Is bringing Moyes back the right move for Everton?

They say in football there is no room for sentiment.

Barely three hours before Everton’s FA Cup third-round tie with Peterborough on Thursday night, Sean Dyche was relieved of his duties at Goodison Park.

Dyche oversaw two relegation escapes, one on the final day of the season, but his overall record was poor, and this campaign exposed his shortcomings and those of a squad low on quality and numbers.

Eight goalless games in 10 outings, including just one shot on target in the previous 180 minutes, played a large part in Dyche’s departure. By the time of his final game against Bournemouth, the football had become unwatchable as his side failed to muster a shot on target.

“How do you watch this every week?” was the chant of the home fans.

A short statement which did not make reference to his period as the club’s custodian – as he described himself – throughout failed takeovers and against the backdrop of breaches in profit and sustainability rules (PSR) – resulting in an eight-point deduction – felt a little unkind.

Dyche had been on borrowed time for a while, but the club David Moyes is in line to return to is very different to the one he left back in 2013.

It will be viewed as an emotional return, but it cannot be a sentimental one. The sight of Seamus Coleman telling Leighton Baines, team-mates during Moyes’ first spell, to “clap” after their names were read out over the tannoy before kick-off against Peterborough pulled at the heartstrings.

Following a chaotic day, it was a moment to savour for two Everton greats who will become essential sounding boards for Moyes, especially in the early weeks back at Finch Farm.

Moyes will recognise several faces at the training ground, and among the catering staff, but very little else beyond the febrile fanbase bears a resemblance to the fabric he etched across 11 years over a decade ago.

From Angry Birds, to Bernard. From parting company with eight permanent managers to 777 Partners. From Ronald Koeman’s three No 10s in one summer to Farhad Moshiri’s litany of wasted millions, Everton fans have been through the wringer since the man who coined the ‘People’s Club’ departed as the ‘Chosen One’ to replace Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Beyond the constants of Baines and Coleman – and ‘Operation Goodison’ – only Everton’s enduring wait for a trophy remains consistent with what Moyes left behind. It will be 30 years this May since their last success under Joe Royle in the FA Cup.

The Scot has claimed as recently as December to Sky Sports that he would not entertain returning to management at a club battling relegation, but Everton feels different. It is different.

Peter McPartland from Toffee TV told Sky Sports: “Moyes is a little bit different because obviously he was at Everton before, and he’s still got that great affection for the club. Him working in the Premier League up until the end of last season proves that he’s still a good manager.

“It would have to come with caveats and those caveats would be that it’s a short-term deal that would only last for 18 months. Everton fans are ready now for someone who is going to build the football club.

“That’s why I think a lot of fans are disappointed it never went any further with Graham Potter. We are ready for that next stop. We can’t keep appointing managers to keep us up and then getting rid of them when that stops working.

“I do feel like that is the kind of manager Everton want but if the Friedkins brought Moyes in, it’s the same as bringing Claudio Ranieri back to Roma.

“It’s a warm blanket to keep everyone cosy for the next few months to hopefully get us away from the relegation zone, but it will be difficult to convince some fans.”

And yet, this cannot be a sentimental return when so much is at stake over the next six months.

The move for Moyes is clearly born in part out of his familiarity with the club, his connection with the majority of the fanbase and crucially his Premier League experience.

He will be under no illusions of the task he faces, with the numbers pointing towards a downward spiral under Dyche.

The now former Everton boss was expected to build on last season’s points tally given a more promising summer in the transfer market and having retained the more desirable assets in Jordan Pickford and Jarrad Branthwaite.

But perhaps top of Moyes’ in-tray will be to help Dominic Calvert-Lewin rediscover his form. Dyche had carefully devised a fitness programme which has helped the striker stay relatively injury-free for over a year, but he has scored just twice this term – and is out of contract in the summer.

Everton have managed 15 goals in 20 league games and only bottom-side Southampton have fewer, and with a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock to move into next season, the club cannot afford to be threatened by relegation again.

The Toffees have won just one of their last 11 Premier League matches, and just three all season, which has left them just a point above the relegation zone and resulted in Dyche’s somewhat untimely exit.

Everton have eight first-team players out of contract this summer – in addition to the four loan signings – and with not even Dyche himself expected to be offered a new deal at the end of the season, things had become stagnant.

The Friedkin Group – the club’s new American-based owners who only assumed control three weeks ago – began negotiations regarding his departure after the manager accepted his tenure had run its course after almost two years.

An impasse over his pay-off led to the dramatic dismissal after his programme notes had gone to print but TFG refused to be held to ransom and pay over and above what they saw as a fair price.

This is welcome departure from how the club has been run during the inter-Moyes years, where disagreements at boardroom level have led to a lack of joined-up thinking on recruitment.

The Friedkins are determined to place Everton on a more sustainable financial footing in the light of the lavish spending under previous incumbent Moshiri, which ultimately resulted in two separate points deductions for breaching profitability and sustainability rules last season.

And so Everton are set to be back with Moyes. The appointment will divide some supporters, but to label it a backward step would do a huge disservice to the success of his second coming at West Ham.

As so often in football, that only came about after a ‘sliding doors’ moment. Back in December 2019, Moyes was in Germany to sign a deal to return as Marco Silva’s successor at Everton when Moshiri had his head turned by Carlo Ancelotti’s sacking as Napoli boss.

Upon returning to the London Stadium, Moyes made a mockery of claims he ought not to have gone back as the Hammers achieved European qualification for three years in a row. Conference League glory ended the club’s 43-year wait for major silverware.

There will be those who share the view that the Friedkins see Moyes to Everton as Ranieri is to Roma, but the man himself will believe he still has a lot to give to the game, and to the club where he made his name.

His 10-month tenure at Manchester United was ended after a 2-0 defeat at Everton when a fan dressed as the Grim Reaper heckled him from the sidelines. Some Evertonians will remember how he went about trying to snare Baines with a £12m bid chairman Bill Kenwright called “derisory and insulting”.

After Moshiri’s millions, the question some fans – and indeed Moyes himself – will be wondering is whether there is money to spend this month or if the financial outlook is actually not much different now to during Moyes’ heyday at Everton.

That would challenge the view that he is a safe-hands figure with the credentials and past history.

That might put extra pressure on those already at the club to react positively to the change of voice – while the emergence of Harrison Armstrong this month will also draw comparisons with Moyes’ modest record of bringing through academy players during his first spell.

Wayne Rooney was a freak of nature – a footballing behemoth who could not be tamed – and yet Moyes did his level-best to manage him, often off the substitutes’ bench in his first full season. Ross Barkley was shipped out on loan to Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday after he overcame injury, and it was not until Roberto Martinez’s arrival that the team was built around him.

Everton, more than most clubs, have embraced the past in their yearning for a brighter future.

Moyes’ record of guiding the club to the qualifying rounds of the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup final in 2009 will mean he arrives with his credit full to the brim.

Unlike when he departed Old Trafford after less than a year, there is no need for him to rebuild his stock.

Comparing the Everton side he inherited in March 2002 to the one he would take on board now, the 61-year-old would be confident of proving his doubters wrong once more. He may not be the perceived ‘project manager’ that is readily identified as a long-term arrangement, but Moyes is worth far more than a six-month romantic rekindling.

‘He’s Got Grey Hair, But We Don’t Care…’

Eight permanent managers have tried and ultimately failed to emulate Moyes’ achievements at Everton. In a game running out of sentiment, the man himself deserves the opportunity to guide them away from trouble.