A look at what tasks will be first on David Moyes to-do list after his return as Everton manager
Almost a dozen years on from when he departed as Everton manager and almost 23 from when he first arrived as Blues boss, David Moyes has returned for a second spell in charge. Replacing Sean Dyche, whose sacking was announced on Thursday afternoon before Everton’s 2-0 FA Cup third round victory over Peterborough United, it was confirmed on Saturday morning that the Scot has signed a two-and-a-half year contract.
Here’s a look at what tasks will be on the 61-year-old’s to-do list as he gets his feet back under the table in the manager’s office at the Blues’ Finch Farm training complex in Halewood.
Compile his backroom staff
When the official announcement of Moyes’ return, complete with quotes from himself and Everton executive chairman Marc Watts was made at 9am on Saturday, it was stated that “further announcements on David’s staff will follow in due course.” First time around, former Everton player Alan Irvine started as Moyes’ assistant manager but after he left – ironically to take charge of his gaffer’s previous club Preston North End – in 2007, Steve Round left his coaching position at Newcastle United to join the Blues the following summer.
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Most recently employed on Mikel Arteta’s staff at Arsenal – the 54-year-old departed the Gunners on good terms last summer – Round is currently available, but Moyes’ assistant from his previous post at West Ham United, Billy McKinlay is understood to be in line to team up with him again at Everton. There could also be yet another Blues return for fellow Glaswegian Irvine, 66, while Under-18s coach Leighton Baines, who was in caretaker charge against the Posh, and who Moyes made the most expensive defender in Everton history at the time when he signed him from Wigan Athletic for £6million in 2007, is also being tipped to be part of the set-up.
A decision will need to be made about the goalkeeper coach with Alan Kelly being let go by Dyche after taking time off due to surgery and replacement Billy Mercer leaving along with Ian Woan and Steve Stone when the former Burnley boss departed. Chris Woods, 65, who was first brought to Everton by Walter Smith in 1998 and went on to serve Moyes has been mentioned.
January sales
Everton are waiting to get the all-clear this month that they won’t be in PSR trouble again with the club understood to be confident that they will avoid further sanctions after last season’s brace of points deductions. That said, while Dan Friedkin is estimated as having a personal fortune of $11.3billion (approximately £9.26billion), Financial Fair Play restrictions ensure the Blues won’t be able to embark on a major spending spree.
There is hope that Moyes, a renowned recruitment specialist, would be able to do some business during the January transfer window though. Right wing appears to be a priority area given that on-loan pair Jack Harrison and Jesper Lindstrom have neither a goal or an assist between them so far this term while there is also lack of cover at left-back where Vitalii Mykolenko has endured some patchy form this season.
Get to know some new faces
While there are plenty of staff at Everton – at Finch Farm, the Royal Liver Building and Goodison Park – who will know Moyes from his first stint in charge, it’s less so with the playing squad. Given the generation gap from when he was initially appointed back in 2002, some of the players he’ll be working with now weren’t even born when his previous spell as Blues boss began.
Seamus Coleman, who the Scot plucked from Sligo Rovers for the fabled bargain fee of sixty grand in January 2009, is the only player left from Moyes’ first spell in charge, but the returning Everton manager has worked with a clutch of other squad members. Ashley Young and Michael Keane were both at Manchester United during his short spell replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford but while the former was a regular in the side, the latter was still a youngster waiting to make his Premier League debut and was loaned out to Championship sides Derby County and Blackburn Rovers on his watch.
One former homegrown prospect who Moyes knows all about is England number one Jordan Pickford. Now 30, Pickford is Everton’s most capped England player having turned out for his country 73 times and he is poised to make his 300th Blues appearance in Moyes’ first game back against Aston Villa on Wednesday but he lad from Washington had a mere three first team outings under his belt when they came together at Sunderland in 2016.
Pickford had been loaned out to half a dozen clubs before he became first choice at the Black Cats under Moyes. Although the season ended in bitter disappointment for them both with the Wearside outfit relegated from the Premier League, Pickford’s personal form in between the sticks earned him his big £25million move to Everton in the summer of 2017.
