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13 hours ago
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David Moyes, face puce with anger and swearing under his breath, did not resemble a man contented in his work as he dissected Everton’s disappointing draw with Wolves. As the first anniversary of his return to Everton approaches, however, that is precisely how Moyes feels. “It has made me go again,” he says of the only job that could have tempted him back to the Premier League frontline.
The 62-year-old has mellowed with the years but his incandescent reaction to Michael Keane’s red card – after Wednesday’s game and when Everton’s appeal was rejected on Friday – showed the fire and fight burn as intensely as ever. There could be more eruptions ahead.
Everton are struggling for form and numbers before Saturday’s FA Cup third-round tie at home to Sunderland. The competition increases in importance with every passing year of the longest trophy drought in Everton’s history and Moyes will be without eight senior players against awkward opponents. The limitations of his squad have been exposed by the recent absences of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye. Now the suspended Jack Grealish and Keane, Everton’s best defender this season, will also be missing from a team with one win in six games.
Grumblings have begun and Everton’s predicament when Moyes returned – one point above the relegation zone and in a fourth successive battle for top-flight survival – have seemingly been forgotten by some. Sunday’s anniversary arrives at a difficult moment but also a timely one because it demands perspective.
“I hope that the year has looked like a progression,” says Moyes. “From avoiding relegation, moving to the stadium, winning big games. We started this season really well. We have been able to move into the middle batch at the moment. My dream is that we can be close enough at the end to challenge for a European spot.”
Eight teams have won more Premier League points than Everton since Moyes started his second spell as manager. His side went fifth on 6 December after winning a fourth game out of five. The following week Dewsbury-Hall damaged a hamstring 16 minutes into his return to Chelsea and, without their most impressive performer, and then Ndiaye and Gueye, who went with Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations, Everton’s form has deteriorated. But Moyes believes European qualification remains a short-term target.
“We got West Ham in Europe after being a relegation team or just avoiding it. It will be amazing for Everton supporters when they get the chance to get back to Europe again. If you think where Everton have been for the last few years, it sounds a big jump. But I want to be ambitious. I don’t want to be negative. Everton has had too much negativity over recent years.
“I want to champion a new stadium, a team with Grealish, Dewsbury-Hall, [Harrison] Armstrong. I want to try to be pushing the positives. I remember David Sullivan [West Ham’s largest shareholder] saying he would bring European football to the London Stadium. Everyone thought he was off his head but he did it. We need to try to bring it to the Hill Dickinson. Whether it is this year or next year we need to do it.”
Everton have made their first strides under Moyes, despite what the current mood might suggest, but improvements behind the scenes will take longer to come to fruition. Numerous academy talents were sold off for profitability and sustainability (PSR) reasons during the dying years of Farhad Moshiri’s tenure and that system may take years to replenish. The Friedkin Group, Moshiri’s successor as owner, installed a new football leadership structure last summer, including a much-needed change to recruitment.
“The club is starting to get itself back together,” Moyes says when asked his aims for the next 12 months. “I want to see Everton’s young teams being really successful again. I want them all challenging, under-18s or 21s, winning European youth tournaments, etc. I want so much behind the scenes at Everton to improve.
“But at my end, I think it is getting to a position where we realise what we need to do to be competitive. Last season was difficult as we had some PSR issues and we are only really just seeing the back of that. How can we build the team? We can’t pay for whatever we like but the new revenue streams from the stadium and all those bits will make a difference. I am hopeful we can take another building block and take it on top of what we have done this year.”
Moyes signed a two-and-a-half year contract when he succeeded Sean Dyche. He has no designs on repeating his first stint as Everton manager, which lasted more than 11 years, but nor does he consider the second rebuilding job anywhere near complete.
“I’ve said many times, I’ll try to not outstay my welcome,” he says. “But as long as I’m needed here and as long as I’m doing OK, I’ll keep going. If Everton had not come in I don’t know if I would have come back, I’ve got to say. This time last year before I got the offer, I wasn’t hugely jumping around. Two Premier League clubs had asked me and I’d already said no to them, so who knows what I might have done. But this has been good for me. It has made me go again.”
