It’s February, there are 12 Premier League games to go, and not only are you wondering where the time went — “didn’t the season just kick off a few weeks ago?!” — but if you are an Evertonian in any of the past four seasons, you have a permanent knot of anguish in your stomach over the club’s future.
Until around this time last year, the ghoulish spectre of relegation had hung over Goodison Park from the moment the wheels came off Rafael Benitez’s tenure and through points deductions, the forced sale of many of their best players, and two white-knuckle brushes with relegation in 2022 and 2023, Everton narrowly avoided utter disaster.
The man to banish all talk of relegation was, of course, David Moyes and, having made quick work of lifting Everton away from the bottom three last year, the Scot currently has the Blues sitting in the heady heights of 8th place, seven points shy of the Champions League spots and just five off the Europa League with 26 games played.
After all those years of misery and struggle, if you’d been offered that at the start of this season, you’d have bitten the hand off the proverbial benefactor. The devil, however, is in the details and the context of this maddening season muddies the picture because Everton sit where they do in an intriguingly tight and unpredictable Premier League in spite of a dreadful home record that has yielded just four home wins to date.
Leaving Goodison for Bramley-Moore Dock after 133 years of history, there was always the risk that the displacement into unfamiliar surroundings could affect the team’s form. As recently explored on these pages, however, the issues with the Toffees’ record at Hill Dickinson Stadium appear to have less to do with the new ground than with the team itself, the way it plays and its weaknesses in key positions. Just one more win by the waterfront this season would equal last season’s tally in L4 where Moyes managed just three victories in the second half of last season.
It’s hard to see where that next home win is coming from, though, and without an improvement at the Dock, European qualification might end up being just out of reach. Doomed Burnley would seem to offer the most fertile opportunity in the coming weeks but Everton struggled against an even worse outfit in the form of Wolves. And where, in years gone by at a bouncing Goodison Park, the visit of any of Manchester United, Liverpool or Chelsea could spark a stirring performance and victory by the boys in Blue, the new place has yet to make such history. Fixtures against the so-called big clubs of Tottenham, Newcastle and Arsenal yielded zero points.
The problem with Moyes at the moment is that he has Everton over-performing expectations from the beginning of the season but falling short of the ceiling hinted at when the Blues have been at their strongest this season, by the quality of their best personnel, and by their remarkable away record.
As such, the Scot is providing plenty of fodder for his detractors and supporters alike, the debate and the mood oscillating between rousing victories on the road and dispiriting failures on home soil.
"In Moyes We Trust"
On the face of it, Everton have come a long way in a short period of time under Moyes. Having had a tantalising glimpse of possible Champions League qualification around the turn of 2021, they found themselves having to completely reset the following summer without Carlo Ancelotti and with the financial walls starting to close in as the largesse of Farhad Moshiri’s reign came home to roost.
The situation was compounded by the most ill-advised and, arguably, most damaging of Moshiri’s managerial hires in Benitez. In the interests of backing the Everton boss, you could “both sides” the decision at the time but if foresight suggested it was unwise, hindsight clearly shows the Spaniard should never have been appointed in the first place.
The club were heading for the Championship until salvation was secured with that dramatic turnaround against Crystal Palace under his successor, Frank Lampard, in the penultimate match of the 2021/22 season and it required a fraught 1994-/1998-esque escape on the final day of 2022/23 after Lampard had himself been jettisoned in favour of Sean Dyche.
Like Lampard, Dyche did just enough to claw Everton away from the jaws of relegation in his first few months in charge and deserved credit for maintaining morale in the face of the punitive action from the Premier League that thrust the Blues back into a battle to beat the drop just when it looked like mid-table respectability was on the cards in 2023/24. However, by the waning weeks of 2024 it was clear he had lost his way; one win in 11 and a team that appeared to have forgotten how to score goals told their own story and his departure in early January 2025 felt inevitable.
