“It was everything we wished for” – David Moyes on new stadium and performance against Brighton

You got in bed with Mr Kenwright and helped change the narrative, so hopefully you can help change the narrative back to yesteryear, and help take Everton back to the days when we feared nobody.

Surely David Moyes still has plenty to prove? Because, if he hasn't, then it's very concerning.

And those fantastic managers still put out teams that were no better than the Moyes years in terms of challenging the top 4 (except Roberto's 1st year before he destroyed the defensive solidarity Moyes had built).

Sadly, there are too many people on here who do not appreciate that, having been a driving force behind the Premier League, we were the only team that did not take advantage and we lost our way – not in the 2000s and 2010s, but in the 1990s.

We were so far behind by the turn of the millennium, we could not recover without the billionaires that were Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour.

Please name a manager who has changed the narrative to fearing nobody, and please not Roberto "no fear" Martinez? It might have been "no fear" but it took us farther away from challenging than nearer.

Apart from his win at Old Trafford, he took 2 points at the Sky 6 out of 33 and in the 2nd season 6 points from 18 at Goodison Park. So the 'no fear' didn't produce results.

Moyes will always have his critics but we couldn't have got a better manager who has steadied the ship so quickly.

Yes, we rode our luck in the 1st half yesterday but Brighton ran out of ideas in the 2nd half and we kept them relatively quiet, penalty miss apart.

With 3 or 4 more additions, we should see a comfortable league position, and not a relegation battle — I'm sick to the back teeth of that nonsense.

On another thread, you said he had lowered standards in his first spell, and now this. On the contrary, he reduced the age of the squad and moved us from relegation battles under Mike Walker and Walter Smith to European qualifiers on a regular basis in his first spell.

By any objective measure, he improved us and subsequent managers have seen us regress back to relegation scrapping. He is now trying to improve us again.

What I do agree with you about, though, is that we need to be doing better and win things once more. I hope that will be with Moyes, as it means we will do this soon (he has 2 years left on his contract and I don't expect an extension).

That being said, Tony, I disagree with you. You say that David Moyes lowered the standards along with Teary Bill, but that's just not true. Apart from an anomalous cup win in 1995, and a respectable league placing the following season, Everton were fucking dire for pretty much the entirety of the Premier League era, with David Moyes rescuing us from the calamity of the end of Walter Smith's reign.

We were a retirement home for elderly mercenaries who had been canny enough to identify the club as a soft touch. He lowered the age, lowered the wage, improved the football (admittedly, that took time), and dragged the club from perpetual relegation battlers to a median league position of 7th, despite the fact we had no money.

Should we want better? Yes. Of course. We always should.

But to imply that it was Moyes who shifted the narrative is objectively false, given that Everton had slunk into mediocrity long before David Moyes ever came near us.

After all, Grealish has won everything, and yet the man who made the claim has won next to nothing?

Sorry for not getting my point across properly, and sorry to the people who took my observation (after reading what he wrote) as an insult to David Moyes, but if anyone needs to prove themselves by winning a trophy for Everton, then I would have liked our manager to talk about himself rather than one of his players.

I don't want to argue but, when David Moyes first managed Everton, it's clear that both him and his chairman completely changed the overall narrative of the whole football club, and this is without doubt 100% factual.

Check the history books, check to see how long any other Everton manager got in charge of our club without delivering a trophy?

In the 6 seasons before his arrival, our average position was 15th. Yet it was David Moyes who drove the decline of our club?

This just doesn't seem to be 100% factual.

What was the longest time any manager had been at Everton, without delivering a trophy before Moyes, John?

I actually don't mind Moyes, but I did find it a bit strange that he was talking about a player who won more in one season than Moyes has actually won in his whole career, about having something to prove.

I'm a little bit dismayed why anyone has got anything to say about this observation, if I'm being serious!

Moyes has got history, he got the manager's job at Man Utd, and carried on like he didn't realise he had to win. So when I read him talking about others, I'd much prefer to read that he also feels he has got unfinished business at Everton, and he wants to win a trophy, so he can prove himself to the masses.

What is exactly wrong with thinking like this?

He is good at being steady. I suspect that is his nature. There's nothing necessarily wrong with it for a philosophy in life, in fact it's probably commendable over a lifetime. It was great for us last season.

But sometime, you just have to go for it. If you fail, at least you've had a go. We now have a very talented attack. Boost the midfield by one, the defence by two, and go for it.

Moyes did a reasonable job in his first reign, but my opinion is that he did a better job for both himself and his Chairman (especially his chairman) rather than he did for the overall standing of the club.

He was very unlucky to have so many of his better players injured in his only Everton cup final but, with the squad he created over an extraordinary length of time (looking at how long he got without winning). then he should have definitely won at least one major trophy. If Moyes had been braver, then I'm sure we definitely would have won something.

I say “we” because I want him to succeed, and I also think, if he gets in a couple more players, then he must have a great chance of finally delivering us a trophy after all these barren years.

Listening to Dibling talking about the atmosphere (after 30 years without a trophy) gives me a feeling that will never leave me. Everton are ready to take off again, and this will only happen if we have got a squad that have all got something to prove, and also a desire to give the Evertonians something that they genuinely deserve.

We qualify for the Champions League, and then bloody draw one of the best teams cos we've got to prequalify for it. We faced a really good Fiorentina side, and a top Chelsea side in the FA Cup Final.

Even the semi-final against Liverpool, which is probably the game most will curse, we were still facing probably the best player in the world at that point in Luis Suarez up front for them. And even if we'd beaten them, we'd have still had to beat Chelsea in the final.

