News that former Man Utd manager David Moyes is being investigated by police over an alleged incident at a wine bar in the town of Clitheroe broke yesterday.
Further details have come to light in today's papers. The 23-year-old who the Scot is alleged to have assaulted is a joiner named Josh Gillibrand.
What Mr. Gillibrand supposedly said to Moyes to spark the incident is not all that surprising.
According to The Telegraph, a witness said that the 23-year-old "gave him [Moyes] some stick”. The Sun have a bit more detail on that "stick" with one witness saying that Gillibrand accused Moyes of "being shit and never winning anything”.
Gillibrand told The Sun:
It was a total surprise. He grabbed me round the neck and struck me in the back of the head.
I ended up face-down on the floor. I felt like I was going to die. There were tables flying everywhere and glass all over the place.
Die, really?
They quote the joiner as asking Moyes:
All right, what brings you to these parts?
This apparently angered the former Man Utd boss for some reason.
The next thing he says is, ‘You f***ing what?’ I tried to shake his hand but I could see he was angry. He mumbled something else and me and my friend both looked round and said, ‘Excuse me’. I thought he’d gone in, so I sat back down and that’s when it happened.
According to one unnamed witness quoted by The Telegraph, this is how the incident played out:
We were at a table outside having a drink when we saw David Moyes walk past this group who were stood outside smoking. Something was said and he just shoved him. The lad fell into some metal tables and one went rolling into the road and cars had to stop. Loads of glasses got smashed and the lad looked like he hurt himself when he fell.
Peter Brass, also quoted in The Telegraph had further details.
I go to the Emporium every night for a meal after work and I was sat at my table. One of the waitresses had pointed out that David Moyes was inside when I arrived. Suddenly I saw two uniformed police officers turn up and approach Mr Moyes’s table, where he was sat with a friend to the right of the front door. They then spoke to him at length.
The same waitress came over and told me that David Moyes had pushed somebody outside and the lad has overbalanced and glasses have been knocked onto the floor and smashed. She said the lad had been giving Mr Moyes some stick about Manchester United.
