Andy Hunter 

David Moyes warns Everton players he has not returned for a relegation battle

David Moyes has challenged his Everton players to ‘show they can handle it’ as they aim to pull clear of a relegation zone
  
  

David Moyes in front of the Everton badge.
David Moyes has returned to Everton after more than 11 years away. Photograph: Everton FC

David Moyes told Everton’s players he has not returned to be immersed in a relegation battle but to ­regenerate the club for a second time. “I’ve got to make sure that when we walk out of Goodison and lock the door for the final time, we can all walk down to the new stadium in the right ­position,” the 61-year-old said as he was unveiled as Everton manager 23 years after first taking the job.

Moyes met the Everton squad for the first time on Monday having signed a two-and-a-half-year contract to succeed Sean Dyche on Saturday. He admitted Everton’s new owners, The Friedkin Group, was stunned by how quickly matters unravelled with Dyche and has tasked Moyes not only with securing the club’s ­Premier League status but laying long-term foundations.

The Scot, whose backroom staff will comprise Alan Irvine, Billy McKinlay and Leighton Baines, made it clear he expects vast improvement from a team that have won three ­Premier League matches all season. The new, and old, Everton manager said: “The football club needs steering in the right direction, putting in a place where you’re not fighting at the bottom of the league all the time.

“I’ve told the players today: ‘I’m not coming here to manage a team at the bottom of the league. I’m coming to manage a team that’s going to be fighting and challenging.’

“Part of it is – you players had better turn up. I’ve got no doubt the crowd, the people, Goodison, will all play a part. The players have to play their part now and show they can handle it. Goodison can be a very fierce arena and they have to go on stage and put on a big act. They have to perform.”

Moyes held Zoom calls with the US-based Dan Friedkin, the chief executive of TFG and Everton’s new chairman, and the club’s new executive chairman, Marc Watts, before Dyche’s departure was announced last Thursday. Talks over the former manager’s payoff had commenced on the Monday. He met Watts and Brian Walker, the vice-president of the sports investment strategy at TFG, on Merseyside over the weekend.

“The moment they came on they were saying: ‘We want you in the job,’” Moyes revealed. “They weren’t saying it was an interview. They were very keen to get me in. They were a bit stunned this happened so quickly. They were ­hoping to be in a situation where Sean would see the season out and then see where it goes from there.

“I spoke to Dychey on Saturday. I wanted to be clear that I wasn’t ­sitting here taking his job because he is a friend as well. I think Dychey said he was expecting people to be having a look around. We talked about how much he had enjoyed it but obviously a lot of the restrictions had made it really difficult in the last few years.”

Moyes takes charge of his first match in his second stint at the club on Wednesday, with Aston Villa ­coming to Goodison Park. He also faces a ­Merseyside derby on 12 February, after the date of the rearranged ­fixture was revealed on Monday.

Having managed Everton between 2002 and 2013, Moyes claimed to have held talks over returning as manager on “three or four” previous ­occasions. He had agreed terms with the former owner Farhad Moshiri in 2019 only for Carlo Ancelotti to become available the night before a contract was due to be signed.

“I always had a hope and an inkling that someone would get me back,” 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 saying I was there because I wanted the job. I was always mindful that I couldn’t come in case it put a manager under pressure.

“I’d had a message asking me to come to one of the games before the end of the season with my dad and thought that would be brilliant. You have to remember my family were so embedded in Everton. My kids were young, my dad was drinking with all the boys in the street.

“Leaving was terrible because we were really close after 11 years. Now I’ve got the chance to manage here again. I hope I can regenerate the club. I am excited by the thought of everything going well and getting into the new stadium. I really am.”

 

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