When David Moyes joined Everton in 2002, they were struggling badly. Under Howard Kendall and then Walter Smith, Everton had been stuck in the bottom half of the Premier League and were in danger of relegation when the club decided to sack Smith.
Moyes had started his managerial career in 1997 with Preston. He kept Preston in the Second Division at the end of the 1997 season and two years later, led them into the First Division via the playoffs. His success continued in the First Division, as Preston reached the Playoff final, only to lose to Bolton.
With Everton struggling against relegation during the 2001/02 season, chairman Bill Kenwright sacked Walter Smith and approached Preston to recruit Moyes. It proved to be right choice, as Moyes helped guide Everton to safety and a 15th place finish.
In Moyes’ nine full seasons as Everton manager, the club have only finished outside the top ten twice. The 2004/05 season ended on a high for the club as they finished above Liverpool in 4th place, and qualified for the next season’s Champions League. Everton failed to capitalise on this, and after losing to Villarreal in the qualifying round of the Champions League, they had a poor season, finishing 11th. Everton finished 5th in the Premier League in both the 07/08 and 08/09 seasons, and reached the FA Cup final in 2009, losing 2-1 to Chelsea.
In the two seasons since then, Everton have gotten off to slow starts in the Premier League, before results turned around, leading to 8th and 7th place finishes.
And it’s something of an achievement for Everton to have finished in the top 8 five seasons in a row, as Moyes has never had the same kind of financial backing that other Premier League clubs enjoy. Everton are one of the few Premier League clubs not to have changed owners or had significant new money poured into the club in the last few years, and as a result Moyes has found it difficult to strengthen the first team to keep them competitive at the right end of the table.
The same is true of this summer, and to date Everton have made no new signings. They haven’t lost anyone significant, with the only first team player to leave being James Vaughan. The injury prone striker has joined newly promoted Norwich after making just 42 appearances over seven years at Everton (although he’s still just 23).
With the top 6 clubs having the ability to spend big money on players at any time, it seems unlikely that Everton can challenge for a European spot in the coming season. Added to this, Sunderland have brought in a host of new faces, as Steve Bruce looks to improve upon the promise that his team showed for the first half of last season and push for a top 8 finish.
So where does that leave David Moyes? He’s currently contract until 2013, and was tipped for the Aston Villa job last summer, before Randy Lerner appointed Gerard Houllier. There have been rumours in the past that Sir Alex Ferguson has recommended Moyes as his replacement, but after this summer’s spending spree at Old Trafford, it doesn’t seem like Ferguson is planning on stepping down any time soon.
Everton’s poor start to the season last time around could be contributed to injuries to key players. Mikel Arteta, Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini all missed significant time, and Everton just didn’t have the squad depth to replace them without feeling their loss. Scoring goals has also been a problem, with Louis Saha’s fragility leading to him missing games, and former top scorer Yakubu’s future being unclear following a loan to Leicester City last January. Jermaine Beckford had a reasonable first season with Everton, but it seems unlikely that he is capable of scoring 15-20 goals in the league.
Without new faces, it seems possible that Everton will struggle this coming season. And with no lucrative takeover looming, it could be that the coming season is Moyes’ final year with Everton.
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Some thoughts.
Define ‘further’.
Can Everton finish higher than 7th this coming season? Possibly, if they have a better start.
5th to 7th is possible. Above 5th? Unlikely without signings.
‘Further’ as in developing the club into a top 4 club instead of just below the CL places every season will require an influx of big money – £30m/£40m – which isn’t going to happen.
Will this be David Moyes ‘final season’? Who knows, people have been saying for the same thing for the past few years. What they fail to realise is Moyes is happy at Everton. It is HIS club. He’ll celebrate 10 years as manager in March 2012 this season. He loves the club and the challenge of managing it, even with no money. If it was a ‘walking away’ issue, he’d have walked years ago. The fact he is still there speaks volumes.
What job would he go to that is better? Fergie isn’t retiring yet. Chelsea have a new boss. Wenger is Arsenal thru and thru. City have Mancini. Redknapp is settled at Spurs as is Dalglish at Liverpool. Any other club is worse than Everton (based on league placing for the last 4/5 years), and may have more money, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to ‘better’, and anyway, Moyes’ managerial philosophy isn’t driven or motivated by spending money.
.HHarry redknapp will almost definitely get the england job next year. moyes wpuld be ideal.for th