alex, come on, have a go!’

“I’m a kid, he’s a pro. He’s just looked at me, started breathing heavily (mimicking Moogan) and said, "Alan, it’s no good for your heart."

Moogan, again, was dumbfounded, “I just started laughing like, ‘Fucking hell!’

“He should have been a top Premier League player. His lower body, he was so strong. He was slim up top, only ate small portions, and when you're talking about nutrition (in football), he was ahead at the time. He knew what to eat, when, how often…. He was really fit. We (the rest of the squad) probably needed to push ourselves to get that fit but, if he had just pushed himself that bit more, he'd have been a top player.”

While Nyarko maybe didn’t set the best example, Moogan insists Everton boasted a team full of top pros keen to pass on their knowledge and offer advice.

“Steve Watson would be the best trainer,” Moogan says. “The work-rate out of him, he would be dripping. He was a brilliant footballer and a really good professional. To be fair, there were loads like that.

“I remember Lee Carsley was really good with the young lads as well, Stubbsy too. On the training ground, he would be really hard on you and it could be perceived that he was having a go at you and being out of order but he trained as he played, so he'd shout if you were out of position or being a little bit lazy and weren’t tracking your runner. He'd let you know and give you it but, at the end of the session, he'd say, ‘When that happened, you should have been here, that's why I had a go at you.’ He was doing it to help you. I really admired him for that.”

Nigel Martyn was another older head who Moogan learned from.

“I played with him a couple of times in the reserves and what a goalkeeper he was. His legs were the size of tree trunks; one of his legs was two of mine. He filled the goal. You'd have a shot and he'd palm it away, but he wouldn't just palm it to the side, he'd palm it off the pitch!

“He was a dead jolly person and would have a laugh and joke. He wasn't quiet, just really well-mannered. He'd give you good information.”

While Martyn, Stubbs and Carsley guided the young players, so too did Thomas Gravesen, though Moogan perhaps didn’t realise it at the time and was battered and bruised in the process.

“Moyes was taking a session the day before a game and let it flow for a little bit. I was playing left-back and played a ball up the line but then I've felt something hit me. I've flown up into the air, probably about 6 feet, and slap, landed on my back.

"Fucking hell, what's happened there?!" a startled Moogan wondered.

“I jumped up dead quick and Tommy is standing over me but with his chest pumped out. I've shouted, "What the Fuck are you doing, Thomas?" because I couldn’t let everyone think I'd shy away from him. I’ve squared up to him but he's put his chest in front of me, not said anything and just stared at me with them eyes.”

The pair had to be separated by Kevin Campbell and others as a furious Moyes roared, "Free-kick, that's bang out of order!"

“I had no idea why he did it, it was just one of those moments, something Thomas would do,” Moogan says. However, the youngster wasn’t done and had revenge on his mind.

“I thought, ‘I can't let that happen…’ so, 5 minutes later – bearing in mind he's one of our better players and Moyes doesn't want him to get injured – he gets the ball and from left-back I sprint into the middle of the pitch… he takes it past me and I've tackled him with my right foot and lifted him 6 feet into the air. I've whacked him, he's gone flying, and straight away, as soon as I've done it, I've shit myself. I just thought 'that's it'!

Gravesen luckily wasn’t hurt but the manager was even more incensed this time.

“Moyes shouted 'Free-kick! That's bang out of order!!!' and given me more shit than he's given Gravesen!” Moogan laughs.

Now fearing repercussions, he watched as the eccentric midfielder got back to his feet.

“Thomas was a strong man, so I thought ‘This is it’ but he didn’t even look at me, he just put his hands on the ball and took the free-kick.”

Moyes may have been angered by Moogan’s actions, but the new kid on the block had restored his honour and showed his team-mates what he was about.

“At the end of the game, Campbell shook my hand and said, ‘Brilliant, Alan. Don't ever, ever let anybody do that to you!’ Joseph Yobo was hugging me and saying "Well done!' I realised, if I hadn’t retaliated, they may have thought differently of me.”

Then Gravesen approached.

“He grabs and hugs me,” Moogan recalls. “He apologised and said, ‘Bad tackle, you got me back, fair enough.’ He then shook my hand and walked away. He was sound.”

While trying to force his way into the team every Saturday, Everton spent £1.25m to sign James McFadden from Motherwell. Only a year older, Moogan wasn’t convinced at first.

“Without being disrespectful, he wasn’t way ahead of us,” he claims. “We’d stay behind with Alan Irvine, working on our technique, and I wondered what they had seen (to pay the money for him).

“Moyes maybe had to justify bringing him in but he ended up doing alright for Everton and had a very good career.”

Despite those early doubts, Moogan and McFadden were good mates.

“He was a cracking person and a great lad. Everyone liked him. We got on really well, and I went to Scotland with him; they loved him up there.

“I remember his 21st birthday party at the Everglades (hotel) and a lot of the team were there... Wayne, Big Dunc, all smoking cigars and having a laugh.”

But for injury, who knows if Moogan could have forced his way into David Moyes’s plans alongside McFadden? Shortly after his 20th birthday, he and Everton parted ways.

“Back then, if you weren't in the first-team by that age, you were looking for another club,” he says. However, that wasn’t the case for everyone. Leon Osman became a regular later than that, following spells at Derby and Carlisle. Moogan wasn’t surprised.

“He was 23 when he got his first proper chance. His feet were phenomenal. Colin Harvey and Andy Holden absolutely loved him.

“Technically he was very good. He wasn't the quickest but had a great attitude, a great way about him, and just got on with his job. He always had a smile on his face at the training ground, he loved it. He was great to play with, he'd encourage you all the time, work with you, talk to you.

“He was one of the few who got a chance later on but that shows what they thought of him, they waited until the time was right.”

Osman was part of Everton’s 1998 FA Youth Cup-winning team. So too was Tony Hibbert, who also enjoyed a long career as one of Moyes’s trusted lieutenants.

“Hibbert had a dead dry sense of humour,” Moogan reveals. “He was quiet but would then say something, one or two lines and that was it, he'd have you laughing. He'd have a funny little laugh and all he'd say was 'alright laa'.

“On the pitch, he wouldn't open his mouth! He'd train and get right off. You wouldn't see him!”

Headlocks from Big Dunc, booted by Tommy Gravesen, and lapping Nyarko. Moogan enjoyed a proper Everton education.

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