Fate averted

In football, it is always interesting when fate does no pan out as planned.  Back in January 2008, in the wake of the sacking of Sam Allardyce as Newcastle United manager, Mark Hughes, in charge of Blackburn Rovers, waiting for the call to raise to him a higher calling.  St James' Park was to be his next staging post on the road to emulating his old boss Sir Alex Ferguson.  It seemed a certainty that he would take over and the fans were not unappreciative of a rising star in management taking over.
But the call never came.  Kevin Keegan was installed as head coach, marking his return to the management of the black-and-whites.  Mark Hughes was duly forgotten.  It all ended in tears later that August when Keegan felt compelled to resign after being treated like trash by the 'sporting director' Dennis Wise, with Keegan winning a case of constructive dismissal.  One feels that a hard man like Hughes would have taken no crap from a fellow tough nut like Wise - if I'd bet on it, I'd say Hughes would have broken Wise.
Now, David Moyes has taken over at Real Sociedad, attempting to rebuild his reputation in the Basque country.  He becomes the fourth British man to manage the San Sebastián club after Harry Lowe, John Toshack (over three stints) and Chris Coleman.  Yet since his sacking by Manchester United in April, he seemed destined to take over at Newcastle United, a club of similar stature to Everton where he had so much comparative success.  When the Magpies occupied the basement of the Premier League for the first seven games of the season, Alan Pardew seemed destined to depart soon and Moyes ushered in to 'save the club', having engineering Everton's escape from relegation when he first arrived on Merseyside from Preston North End.  But then Pardew got a break and has now won five games in a row, including Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City away and Liverpool at home. With no other chairman (or Karren Brady) having itchy-trigger fingers and only Crystal Palace having switched their manager since August (maybe Moyes considered the Selhurst Park outfit beneath him), the Scotsman was left kicking his heels.  Real Sociedad aren't large and currently occupy 15th place in La Liga, but they qualified for the Champions League two years ago, the Europa League last season (but were knocked out in qualifying in the summer) and have already beaten Madrids, Real and Atlético, this season (their only two wins mind).  They went into the last day of the 2002-03 season with a serious chance of winning La Liga but blew it and were relegated a few seasons later.  With Pardew's uncanny knack for survival, like Hughes, Moyes - arguably a perfect fit for Newcastle United - will never occupy the home dressing room at St James' Park as master of all he surveys.