David Moyes denies he said United should aspire to be like City but admits some players were too fat

David Moyes is on the defensive about his Manchester United career.

The Real Sociedad boss has come out to dispel a number of black marks on his tenure at Old Trafford and they involve Manchester City and Rio Ferdinand. In an interview with Four Four Two Magazine, the Scotsman claims that he would never say United should aspire to be like City after his comments in the wake of a 3-0 loss at home to their local rivals. Moyes said in the aftermath that City were at "the sort of level we are aspiring to" but he denied that he said the club should aspire to be like the blue half of Manchester. “I’d never say that," he stated. "I may have said that we aspired to play like one of the teams at the top when we weren’t at the top, but I’d never say that Manchester United should aspire to be like Manchester City. I don’t think that’s something any United fan would aspire to.” He was also quick to rubbish Rio Ferdinand's claims in his autobiography that Moyes made the team train in a public park. “We went to prepare on the morning of the game as we would always do. It wasn’t in a public park.” On the notion of banning chips though? That's something he doesn't deny or brush up because too many of the squad he inherited were carrying too many pounds in his opinion. “Yes, I did ban chips," he admitted. "It was because a couple of players were overweight and I didn’t think chips were good for their diet.” Sitting 13th with Sociedad in La Liga, Moyes did open up at his disappointment at his United career being cut short when he was initially given a six-year contract only to be sacked before the end of his first season. "If I'd have known I only had 10 months, I would've approached the United job completely differently," he said.