There have been 10 Sunderland managers in the past nine years so any moniker is not necessarily out of respect; more a form of distinction. David Moyes was the Miserable One.
The Chosen One banner that briefly adorned Old Trafford seemed a lifetime ago when Moyes succeeded Sam Allardyce at the Stadium of Light in the summer of 2016. If a flag had been waved during his 10-month stay in the North-East, it would have been at half mast.
When Sunderland lost at home to Middlesbrough on August 21 last year (his second game in charge), Moyes sat with shoulders slumped in the media room at the Stadium of Light and offered this when asked what he would say to supporters fearing another relegation fight.
“Well, they would probably be right,” he said. “I think it will be, I don’t think you can hide the facts, that will be the case, yes. People will be flat because they are hoping that something is going to dramatically change, it can’t dramatically change.
“This is where they’ve been every other year for the past four years, so why would it suddenly change?”
There had been initial pleasure at the appointment of the former Everton and Manchester United boss in Wearside, following Allardyce’s decision to join England, but the party hats went back in the cupboard at that point.
It is debatable whether he ever recovered. Sunderland had ended the previous season with real gusto. They had seen off neighbouring rivals Newcastle in the race to stay in the Premier League and the stadium felt alive when they guaranteed survival against Everton on the penultimate fixture of the season.
That part is relevant to Moyes because he never addressed the bounce he had been left with. Sunderland had won three and drawn three of their final six fixtures but you would never have known it.
Jermain Defoe, Wahbi Khazri, Jan Kirchhoff, Lamine Kone, Younes Kaboul, Patrick van Aanholt and DeAndre Yedlin were at the top of their games. You would never have known that either.
Moyes quickly fell out with Khazri over his fitness, Kaboul was allowed to leave because he was home sick, Kirchhoff’s brittle body was never handled well, Yedlin was not signed permanently and Defoe was left to feed off scraps.
In the summer, Moyes moaned privately about the squad he had inherited. What is forgotten is that £30million was spent on little in an attempt to strengthen it. More than £22m went on Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji (before Everton’s reserves arrived). That is a lot of money to a club in a relegation fight. He moaned about only having one striker. He gave the impression, as he had at Old Trafford, that he did not know why he had said yes to the job. He gave the impression he was too small for Manchester United and too big for Sunderland. It did not help in either position.
At least in the case of becoming the manager of West Ham, there will be the enthusiasm he took into Goodison Park. The motivation might be slightly different, but Moyes has been in the game long enough to know there will not be another chance at a big club if he fails this time.
Of those 10 Sunderland managers, he is the only one to be given another job immediately at a Premier League club.
It adds to the sense that Moyes has been fortunate. If there was frustration on his behalf at only having Defoe as a striker at Sunderland, he did nothing to resolve it, aside signing Victor Anichebe, who scored three goals last season.
He has much more attacking talent at the London Stadium; Javier Hernandez, Andy Carroll, Andre Ayew, Marko Arnautovic and Michail Antonio mean he has gone from famine to feast. Perhaps that will render a smile.
At Sunderland he famously bemoaned a lack of ‘British’ talent. He wanted to change the core of the squad. He failed last summer in trying to sign Ryan Mason, but with Carroll, Mark Noble, Aaron Cresswell and Joe Hart he has the base he believed was missing at Sunderland.
What must change is his persona from his time in the North-East. Moyes has not won a game on home soil this year.
If the Stadium of Light felt unforgiving, wait until he catches a full London Stadium on a flat night.
There are those in the North-West who said Moyes lost something during his painful time at Manchester United, that a spark went out.
Of the past 14 League games of football Moyes has been in charge of, he has lost 11. His appointment at West Ham requires a leap of faith, most notably, from Moyes himself.
Martin Hardy is a North East football reporter