DAVID MOYES has geared up for his first return to Old Trafford as Sunderland manager by insisting that managers need more time in the top jobs in order to help English football truly shine.

Moyes felt he was given a bit of a raw deal after taking over from Sir Alex Ferguson in June 2013 because he did not even see out a full season at the helm after leaving Everton behind.

The 53-year-old, talking at his pre-match press conference at the Academy of Light yesterday, explained how he had felt his arrival at Manchester United would have been followed by the signatures of Gareth Bale, Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kroos.

Moyes had a lot to say on his time at Manchester United, where he was given a six-year deal, he was also clear in his belief that managers should be given more time; having had Sunderland stay loyal to him after a winless opening ten matches.

He said: “If you want to produce young English footballers you have to give managers the chance to do it. If not, you’ll just go out to buy the best players you can to do the job.

“You’ve got to be careful not to be pushing the managers out of the door because what happens then is that the young players - and there are some really talented young English players about, hopefully Scottish and Welsh too - you need those players to be blooded and for managers not to be feeling under pressure. I could use the example of Jordan Pickford. He’s played 20 odd games and is in the England squad and has been exceptional.”

Pickford, attracting interest from all of the Champions League chasing clubs, will be between the posts on Boxing Day when Sunderland will look to continue their improved results. However, they will be up against a Manchester United team showing signs of progress under Jose Mourinho.

The Portuguese has taken a bit of time to implement his own ideas on the Red Devils squad but Manchester United have not lost in the Premier League since October and have won their last four matches.

Mourinho and Louis van Gaal were given more money than Moyes to invest in the squad.

The Sunderland manager said: “The only regrets would be the timescale. Most people, looking back at it, and me myself would say that, whoever took over from Sir Alex, wouldn’t have had an easy ride, whether it was Jose, Carlo Ancelotti, Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola or David Moyes, it would have been a difficult job for whoever took over.

“People would now see it has taken a while for Manchester United to start to get back, to start to get back to where people see them and where the club would like to be.

“My time was too short, as I have said many times, you have to win games and I didn’t win enough games that’s the first thing. Manchester United was a club with great traditions, tradition where they tended to pick British managers. That tradition has now gone.

“They were a football club who enjoy traditions with the way they spent. They didn’t try to compete with all the other clubs. They did what they thought was the right thing to do and spent the right way. I can say that’s gone. There have been a few changes at Manchester United but that’s the way they have chosen to go.”

And, for the first time, Moyes spoke openly about the deals he thought he would have done after taking over from Ferguson.

“When I first went in my real target was Gareth Bale. I felt all along that Gareth Bale was a Manchester United player,” said Moyes. “I fought right until the last minute. We actually offered a bigger deal than Real Madrid. But Gareth had his mind made up on going to Real Madrid. That was, in my mind, the player I really wanted to bring to Manchester United.

“The other one was Cesc Fabregas, who we thought we would get right up until the last minute. I remember when I first met Sir Alex and he always said there was a chance Cristiano Ronaldo might come back.

“That was the level we were targeting. I was going out to bring in seven, eight players, because we had a squad which had just won the league. I wanted to give those players a chance to show what they could do and gradually make changes as I went along, not make wholesale changes. Toni Kroos was agreed to come in the summer. I had agreed it with Toni himself and his agent.”

Moyes, who revealed that he has no intention of selling striker Jermain Defoe despite strong interest from West Ham, would still do it again.

He said: “It was a great experience and one I wouldn’t change. The quality of the players and professionalism, you think you know what it’s like at the very top until you go in there at Manchester United, you see what it’s really like.

“I’ve been fortunate to see that and I now know where I need to take my players and need to take myself to be successful.

“There’s very few people who are offered the job at Manchester United and I was honoured to be offered the job. You have to be half decent to be offered the job.

“They have a very good manager in charge now and they had very good and experienced one in Louis van Gaal. I would say they would all say that going to Manchester United is a different animal to maybe even some of the clubs they have managed before.”

German midfielder Jan Kirchhoff has undergone surgery on his knee and will not play again for 12 weeks.