by David Moyes has told Everton players he has not returned to immerse himself in a relegation battle but to regenerate the club for a second time. “I need to make sure that when we walk out of Goodison and lock the gate for the last time, we can all walk down to the new stadium in the right position,” the 61-year-old said at his unveiling. as Everton manager 23 years after first taking the job.
Moyes met the Everton squad for the first time on Monday after signing a two-and-a-half year contract to succeed Sean Dyche on Saturday. He admitted that Everton’s new owners, The Friedkin Group, were stunned by how quickly things happened with Dyche and tasked Moyes with not only securing the club’s Premier League status but also throwing the long-term foundations.
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The Scot, whose staff will include Alan Irvine, Billy McKinlay and Leighton Baines, has made it clear he expects big improvements from a team who have won three Premier League matches all season. The new and old Everton manager said: “The football club needs to be steered in the right direction, putting it in a position where you’re not fighting at the bottom of the league all the time.
“I told the players today: ‘I’m not coming here to manage a team at the bottom of the league. I come to lead a team that will fight and take on challenges.
“Part of the reason is that you, the players, better be there. I have no doubt that the crowd, the people, Goodison, will all play a part. The players must play their part now and show that they can do it. Goodison can be a very fierce arena and they have to get on stage and put on a big act. They have to perform.
Moyes held Zoom calls with US-based Dan Friedkin, TFG chief executive and Everton’s new chairman, and with the club’s new executive chairman Marc Watts before Dyche’s departure was announced last Thursday. Negotiations over the former manager’s payment began on Monday. He met Watts and Brian Walker, vice president of sports investment strategy at TFG, in Merseyside this weekend.
“The moment they came in, they said, ‘We want you to take the job,’” Moyes revealed. “They didn’t say it was an interview. They were very eager to get me in. They were a little stunned that it happened so quickly. They were hoping to be in a situation where Sean would see the end of the season and then see where it would go from there.
“I spoke to Dychey on Saturday. I wanted to be clear that I wasn’t sitting here accepting his work because he’s also a friend. I think Dychey said he expected people to take a look around. We talked about how much he enjoyed it, but obviously a lot of restrictions had made it really difficult over the last few years.
Moyes takes charge of his first match in his second spell at the club on Wednesday, with Aston Villa coming to Goodison Park. He also faces a Merseyside derby on February 12, after the date of the rearranged match was revealed on Monday.
Having managed Everton between 2002 and 2013, Moyes claimed to have had discussions about returning as manager on “three or four” previous occasions. He had agreed terms with former owner Farhad Moshiri in 2019 only for Carlo Ancelotti to be available the day before signing a contract.
“I always had a hope and a feeling that someone would get me,” the former West Ham manager said. “I wanted to come back and I really wanted to go to the games, but I didn’t want to sit in the crowd and have everyone say I was there because I wanted the job. I always kept in mind that I couldn’t come in case it put a manager under pressure.
“I had received a message asking me to come to one of the games before the end of the season with my dad and I thought it would be great. You have to remember that my family was so rooted in Everton. My children were young, my father drank with all the boys on the street.
“Leaving was terrible because we were really close after 11 years. Now I’m lucky enough to be able to get by here again. I hope I can regenerate the club. I’m excited that everything is going well and that I can enter the new stadium. I really am.
