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There is more than a little truth in the oft-repeated statement that David Moyes is hewn from the same Glasgow stone as Alex Ferguson: both products of archetypal West of Scotland working-class families, both socialists, both brought up to know the importance of respect, discipline and a strong work ethic, both good but by no means top players, both renowned man-managers, both…

Another snarly, dour Scot, Alex McLeish said of Moyes without a smile, demonstrating that it takes one to know two.

Jim Wood, a Drumchapel stalwart who has known Ferguson and Moyes since their adolescent playing days 20 years apart at the famous amateur club, recognises strong similarities.

David and Alex have the same manner, the same attitude and the same discipline, he said.

Moyes the younger: From a trainee at Celtic to stepping into the shoes of arguably Britain’s greatest ever manager There was one significant difference, however, according to the former Scotland manager Craig Brown.

Alex was born with a plastic spoon in his mouth while big Davie had a silver spoon, he told Sportsmail .

The two men were born almost exactly opposite each other on either side of the river, Ferguson south of the Clyde in Govan and Moyes to the north in the Thornwood area of Partick, separated by little more than a crow hop or a short drive through the tunnel.

Fond farewell: Moyes in training ahead of his last game in charge of Everton at Goodison Park Ferguson was the son of a shipyard worker.

Moyes father, also David, began as a highly-skilled pattern maker before moving into the teaching profession, as first a lecturer in engineering then deputy principal at Anniesland College.

Moyes was still a young boy when the family moved to middle-class Bearsden, ranked, as recently as 2005, as the seventh richest suburb in Britain.

Initially, though, at Thornwood he was the classic urchin-like Scottish laddie playing football on the street during the week and in the local park on Sundays.

The weekly Big Game on the big slope used trees for goal posts and swelled in numbers as boys arrived to be added to each side in turn.

Moyes had been born into a football family.

Moyes senior ran a Drumchapel under-age team which played in the morning and the Anniesland College team which kicked off in the afternoon.

Dad, who scouted for Rangers at the time, would spend hours on the phone in the evenings, arranging times, places, pitches, referees and opposition.

A late-Sunday afternoon ritual saw the young Moyes accompany his mother, Joan, to the Whiteinch launderette to wash the strips of the two teams.

The family washing machine could not cope.

A memorial family seat at the harbour in her native Portrush, in Northern Ireland, commemorates the life of the late Joan Moyes.

Like Ferguson two decades earlier, Moyes first taste of organised football came for the Boys Brigade.

Ferguson played for the 129th Company, Moyes for the 101st on the leg-ripping ash pitches at Whiteinch Park.

There was nothing better than coming home and climbing into the hot bath your mum had run for you, Moyes once recalled.

All the gravel cuts from the ash parks aagh, the relief of that bath.

At Bearsden Academy, alma mater of, among others, Olympic gold medallist rower Katherine Grainger and Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos, the tall, brightly ginger-haired Moyes progressed through the Glasgow Schools side into a Scottish Schoolboy XI which included the likes of Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies.

Cut from the same cloth? Although both a dour Glaswegians, Sir Alex Ferguson (right) was born with a plastic spoon in his mouth, and Moyes a silver one That was only the half of it.

Every self-respecting teenage footballer played twice on a Saturday in those days, for his school in the morning and then for an amateur side in the afternoon.

The Moyes family may have been Rangers fans but they were primarily football supporters.

So there was not the slightest hint of reservation in Moyes joining Celtic Boys and graduating to Celtic itself as a youth.

There was also his association with Drumchapel Amateurs, which taught lessons in life as much as how to play a flat back four.

Even today, small white plaques underneath the numbered pegs in the rundown Glenhead Park dressing room create a rich tapestry of the Scottish international stars who passed that way.

Onwards: Manchester United released this picture Archie Gemmill and Pat Crerand played No 4.

Ferguson wore the No 10 jersey, Moyes No 5.

The list is lengthy.

Alex Miller, Iain Munro, John Robertson, Eddie McCreadie, John Wark, Asa Hartford and Andy Gray all played there.

Maurice Johnston was the last to go on to play for Scotland.

You couldn t swear, Wood said.

