Wednesday 12 November 2014 11:16, UK
David Moyes has not yet signed a contract to become the new head coach of Real Sociedad, Sky Sports understands.
Spanish strugglers Sociedad are understood to have been premature in their announcement that the former Manchester United manager has signed an 18-month contract with them.
The deal is still expected to go through, with Sociedad releasing a statement confirming that Moyes will arrive in Spain today, with the Scot to be unveiled at a press conference on Thursday.
The statement read: "Coach David Moyes will finally arrive at his ‘new house’ tomorrow (Wednesday). On arrival a photo session will be organised (time and location tbc) and on Thursday at 5pm he will officially be presented at Anoeta Stadium."
Former Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean has warned the ex-Everton boss not to expect a quiet return to the game in San Sebastian following his time out after his dismissal from Old Trafford earlier this year.
Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, Kean, who was assistant coach to Chris Coleman at Sociedad during the 2007-08 season, said Moyes should expect a passionate welcome from his first training session onwards.
“I spoke with David yesterday and he’s very excited because I think it’s a great move," he said. "It just seems to fit, the way that the club is and the work ethic of the players that he’ll find is amazing.
“The Basque players love to work hard and that fits in with the way David coaches.
“I know David really well and throughout his coaching career he always wanted to manage abroad and he probably sees this as a massive opportunity because Sociedad’s a club where there’s lots of similarities with Everton, not so much Manchester United.
The Basque players love to work hard and that fits in with the way David coaches.
"They produce lots of players, the city is fanatical, not that Manchester United’s not, but he won’t be able to walk down the street, the fans are so positive, and I’m sure he’ll love his time in San Sebastian. It’s a fantastic place to work.
“There are fantastic facilities. The training ground is fantastic. What David will find, which is a bit of a culture shock for us when we were there is, most of the sessions are what they call open sessions, so you’ll have two or three thousand fans, eight or nine TV cameras live.
"And at the end of every training session when whatever theme you’re doing you would have a small-sided game, whenever you go for lunch you’ll hear them talking for two or three hours analysing what you were doing in the small-sided game.
“They’re fanatical. The newspapers have got 20 pages every second day to fill only about Sociedad. So there’s a massive spotlight on the club every single day, but the biggest thing that I think he’ll love is the work ethic of the Basque players. They’re incredible.
“In my time there we’d be sometimes on the bus for 15-16 hours coming back from the south of Spain and the boys would want to get off the bus at the end of it and train. The boys love to work and it doesn’t matter how many sessions he wants to put on, they’ll be there every minute of it with him.
“The fans are there and in every moment they’ll be commenting and they’ll be talking in the newspapers and on the blogs and all the radio stations. It’s spoken about 24/7 throughout the city and it’s not going to be a little quiet getaway. It’s going to be right in the spotlight in a fanatical place that just loves its club.”
Kean insists Moyes will have no worries regarding language at the club, where English is preferable to Spanish for many of the locals.
“They are fiercely patriotic Basques. Unless you can speak Basque, which is a very, very difficult language, they would actually you rather spoke English than Spanish because they don’t feel Spanish,” Kean said.
“The local players speak in Basque to each other every day, they don’t speak Spanish. So David delivering his team talks and his sessions in English will be very, very well received. They don’t have to hear Spanish. That’s some he won’t have a problem with.”
