David Moyes was serenaded by the red and white army following his unveiling at Rotherham United’s New York Stadium, and speaking to safc.com the new Sunderland boss has called upon the club’s supporters ahead of the 2016-17 campaign.
The Glaswegian arrives on Wearside with a stellar reputation following spells with Preston North End, Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad, with the Black Cats aiming to build on an impressive end to last season which saw them lose once in their final 11 league games.
Up first for Moyes and his squad is a trip to France where they will face Stade Nyonnais, Dijon and Montpellier, with a final pre-season friendly against Borussia Dortmund taking place one week before the Premier League curtain-raiser at Manchester City.
And although four games separate Sunderland from an opening-day trip to the Etihad Stadium, Moyes has called for togetherness as the new campaign flitters on the horizon.
“Let's be fair, I'll need everybody behind me,” said the Sunderland manager. “I'll want the supporters to see their effort, attitude and commitment.
“In between that we want to add quality as we go along and continually keep improving what we've got.”
He continued: “We need the help of the supporters to get us there. All I can say is I'm here to build, make [the club] better, and try to give Sunderland a stability which it's probably lacked.
“There's been too many managers over a short period, even for the supporters that's not any good.
“I don't think any manager can ask for time now, but if you're a Sunderland supporter you're saying that you want a manager to be here for a long time and take the club on.
“It's got all the infrastructure in place to be a club at the top of the league.”
Moyes also spoke about the Stadium of Light and how much he enjoyed his previous trips to Wearside, but he explained that’s a spoil he doesn’t want his Premier League counterparts to indulge in.
“It's a really big job [in terms of the profile], everybody knows – to go out in front of 45,000 people every week is a big appeal to me.
“It reminds me a lot of when I took over at Everton. The club was bobbing along the bottom – at Sunderland we need to do what we did at Everton and move right up the table to be more near the top end.”
He added: “We always enjoyed coming up to Sunderland but now I have to make sure the Stadium of Light becomes a place where no-one wants to come.”