Enter Moyes, the safe pair of hands that a club and a fanbase, exhausted by the previous four years of chaos, needed just weeks into a new era under the ownership of The Friedkin Group. Everton were effectively safe within a month of his return to Goodison and a Premier League table for the calendar year of 2025 would underscore his impact — the Toffees had a top-10 record for that 12-month period and only title-chasing Arsenal could boast better away form among top-flight clubs.
For much of the current campaign, thanks in part to some important signings, like that of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish, Everton have been within touching distance not only of the guaranteed Europa League slot but of the Champions League places as well. Along the way, Moyes has overseen surprise wins at Old Trafford, Vitality Stadium and Villa Park and completed the double over Nottingham Forest and Fulham.
Rounded up, the club’s average position after 26 matches over the last four seasons is 16th with 27 points and the Blues currently have 37, three points shy of the magic 40 that might end up being a requirement this season to finish above 18th spot.
He has done it in spite of Jarrad Branthwaite’s absence for half a season and the loss to injury for significant spells of Dewsbury-Hall and now Gealish; in spite of a player availability crisis that left him barely able at times to field a starting XI of senior pros; in spite of not having either a natural or effective attacking full-back on either side of defence; and in spite of two strikers struggling — painfully at times — to make the grade.
In a season in which stability and consolidation was the order of the day, Moyes still has his team very much in European contention and, regardless of whether they achieve it, the promise for the close season is that the club will embark on the next phase of squad reconstruction by adding the quality needed to make a great forward stride towards the top six in 2026/27.
For Moyes’s biggest proponents, Everton are in the hands of a manager who knows the club inside and out, understands the supporters’ expectations, has come closer than anyone since Joe Royle to winning a trophy, and is impatient to get the Blues competing at the top end of the table and for silverware as quickly as possible as he nears the end of his career.
The Frustrating Arch-Pragmatist
A more cynical observer might say that Everton’s improvement in the weeks following Moyes’s return was as much a reversion to the mean under a competent and experienced manager as anything else; one able to not only focus on the basics but identify key ways of getting a woefully under-performing team to better click going forward.
There was a strong feeling for many Evertonians under all three of Benitez, Lampard and Dyche that the players at their disposal were much better as a collective than results were suggesting. That Moyes, once he’d had a chance to catch his breath following his re-appointment in January last year, was able to engineer three successive wins and then a nine-match unbeaten run in the League to vault Everton well clear of the drop zone by simply making subtle tweaks in personnel and approach could support that view.
If the current pattern holds, the Blues are on course to amass around 56 points this season, enough to finish between 8th and 10th in any of the last five campaigns. When you take into account Everton’s aforementioned record under Moyes in the calendar year of 2025, assuming the club adequately replaced outgoing first-team regulars like Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucouré, placing somewhere around that part of the table would have been a reasonable expectation for this season.
Thierno Barry, the £27m acquisition from Villarreal for whom the jury is still very much out, may not compare to “DCL” in terms of his aerial prowess, ability to lead the line or hold the ball up but in terms of simple availability and goals, the young Frenchman has a better a return so far this season. In Dewsbury-Hall, Everton made a significant upgrade on Doucouré and were able to enjoy the injection of creativity brought by Grealish until he was struck down with a foot fracture last month.
On that basis, Everton should be better than they were last season but each impressive away result is being negated at present by failings at home. There is a risk that the Blues are in a vicious psychological cycle at Hill Dickinson Stadium and that not winning there is becoming a habit.
That Moyes is a good manager isn’t up for discussion and there’s a case to be made (albeit an unprovable one) that had he, not Dyche, been tasked with saving the club from the drop three years ago, he’d have done it handily. Not only that, he obviously has a track record at Everton — nine years of stability and regular top-half finishes, many of them in the Europa League places, the like of which no Blues manager has been able to match since.
The debate over the 62-year-old begins when it comes to considering how the rest of this season might pan out and whether it will end up being an enormous missed opportunity if the team fail to finish in the top seven or eight in the Premier League, having already meekly fallen at early hurdles in the cup competitions.
