The bottom line is: David Moyes has turned this club around.
He’s taken a team that was on its arse, twice, turning it into a side capable of European competition in fairly short order. If he gets European qualification this season, then it will be more than what reasonable people throughout football would have expected at the start of the season.
The time between The Friedkin Group taking over on 19 December 2025, to Moyes coming in on 11 January 2026 was 23 days.
During that seismic period, we had taken 2 points out of 12, were in 16th place — and just one point above the relegation zone. Moyes had inherited a side that had beaten heavyweights Palace, Wolves & Ipswich with over half the season played. 3 wins in 20 league matches, and on course for relegation trouble.
The last 2 matches of the Dyche reign, the Bournemouth keeper didn’t make a save all match in the away defeat (0-1), and in front of a home crowd, Sels made 2 saves all game (0-2).
The end of last season and the current season is a massive turn around vs the above inherited position. The fears of starting life in the new stadium in the Championship were real, which would have destroyed a lot of progress on the financial security that the takeover brought.
But David Moyes is not going to be here for another 11-year spell. There is no guarantee he will go past his current 2½-year deal. He currently deserves time to rebuild this side. And that’s what The Friedkin Group will give him.
He has a nucleus of a decent, hard-working side. None of us were blown away by the transfer business last summer, nor the timings of them. We went into the season not remotely ready. We’ve blown points home and away, and navigated a period when the squad was decimated, yet we are still in with a shout of qualifying for European football in his first full season back at the club.
The past is a millstone around his neck. If this was any other manager in his first spell, then they wouldn’t be getting critical comments that appear to be rooted in the circumstances of his first spell at the club. But now, we are in a different situation, with different players, a very different league, with completely different owners, and a hugely different stadium. He deserves time to prove he can take the club forward.
One thing is for sure: when he leaves, the club will be in a lot better shape for the next manager than it was when he arrived. No other recent manager can really say that.
I am enjoying the rebuild. After a 5-year shit show, it is a welcome difference. But I don’t think he is the right person to develop kids, and I don’t think he is the right person to win trophies either. There, I said it. But to put that into context. the average time a manager is on the hot seat across the Top 5 leagues is between 35 and 69 games.
My personal view is that Moyes needs to do the dirty work, clear the decks, assemble a good side that isn’t remotely going to get into trouble, be a team that players will consider and sign for, and hand it over to the next man, not worrying that guy is one bad run from the sack and the rinse-and-repeat that us and every club sees.
The next manager needs to be a complete package and have the best possible situation, which limits the ability to fail. Is that what needs to happen for us now? No, I don’t think it is. We still need better players and a greater period of stability, no matter how boring that is.
And I am also not convinced that I have seen an outstanding candidate who can do a better job than Moyes, and who would come to Everton in its current state.
The calls for Potter, Frank, Martinez etc have all ignored glaring issues that these managers have to their games. Great going forward, but a defensive shambles that ends in the sack, and unclear if they can deal with problematic dressing rooms or squads that have huge deficiencies compared to what they had available at their prior clubs.
The next manager has to be here for the next 4 to 5 years. There has to be a foundation, that he has the power in the dressing room, and if players don’t deliver it is them that will go. Not the other way around.
Too often at clubs, the entire system falls apart because one person moves on. Look at Spurs, Man Utd… etc — constant managerial change, and constant injuries, constant poor signings.
The manager has to rule the roost. That to me is how we will win and compete. That is how we have a successful youth system, transfer system, physio system. The manager maintaining the club standards, with everyone being kept on their toes rather than hiding.
Apologetic pap? Nah… reality. A reality that would have seen Ndiaye, Branthwaite, Pickford and Garner sold if the club had carried its on-field trajectory.
That’s my 10 cents anyway.