James Garner rejected the idea that Everton's season is now over, pointing to the fact they sit within touching distance of the European places in the Premier League table.
“The season definitely isn’t over," he said. "The season is over for the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, but we still have got half a season [of the Premier League] left.
“You see how tight the league is; if you win one game, you are right up there again, so the season is definitely not over.
“We are definitely a better side than we were last season, and we have shown that we are just in a little bit of a bad patch at the moment, but hopefully in the next game or two we can get out of it.
“It's very disappointing,” he said. “[It was] hard to get back into the game. We were the better side in the second half, and we got the goal back and then extra-time, everyone was knackered.
“You know, we're down to the bare bones with players and with all the injuries and lads off at Afcon and all the suspensions and stuff.
“I think we were much better in the second half. I think if we would have started the game how we came out in the second half, it probably would have been a different result.
“But there aren’t many positives to take, other than we were a much better team in the second half, but it isn’t good enough, so we have to start games like that, and hopefully in the future we will get better results.”
“So, to stay in the game and take it into penalties was good, but it wasn’t good enough because me and the boys need to put the ball in the back of the net and there's no excuses for that.
“We know what the ground is like here, and if we get them onside as fast as we can with our pressing and intensity, 9 times out of 10 it ends up being a good game for us and not them.
“That was what we failed to do in the first half, but like I said, in the second half we were much better.”
But Garner could offer no update on his contract situation: "No, it's pretty much the same as it was.”
Reader Comments (14)
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2 Posted 11/01/2026 at 16:47:56
And that Jim sums Moyes up perfectly.
3 Posted 11/01/2026 at 16:50:48
But then again, over the last 10 years we've been trailing at home and it's felt like we've been on the beach in Dubai such is the lack of endeavour to salvage something.
Maybe it's a modern day footy thing, maybe it's modern day players, I don't know, maybe it does or doesn't happen with other teams, but based on Everton we always just seem to let things peter out nowadays.
4 Posted 11/01/2026 at 17:00:39
How about " A dreadful, woeful, pathetic first half followed by a poor second half"?
5 Posted 11/01/2026 at 18:36:50
Fielding a team that was full of players lacking serious minutes (because of Moyes's previous failure to recognise and substitute players). A highly cohesive unit was never likely.
Garner's remarks are somewhat odd. As if supporting Moyes's without saying so. What frustrates is why interviewers never ask what the game plan was and whether the player believes the team adhered to it.
Equally as frustrating was why the dour Scot is never asked a difficult question in press conferences. Regurgitation of the last game's drivel. Just press repeat.
His first tenure, as Jim points out, was just the same. With new changes to laws since that time, he has regressed into further negativity.
Yes, this squad is weak beyond belief. Way weaker than his previous tenure, but he knew this when accepting the job. Ironically, at least one of the squads from that period may well be in the Top 4 as contenders.
But his repeated failings with this depleted squad, negative tactics and lack of adaptability ensures nothing but further frustration being a blue. We are not going down, but not going anywhere either.
6 Posted 11/01/2026 at 18:47:12
7 Posted 11/01/2026 at 18:51:07
He doesn't have to admit his weaknesses.
They are obvious.
8 Posted 11/01/2026 at 18:51:28
The assembled squad are at their pinnacle, simply playing for a Premier League team for 95% of them will be their highest achievement as it was their sole ambition.
Most of them look at the table and see that we're 15 points ahead of the Bottom 3 so to them the job's done.
Moyes compounds this with his eternal ethos of managing expectation. He can't now and never has been able to raise the bar. Just another Allardyce and Dyche brought to a club which is performing woefully, so any improvement makes him look good.
He certainly can't manage or coach a team with a strikeforce, hasn't the first clue. Consider the players we most often talk about when he was here for 11 years -- they're all defenders and midfielders, combined with cameos by forwards who never stay very long or fade into obscurity.
Maybe if Moyes played to win rather than not to lose, it would be different... but as he is very rapidly reverting to type -- KITAP1, I very much doubt it.
Even the likes of Ndiaye now plays sideways and backwards in a team rapidly turning into 11 Vinny Samways. Pass back from kick-off so Pickford can give the ball a big hoof and lose possession. 3/4 passes across the back line for Tarkowski to hoof it up-field and lose possession.
We've hit a very tall brick wall and, unless there's a change in management style or tactics, we'll stay irrelevant.
As for Gardner, shut up, lad you're talking rubbish, the season is well and truly over.
9 Posted 11/01/2026 at 19:02:40
That's why if anything it probably said as much about the new owners as anything else really, it mimicked when Moshiri panicked and sacked Koeman then brought in Allardyce and while I feel Moyes is and has always been a better manager than Big Sam, the whole appointment felt very much like a book we'd read before.
I can understand the sentiment of the club was sinking under Dyche and that Moyes was at that time an easy option to steady the ship and maybe take them up a level (which from where we were when Dyche left, didn't take much)
However, a year on, you wonder where The Friedkin Group actually want the club to go; where is the overall ambition here?
10 Posted 11/01/2026 at 19:38:09
Given the financial bomb crater, spiraling manager and depleted squad confronting TFG when they acquired the club, a year is nothing. They've spent these 12 months addressing the club's executive management, fiscal health and playing staff, and while all are now significantly more stable, there remains much work to complete on those priorities.
I believe we will get a clearer picture of TFG's "overall ambition" in due time, but a year ain't it.
11 Posted 11/01/2026 at 19:41:19
We can't afford to let him walk away on a free this summer.
12 Posted 11/01/2026 at 19:46:21
The club has a one-year extension option on his contract.
13 Posted 11/01/2026 at 20:14:22
A year is nothing. We can talk til we're blue in the face (pun intended) but, as far as TFG are concerned, it's looking increasingly obvious that the next window, not this one, is maybe when we may see real intention re good signings.
Moyes not being here may well be a factor there too. On the subject of contract signings, I hope the club haven't become complacent on Garner's extension given they have another year option.
14 Posted 11/01/2026 at 20:48:41
Ndiaye is on 45K !, Seamus was given £55K for what surely be his playing contract.
Moyes is on 100K - I've said it before Friedkin should go get Iraola
before someone else does - and back him!
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1 Posted 11/01/2026 at 16:36:41
We can't play a full 90 minutes.
It's either a very good first half and a dreadful second or vice versa where in the latter stages we fall off a cliff.
I've never seen a team do it as often as us and be so Jekyll and Hyde especially in the modern era where the majority of Premier League teams all seem to be so pumped and physically fit.
There are a few noticeable differences to Moyes first spell here and the lack of fitness is one to sit alongside our ineptitude at attacking and defending set pieces.
Moyes may never have been Pep but in his first spell with us we were always a rather fit side, we finished many a game particularly at Goodison by throwing the kitchen sink at opponents when trailing or trying to get a winner and same for the set piece situation, we were always one of the leagues strongest sides in that department.
I've been disappointed with those two aspects a year on to be honest.