After emerging as the clear front-runner for the vacant managerial role at Everton following the dismissal yesterday of Sean Dyche, David Moyes’s return to Goodison Park is set to be announced.
The 61-year-old was, according to most reports, the preferred choice of The Friedkin Group to succeed Dyche and potentially provide the stability needed to preserve the club’s Premier League status this season.
The early bookies’ favourite, José Mourinho, was dismissed as an option while unconfirmed media talk in France suggested that Paulo Fonseca, his compatriot’s predecessor at AS Roma, was the top choice but is preferring to take stock for now and reassess his options in the summer after recently leaving AC Milan.
Dyche’s contract was terminated five months early following negotiations with the Blues’ new owners over severance terms, with the relationship between the respective parties having broken down in the aftermath of last Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth.
Moyes, who has been out of work since his own contract expired at West Ham last May, enjoyed an 11-year spell at Goodison Park after initially coming on board to drag Everton away from relegation danger in 2002.
The Club enjoyed a decade of relative stability under the Glaswegian before he departed for Manchester United in 2013, having been hand-picked by Sir Alex Ferguson to be his successor at Old Trafford.
His tenure in Manchester lasted less than a season, however, before he was sacked and after unproductive spells with Sunderland and Real Sociedad, he had two stints with the Hammers, pulling off two more escapes from the drop before landing the Europa Conference League for the London side in 2023.
Though not emblematic of a reset at Everton as they prepare to move to the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock under the ownership of TFG and a controversial choice for some Evertonians, Moyes is seen as a steady influence who can get the most out of a squad that is small and hit by injuries in key areas but which many believe underperformed under Dyche.
The Toffees won just one of the former Burnley boss’s last 10 games in charge, scored in only two of them and failed to register a single shot on target at the Vitality Stadium last weekend.
Reports based on information gleaned from figures inside the club suggest that TFG felt Dyche had given up the fight after informing them he felt he had taken Everton as far as he could.