{"id":402385,"date":"2026-01-09T17:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402385\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T17:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T17:06:07","slug":"moyes-eyes-europe-on-anniversary-of-everton-return-this-has-been-good-for-me-everton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402385\/","title":{"rendered":"Moyes eyes Europe on anniversary of Everton return: \u2018This has been good for me\u2019 | Everton"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Moyes, face puce with anger and swearing under his breath, did not resemble a man contented in his work as he dissected Everton\u2019s disappointing draw with Wolves<\/a>. As\u00a0the first anniversary of his return to Everton approaches, however, that is precisely how Moyes feels. \u201cIt has made me go again,\u201d he says of the only job that could have tempted him back to the Premier League frontline.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old has mellowed with the years but his incandescent reaction to Michael Keane\u2019s red card \u2013 after Wednesday\u2019s game and when Everton\u2019s appeal was rejected on Friday \u2013 showed the fire and fight burn as intensely as ever. There could be more eruptions ahead.<\/p>\n

Everton are struggling for form and numbers before Saturday\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s best defender this season, will also be missing from a team with one win in six games.<\/p>\n

Grumblings have begun and Everton\u2019s predicament when Moyes returned<\/a> \u2013 one point above the relegation zone and in a fourth successive battle for top-flight survival \u2013 have seemingly been forgotten by some. Sunday\u2019s anniversary arrives at a difficult moment but also a timely one because it demands perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that the year has looked like a progression,\u201d says Moyes. \u201cFrom 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and, without their most impressive performer, and then Ndiaye and Gueye, who went with Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations, Everton\u2019s form has deteriorated. But Moyes believes European qualification remains a short-term target.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019t want to be negative. Everton has had too much negativity over recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish are the type of players David Moyes wants to see flourishing at Everton. Photograph: Dave Thompson\/AP<\/p>\n

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\u2019s tenure and that system may take years to replenish. The Friedkin Group, Moshiri\u2019s successor\u00a0as owner, installed a new football leadership structure last summer, including a much-needed change to recruitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club is starting to get itself back together,\u201d Moyes says when asked his aims for the next 12 months. \u201cI want to see Everton\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut 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\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said many times, I\u2019ll try to not outstay my welcome,\u201d he says. \u201cBut as long as I\u2019m needed here and as long as I\u2019m doing OK, I\u2019ll keep going. If Everton had not come in I don\u2019t know if I would have come back, I\u2019ve got to say. This time last year before I got the offer, I wasn\u2019t hugely jumping around. Two Premier League clubs had asked me and I\u2019d 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Moyes, face puce with anger and swearing under his breath, did not resemble a man contented in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-402385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}