Moyes insists all his focus is on United

You don’t just throw 11 years away. But I have had to divorce myself from it. United is my team now and all my concentration has been on them

David Moyes will never forget his time at Everton, but has no intention of letting past loyalties get in the way of securing three points for Manchester United tonight. United host the Toffees for the first time since Moyes ended his 11-year association with the Merseyside club to succeed Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.

The Scot accepts he is in a strange position, but he will not allow it to divert his attention away from the role he is paid to do now.

“My job is to manage Manchester United,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone would have turned it down. The opportunity was too big. Obviously I have fond memories. You don’t just throw 11 years away. But I have had to divorce myself from it. United is my team now and all my concentration has been on them. I don’t have time to look at Everton results or how they are doing. My own players and my own club is what interests me.”

Not even Ferguson managed against one of his old clubs during his time at United. As Moyes spent so long at Everton, his attachment is obvious despite the rancour caused by a summer pursuit of Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines — which makes him doubt the kind of reception he will receive from the visiting fans.

“It (the reception) could be mixed. They know their football and they know exactly where the club has gone and will understand I took a lot of good players there. But it’s football and you never know. For me, I’m not an emotional person. I’d rather get on with the game.”

Moyes said he warned Toffees chairman Bill Kenwright he would return to Everton for some of his players immediately after being appointed United manager.

“Once I got the United job I discussed it with Bill near enough immediately,” said Moyes.

“I said that there would be some players I would be interested in. Bill was well aware of it but obviously it was always going to be a difficult thing when it actually came to it.”

Everton have not beaten United away from home since August 1992. Moyes had 11 attempts but did no better than three draws — even if the comeback to 4-4 in 2012 felt like a defeat to United and was cited by Ferguson as the moment when his side effectively handed the title to Manchester City.

Yet Everton manager Roberto Martinez insists the Red Devils hold no fear for his players.

“If we want to do something special this season we need to break that mentality of going to the big grounds and not being able to get good wins,” he said.

“If you look at the last 10 years we have never beaten Manchester United or Arsenal or Chelsea or Liverpool at their own grounds and that for us is something we need to address. We need to make sure we are ourselves, we need to know exactly how we are going to play and who we are.

“It doesn’t matter who you are playing against or where you are playing you need to be able to perform with great standards and that is a fantastic test and challenge to have on Wednesday. I do feel the game at Old Trafford is as big a test as we are going to get but after 13 games in the league I feel we are ready for that.”

Belgium midfielder Fellaini has struggled to make an impact at Old Trafford since moving from Everton on transfer deadline day. He is yet to score for his new club and failed to start either the midweek Champions League hammering of Bayer Leverkusen or Sunday’s draw with Tottenham even though Michael Carrick has been sidelined by an Achilles problem.

Fellaini could come into contention tonight to face his former club though as Phil Jones has been ruled out through suspension.

“Marouane’s probably going through the same settling-in process as most players who join Manchester United,” said Moyes. “Obviously there’ll be some players who hit the ground running and can go straight in.”

For Everton, one young man who has impressed is on-loan Barcelona youngster Gerard Deulofeu. The 19-year-old produced a scintillating display and a goal on his first Premier League start at the weekend and Martinez has no doubts about sending him out against United.

“He is a winner and has huge passion for the game,” added a fellow Catalan.

“For someone who accepts that challenge at that young age it shows you nothing is going to faze him. He can find a bit of magic or that little bit of quality that opens up a defence so he can find an assist or a goal and that develops a mentality and he becomes, in a good way, arrogant in football terms. I think he is ready to help the team and am excited to see how far he can go.”