Frustrated Moyes takes vow of silence

DAVID MOYES’ televised press conference came to an abrupt end yesterday after he was quizzed on his alleged training ground bust-up with Victor Anichebe.

Asked if Anichebe was in the squad for the game at Goodison Park against Bolton today, Moyes said he was not because he was injured. He then sported a wry grin and remained silent when asked further questions about Anichebe by the same interviewer.

The journalist tried to change the subject but Moyes still refused to answer when asked questions about Bolton boss Gary Megson and the Wanderers team.

Moyes later moved to explain his actions. “As soon as the journalist was allowed to ask one (question about Anichebe) he followed up.

“I’d said there would only be one question [about Victor] and he (the reporter) knew that. The agreement was he would ask me one question on Victor and he was happy to do that.

“I was happy to answer all the questions prior to it in the press conference today and when (the journalist asked another question about Anichebe) he let me down.”

Anichebe, 20, and his boss reportedly had a falling out at the Toffees’ Finch Farm complex on Tuesday.

However Moyes’ vow of silence yesterday wasn’t the first time a press conferences took a turn for the bizarre.

Huddersfield unveil the invisible man: Huddersfield called a press conference to unveil Phil Parkinson as the League One side’s new boss in April 2007. But 75 minutes before he was due to be introduced to the media, Parkinson phoned the club to say he’d had a change of heart.

Club directors were then left to break the news to reporters, with a conspicuously empty chair where Charlton assistant manager Parkinson should have been.

Rafa repeats himself: Apparently upset at the refusal of Liverpool co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to discuss potential transfer targets, Benitez responded to any question he did not want to answer by repeating a stock phrase.

“I am focused on training and coaching my team,” he said again and again ahead of a match against Newcastle in November 2007.

Cantona the philosopher: At a press conference in the wake of his infamous kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan at Selhurst Park in 1995, Eric Cantona uttered perhaps his most famous quotation.

“When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown in to the sea,” the enigmatic Frenchman told bemused journalists. The trawler, it is assumed, was Cantona, the seagulls the journalists and the sardines nuggets of a story.