Everton manager David Moyes ‘proud’ to receive OBE honour

In all seriousness, he and his family should be proud of him. He's not for everyone but he's given myself some good memories on the pitch (I am in my mid-forties so the bar wasn't high).

Forget the opinions I and others have had, he gets the recognition for his service to football.

Now get us a trophy. That will be worth more than any medal, even something as prestigious as an OBE.

Not that it matters or we need to know, but for those awards, you have to be written up for them and be nominated for consideration.

Congratulations David Moyes OBE.

If I get to meet him in the summer, we can compare medals, although his OBE is far more impressive than my 8.

And we can discuss Everton and, as he mentioned it to the future King, Aston Villa!!

Different gravy.

After missing almost the entire season with an injury.

I am not joking.

I’m afraid that is what reduces my overall appreciation for these sorts of awards.

Are the recipients really that much more remarkable than unknown numbers of unsung heroes.

I’m not saying it isn’t an achievement/ something to be proud of, just that it isn’t necessarily an infallible measure of quality.

I got my ‘Most Improved’ as a veteran player in a 3rd Team. It was obvious that the improvement they were honouring was the fact I’d given up exhorting greater concentration/ application/ decision making during the games and decided to accept ‘what will be, will be’ halfway through the season.

But I like your version better.

Royley blue sealed.

The dreaded most improved player award. It makes you think, what did you think of me before?!!!

On a serious note, it's recognition for performance, so well earned.

I got a few manager's player of the season awards, but the one's that meant most were the players' player ones. I even managed a double one season. I still have them all in my German shrank cabinet.

Si, yes, these awards go through a filter process. Although achievements are scrutinised, in my experience, it can come down to the way the recommendation is written up. The individual doesn't have a say, although they will be informed they are being put forward.

Most are deserving, certainly from the background I come from and to be fair, Moyes recognised the service of others in his interview.

In some cases, a minority, it can be a case of rewards for mates, but most earn the recognition.

A pointless relic of an unseemly period of British history. But if David Moyes is thrilled, it obviously means something to him.

But the most honest refusal has to go to Bernie Ecclestone who refused a knighthood saying:

'he didn't want to accept the honor because he wasn't focused on public recognition and his actions were done for his own benefit, not for the country'

Yes, people like Bernie Ecclestone are the ones I admire, I don't begrudge people who accept them but they mean nothing to me.

The 2 'good' Beatles, John and George both turned them down as did David Bowie. That'll do for me. But I'm not a royalist so it's all just nonsense to me.

Don't remember any sportsmen turning them down tbh. Apart from Howard Gayle, maybe.

I've been nice and complimentary as it's an achievement and one Moyes and his family can be proud of. He should be. He is mostly in distinguished company. I won't slate him for accepting it.

My inner feelings? Okay, I'll come out and prepare myself for the incoming fire.

Based on people I know, others in football and those who have been awarded gallantry medals in various walks of life. Do I think Moyes was worthy?

In short, no. He has served football well, but has he made a difference? I wouldn't say so to date.

Someone thought so, as they will have had to written him up for it.

I don't admire Bernie Ecclestone either, I know little about him, but I admire the fact that he KB'd the knighthood.

The greatest man, imo, who lived in my lifetime was Mahata Gandhi who never received any honours but introduced non violent protests to the world and gave his life in the course of making a better life for his fellow Indians.

The honour he did receive was being recognised as a great human being with a martyr's day held every year in his native country.

We have far worthier causes in the services. The health service, the care system, and people going above and beyond just for the people in their street.

I'm not saying Davey doesn't deserve it, but I'd be far happier if he received this for his laudable efforts during the pandemic when he gave his time up buckshee than for his services to football. He already gets well rewarded for that.

Colin, I hope it hasn't caused arthritis to kick in!!

On a serious note, you make a really good point.

But there are hundreds of the people you refer to that do receive these achievements every year. It just doesn't get the media attention that those in the spotlight get.

I have many former colleagues who are CBE, OBE and MBE. No-one would know their names.

I'm so confident about what the club is doing and it is perfect that Moyes is with us to help make it happen. If they can make the economics happen on Grealish, I would even support that although my head is screaming "No".

For me, Top 8 next season with constant improvement and the potential for Top 6 in 2026-27. I don't think that we have the assets as a club to break into the Champions League positions and compete but who knows.

There are many great Evertonians who deserve to see a good upward cycle in our fortunes and to join proudly at away grounds knowing that winning is very much on the agenda.

A trophy? Difficult… but it isn't the sign of success that I look for anyway.

We are in the early phase of our emergence from penniless doldrums – and the main thing now is to break into the top 10 with the beginnings of a squad that can keep improving over the next 3 seasons.

It is a very, very competitive league with lots of well-run and well-resourced clubs but we should expect European football before too long. And in the meantime, please, Everton, go all out in the cups.

I've got my cycling proficiency, 25 metres swimming and a couple of O-Levels. Didn't want to be greedy!

I'm talking about the thousands and thousands who don't.

“Most Improved Player trophy.” Otherwise known as the “shit but tries” trophy.

Usually awarded to the kid with the best-looking mum!

Colin, I'm agreeing with you (again). We've just worded it differently. But you make a sound point.

You've just gone up ten-fold in my estimation — it's an honour and privilege to know you even if it's just by posting.

Maybe when they win something.

The likes of Beckham waiting for years for his Knighthood, and the people at the top getting royally awards... It would mean a lot more if the likes of Jimmy Martin our former kitman we're honoured, who gave his life to football.

He retired after having a heart attack, and did a 32-mile walk for charity, there the unsung heroes in my opinion.

John returned his in 1969.

George turned down an OBE in 2000.

And yet we praise them and love them, and wish them all the best, but if on a Christmas Eve in a snowstorm. you asked them for a pound, they would walk on in total ignorance of you.

Moyes's wealth is round £20M, he lived on a 75-acre estate in his mansion, which he sold for over £4M. Bitter? No, but him getting a long-outdated award for what?

Give it to a nurse who works a 16-hour shift, or some other poor worker who has a lifetime of working just to pay the bills. Let the elite award each other, but please, don't praise them for that.

David and his family may be wealthy and you obviously begrudge him being successful at what he does but I bet my last penny that he very quietly gives to charity and if he saw you outside his house in the snow on Christmas Eve, homeless, destitute and cold, he would look after you. Probably also give you a lift to his church.

Think, what excuse would he give to God on judgement day? He has no doubt read the parable of the Good Samaritan too many times not to want to be the Levi or the Rabbi.

For what did his dad get his gong? Organising kids to play footie rather than hanging out on street corners with knives.

I hope I get a medal one day for “service to crappy jobs I never really liked so that I could support my family.”

I wouldn't say no to the 10s of millions he's been paid over the last 20 years too…

Your humility and lack of greed in this 'grab what you can' world — simply heartwarming!

Funnily enough – although the main aim of the long weekend was to play a few games, drink a lot of alcohol and try to find a local lass impressed by somewhere as ‘exotic' as Merseyside – we won the Sevens Tournament that year, with me providing an extravagant looped pass to enable one of the backs to get away and score the only try in the final.

Full disclosure; due to the timing of Easter that year the numbers / quality of entries in the tournament was much reduced. We still won't out against some opposition who fully expected to beat us.

Going by your description of Davie, he should have got a halo instead of an OBE!

Check James's 1st Letter or Peter's 1st Letter.

If he wins us a trophy, he can have an OEE (Order of the Everton Empire).

I think both letters are shrouded in doubt of who actually wrote them but a ‘crown' is surely a bit too much for a man who goes to church now and again!