In 2001 DJ Pied Piper was dominating the charts with Do You Really Like It, the first Harry Potter film was released and chief United gurner Phil Jones was still in primary school.
David Moyes had just turned 38 and had won Division Two with Preston before taking them to the Division One play-offs.
One eagle-eyed punter spotted the managers potential and put just over £20 on the Scotsman to become the next Manchester United manager at 66/1.
David Rossi, 71, is a life-long Preston fan and 12 years after placing the bet online with Paddy Power he finally won his bet, collecting £1470.65.
‘Whenever the topic has come up over the years and I’ve put Moyes up as the next United manager I never had one person agree with me!’
‘I support Preston, and they’ve been my team since I was nine years old. Sir Tom Finny was my idol as a kid so I’d always been a North End fan. David Moyes had done well with Preston and I was aware that Moyes and Ferguson got on well.’
‘At that time Sir Alex Ferguson wanted Moyes to be his deputy at Manchester United but he turned it down and went to Everton. There were rumours in the early 2000’s that Ferguson was set to retire so when the market opened I had a look at the price of Moyes.’
‘He was 66/1 with Paddy Power which was the biggest price around so I stuck £21.95 on it.’
Paddy Power helped break the news that David Moyes was taking the reins at Old Trafford on Monday May 6 after a flood of bets came in making him odds-on to replace Ferguson. Less than 48 hours later and the club confirmed Sir Alex Ferguson was retiring at the end of the season with David Moyes heavily fancied to take his place.
It meant a new era for the English Champions and a decent payout for David after more than a decade of waiting for Fergie to hang up his hair-dryer.
‘All these years I have been hoping Everton wouldn’t get relegated because that would rule Moyes out of the job. I was really holding out for them to win an FA Cup or qualify for Europe to keep him up there with a chance.’
‘I admit if Preston weren’t my team I wouldn’t have known anything about Moyes. It was only because he was at Preston and I’ve been following them for more than 60 years that I knew how good he was.’