The last 6 months have been so much better though than all of Carlo, Koeman and Marco eras put together, and when is the last time we felt this good about who we've bought in the window?

He may not be an elite coach, but he'll do for me.

We shall never know for certain, of course, but another example of us being a little unlucky with good league form not being translated into qualification for Europe.

Grealish said the reason he signed was because of his conversation with Moyes – not the new owners, not the new ground – Moyes persuaded him to come here, and I am sure he had the pick of clubs both here and in Europe.

Seems like many have forgotten what a shit show we were under the last 3 managers before him, we went to the ground in hope rather than expectation and his last predecessor has the record for the most of games without a win of any Everton manager.

Obviously the new ground has had an impact but listening to fellow Blues talking and they're excited about the team and its prospects.

Blackburn 1995 and Leicester 2016 are the only clubs to have won the Premier League other than the Sky 6 (or 5 if we exclude Spurs).

In the 32 years before that, there were 11 different winners and in the 32 years prior to that it was 15.

Since 1988 (thank you Wimbledon!) 37 cup finals and only 5 winners outside what are now the Sky 6. I think Portsmouth in 2008 is the only final without a Sky 6 team since we beat Watford in 1984.

Why can it not be us? Yeah, why not? But it is a big ask.

I was underwhelmed when Moyes came back, despite being one to regularly defend his first tenure, but I am happy to say that I underestimated him. I expected him to bring stability, but I think he's improved the quality of the football beyond that.

The moral of the story is if you want to win things you need to be rich enough to buy the best players.

Not allowed anymore as the 'big' clubs have dug a moat and hauled up the drawbridge

Off the top of my head, Will Cuff, can't say how many years without looking it up but more than Moyes.

OK, back in them days there was no manager as such, but he's the guy the buck stopped at.

Considering our average position under Moyes was 7th(?) And we also finished sixth, fifth and fourth, it was some decline!

Sorry, but how can Moyes be described as having done an excellent job in his first stint of 11 years when he did not win a trophy? Finishing 5th-8th in the league every season is not success.

I am hoping the manager is focused on winning trophies. The signs are positive based on his signings - KDH, Grealish and Dibling are all creative players.

He seems to have something to prove and must surely recognise this is his last big job, so let’s have full-on Moyes 2.0.

While some managers appear to be better than others its players who are the deciding factor.

Would we have won the Brighton game without Grealish, Pickford, Dewsbury-Hall and Ndiaye?

If we could sign another 4 or more players of that calibre (unlikely to happen unfortunately) we would have a very realistic chance of winning something at long last.

Portsmouth, Wigan, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Spurs, Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough, Birmingham City, Swansea City and Newcastle United.

While we have also failed to win a Cup you do need the luck of the draw in them.

And how many of them were fighting annual relegation battles and maybe had other priorities?

Fiorentina got knocked out of the Europa League by Glasgow Rangers, Kevin. They weren’t a bad team but they met a team who didn’t quite know how to approach the first game in Italy, but this is all ancient history now.

I think what you wrote in the last line of post13, is the most significant Kevin, because if I was David Moyes, I would be thinking that I have finally got a chance to show people that “ I AM OR CAN BE” an elite coach, especially if I can create a fortress, with nearly 50.000 Evertonians behind me in our new stadium.

They are just my thoughts and maybe I am wrong.
As for Kenwright, I was in the same stand when we beat Leicester away, the directors box was empty except for Kenwright who was applauding our away fans.

I said to him "These fans won't let this club get relegated."

He said, "Before today, I was really worried, but you are right: these fans are exceptional."

Now I am not saying Kenwright and Moyes got everything right but I just felt the club meant more to them than a normal manager and chairman… but that's just my opinion.

Dave, I can't ever recollect any manager turning down the chance to manage Man Utd, surely even you have to accept that being the case.

The Sly 6 have two teams of world class players and the support of the media and officials.

To be able to compete again we need a better squad of players and a united support base. We need to stop criticizing and get behind the club, the owners, the manager and the players and start the regeneration now because we will never have a better opportunity to catch up with the shower from across the park.

I think that we were also missing Yakubu. The spine of the team.

I would also posit that finishing "5th-8th in the league every season" would constitute dazzling success indeed when you've had a negative goal differential for 6 consecutive seasons.

Yes, fair enough, and that story you just posted is exactly the same as you told it the first time so I believe it but being cynical, Brian, Kenwright was never slow to show himself when things were going well so that doesn't surprise that he stood up in front of the fans that day.

As for Moyes and the Man Utd job I can recall going back to when Busby retired and quite a few had a go, including Wilf McGuiness former player and coach, Dave Sexton and a couple more with Ron Atkinson being given the reigns, incidentally the first non-Catholic to manage United after the war.

I doubt if any of them had spent 11 years in a very comfortable and well-paid position without any pressure before being offered the job and I mean if he really loved Everton FC then it would have been very hard to leave.

Moyes kept it a secret for a few months before revealing he was going to Kenwright, who then gave him his blessing.

Well, Moyes coming from Glasgow has no real affinity to Everton, so he couldn't possibly love Everton like you, me and thousands of fans who were born loving the club.

I have a lot of respect for your views as you and I are of a similar age and we agree a lot more than we disagree, but on this occasion, Dave, we will have to agree to disagree.

Yes, we both have different opinions on some players and managers but we both want the best for Everton and I think, like you ,better days are ahead for the club after such a long period of decline.

You and I are lucky seeing league titles, FA Cups and more recently our European trophy. When I see youngsters going the game, I just hope they see what you and I have witnessed.