I agree and my feeling is that, assuming we keep Branthwaite and Gueye, the core of the team will remain intact. Purely on the basis of Moyes’s record over the second half of the season just gone, that side could finish higher even by just plugging the “squad depth” holes.

With targeted additions, we could take a step beyond that. How big a leap depends for me on our recruitment this summer. Can we add the kind of quality that allowed Newcastle to take immediate and big strides forward or is it going to be phased (more likely given the scale of the task at hand)?

An excellent contribution Kieran echoing very much my own thoughts on the forthcoming season.

We have the nucleus of a decent team and, in David Moyes, an astute manager who knows the club extremely well. As he proved, during his first managerial term, David is certainly very capable of finding quality players at affordable prices within a sensible age range. The club also appears to be assembling a formidable recruitment team capable of ensuring strict adherence to the Profit and Sustainability Rules.

Hopefully, with a fair wind, the necessary slice of luck and a reasonable transfer budget, the club will be able to move forwards and be competing within the top six or so places over the next three to five years.

I think you are being a bit optimistic looking to Europe next season, unless we can break the habit of the last few years and have a cup run.

Assuming we keep Branthwaite and Gueye from a starting 11 we need a new right back and winger, although I thought Ndiaye looked good against England and, in my view a 15 goal plus centre forward, I'm afraid I don't share your optimism about Beto although I would keep him. From a squad perspective we need a goalkeeper an extra centre back and left back, either old pro's like Young or prospects happy to understudy and probably another central midfielder.

To resolve all those positions successfully, integrate them into the squad in one summer is a big challenge so my expectation is an improvement on this season competing for 8th to 12th

The great unknown to me is the new stadium impact. 50000 Evertonians bringing the atmosphere we created at Goodison could be a frightening prospect for any other team in the Premiership. Let us hope it can become our colosseum next season. Our home form was poor last season. Our away form was much better,think wins at Forest, Newcastle, Fulham and Brighton. We can start looking at top half if we get it right at home. I for one cannot wait to hear the whistle for our first game at home. I do not think our home firm can be any worse next year so top half finish for me

I think ‘savvy recruitment’ is the thing. We’re still 11 players short of having a squad at all, let alone judging its quality. Given that Roma under the Friedkins have been happy to utilise the free agent market, I’ve been expecting us to do the same. It’s a relatively good year for Premier League experienced players being available. However, there’s been very little movement on this front and the fact that we’re still putting the recruitment team in place has me worried that we’re behind the curve on getting things done this summer.

In terms of buying young, quality players it seems we’re only going to be able to get 2-3 and these need to be chance creators and goal scorers.

This means a lot of free agent work and a couple of loans to be in any kind of position to compete next season.

John @3, yep, integrating that many players will be an issue. A slow start, added to Peter @4 very valid point about adjusting to a new stadium, could soon have the players under pressure.
I think getting our transfer business completed early will be essential. Mike is right about the free agent market and if we can get players in this way early, it will help a lot. There are a number of pre-season friendlies lined up that will help with the new stadium, although off the top of my head, I don't know how many are in BMD. The tournament in America will help as well.

A European spot may well be out of reach but surely a jump of three to five places is achievable. Like I said, the mid table pack is nothing to be afraid of.

Walter Smith used to use the 10 points margin, what every team would of done with an extra 10 points be it turning one goal defeats into draws or draws into one goal margin wins.

You can see where he came from teams at the bottom not getting relegated, teams lower table looking at a top half finish, teams in the middle table looking at euro qualifying, teams in the euro spots looking at champions league.

With David Moyes now back at the helm you can see that possibility. Here's hoping for a fair wind and settling into the new stadium quickly because under Sean Dyche it was not fortress Goodison.

I'm assuming (hoping) that the new administration is putting in place the foundations for a long-term plan that will be focused on the recruitment and development of young talent rather than foraging around for older players at the end of their playing careers filling the gaps in the roster.

For all Moyes's achievements last season, I don't believe he is the answer for the club beyond this next season nor are most of our current squad except for a few. While there may be fine margins to winning or drawing on the pitch, the differences in getting it right off the pitch can be quite large so the acumen and hard work behind the scenes has to start now not kicked down the road to sort out in future seasons.