You had to wear your shirt and tie on match day and represent the club at all times.

David Moyes Snr had his own team and was in charge of the youth set up.

David’s dad was very strict.

Woe betide the player that turned up late or without his blazer or tie or failed to show respect to other teams.

Brief spell: Moyes was at Celtic for three seasons, winning one league title, before moving to Cambridge United David junior would come and coach in his Celtic days.

He would also take the pre-season training.

This was probably the first sign of Moyes managerial ambitions.

He was not even 20.

The teenage Moyes made 24 first-team appearances in his three years at Celtic, having arrived as the new Billy McNeill , primarily because of his heading ability.

That never materialised but he learned much from McNeill, the Lisbon Lion turned manager, while understudying the likes of Roy Aitken.

I remember David as a youngster with great potential.

He was a smashing laddie, McNeill said.

There followed three-year spells at Cambridge United, Bristol City and Shrewsbury Town under the varying managerial styles of, respectively, John Docherty (the successor to George Graham at Millwall), Leeds and England left back Terry Cooper and Ian McNeill, one-time assistant to John Neal at Chelsea.

So what was Moyes the player like? Iain Munro, another of the Drumchapel clan and a one-time player for Ferguson at St Mirren, brought Moyes back to Scotland to Dunfermline in 1990.

David was an old-fashioned centre half, Munro told Sportsmail from the Youth Soccer Center he runs in Philadelphia.

He was a good player but a great captain.

He was terrific in the air.

He had a slightly odd style of running on his toes and he was not quick.

However, he read the game tremendously well.

He had to in order to compensate for his lack of pace.

As a manager, he was brilliant to have on the pitch, always knowing what to do when others around were getting tired and not thinking properly.

He was also a hard worker, the hardest worker, first in and last away, always willing to do extra.

I took him to Hamilton Accies as a player-coach when he was only 30.

He turned down a move to Preston which would have trebled his money.

He was that keen to coach.

But I eventually persuaded him to go to Preston, that it was too soon, and that he still had a lot to give as a player.

Winners: Celtic’s 1980 league and cup winning side Pars: Moyes made more than 100 appearances for Dunfermline before moving to England and Preston Long spell: Moyes spent nine years at Preston as a player, player-manager, and manager Munro was right.

Moyes played 143 games for Preston before taking over as manager, an appointment that Ferguson was involved in.

The turn of the Millennium proved a great time at Deepdale, with Preston crowned Division Two champions and supporters thronging through the turnstiles in tartan hats and ginger wigs.

So what about Moyes the manager? He had passed his coaching badges at the age of 22, and throughout his playing career filled notebook after notebook with techniques and tactics gleaned from his managers.

He filled several during the 1998 World Cup in France.

David asked if he could observe the Scottish training sessions, Brown remembered.

He came along at his own expense and did not intrude in any way.

He watched, he learned and he scribbled.

He also arranged to attend the training sessions of other countries.

In those shoes: Moyes will fill the shoes of a man who has won everything there is to win in a 27-year spell at Old Tarfford Graham Alexander signed for Preston on deadline day 1999 following what he considered a somewhat unconventional approach by Moyes.

I expected to be showered with praise, instead I was showered with what was wrong with my game and how he would make me better.

He promised me hard work.

He kept his word.

It was very hard work.

He never let up.

We locked horns a few times.

He always seemed to be having a go at me.

Eventually, I snapped.

He told me that if he did not think I could do what he wanted he would have left me alone.

I had thought the ones he did not shout at were his favourites.

The penny dropped.

He pretty much saved my career.

Alexander went on to play 40 times for Scotland after Moyes had nagged Bertie Vogts to select him.

Issues: The future of Wayne Rooney will be one of the first problems that Moyes has to solve There is a private side to Moyes which remains precisely that: private.

A collector of art, a horse racing enthusiast like Fergie, a reader of books like Shackleton’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, a husband to Pamela, father to Lauren and David and brother to Kenny, a highly respected football agent.

Moyes is also deeply religious.

I don t talk about it too much, he once told an interviewer.

I was brought up in a Christian family.

I go to church whenever I can.

One thing is certain.

If he fails at Old Trafford, it will not be for the lack of trying.