Will the failure on the part of a recruitment setup, where Moyes is the key decision-maker on all transfers, to adequately address key positions in the squad last summer — most glaringly, the long-standing void at right-back but also the weaknesses at left-back and centre-forward positions — end up being costly?
Likewise, will concerns over the manager’s tactical acumen, game management, and selection and substitution policies both limit what the club will achieve this season and then hinder Everton when it comes to making the next step up?
At present, he seems to have no answer to the Blues’ frustrating home form, their inability to control games at Hill Dickinson Stadium and the freedom with which visiting sides seem to enjoy playing there. His men routinely take 45 minutes or more to really get going in games and have really only put in two of what could be regarded as complete performances so far this season, against Forest and Fulham.
Moyes has been content to persist with the increasingly uncomfortable fit of Jake O’Brien at right-back, he and his colleagues appear to have badly misjudged both the short-term suitability for Premier League football of Adam Aznou and the readiness to meaningfully contribute of Tyler Dibling, and he has been forced to throw Barry in at the deep end as Beto reverted to type after his brief purple patch this time last year.
Barry has, of course, enjoyed a little spell amongst the goals of this own but despite Aznou’s energetic cameo against Sunderland in the FA Cup and Nathan Patterson’s part in the away wins at Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, neither player has been involved since that ill-fated cup tie last month.
Charlie Alcaraz, an important squad member when he was on loan from Flamengo last season who might have sealed his permanent switch from Brazil with that Tim Cahill-esque winner at Newcastle on the final day of 2024/25 has just had 11 minutes off the bench since returning from injury three weeks ago. Merlin Röhl, who arguably had his best game of a disrupted first campaign in England at Villa Park five matches ago, has also not played a minute since.
Lately, the more players he has had at his disposal, the smaller his pool of “trusted lieutenants” seems to have become. Deploying a central midfielder in Harrison Armstrong on the wings is just the latest example of Moyes’s preference for putting square pegs in round holes and evidence, perhaps, of a lack of faith in those players for whom those positions are natural fits.
It’s impossible to know at the moment if trying different personnel in their specialist roles or being more proactive in terms of the timing and nature of substitutions during matches would help because fans never get to see them. Is the manager’s pragmatism and innate conservatism holding the team back or is there just not sufficient quality in the ranks to get them over the line in games?
These are the frustrations that nag at the Moyes sceptics who would concede that in his first spell, he assembled an impressive squad that, at its best, could play some lovely football but would argue that, ultimately, he failed to crack the glass ceiling to the top four or land any silverware during his tenure. If the canny Scot has changed and evolved since he left the Blues in 2013, some still need convincing.
The Europe Question
How you approach the current debate over the team’s form, the question of where Everton could and should realistically be a little over a year on from Moshiri’s departure and what our expectations should be for the remainder of the season is probably coloured by your opinion of David Moyes, who has become the subject of plenty of discussion during this unwanted fortnight's hiatus without a game.
If there's another problem with Moyes, it's that he came into the club with an 11-year history and fans had amassed a mountain of opinions and experiences of his management and methods, both good and bad, during that time. Even his strongest backers would admit he has his foibles and points of frustration and, having seemingly returned a more relaxed figure and a more dynamic coach in the early weeks of his second spell in charge, there is a feeling that he has reverted to type somewhat.
Then there is the question of the strength of the current squad and whether qualifying for Europe would be a help or hindrance in 2026/27. Certainly there are those who feel that the demands of Continental involvement and playing midweek and weekends would place too much strain on the squad.
On the flip side, however, Moyes was open in admitting last summer that the club faced challenges landing their primary targets because they were not able to offer players European football.
There’s an argument to be made that if European football is on offer, you take it and worry about the logistics and implications later, particularly if it means you can shop in a more favourable market for players who would benefit the club over the longer term.
Moyes himself has wavered on the topic over the course of the campaign, hinting that he is itching to take any opportunity to accelerate the Blues’ recovery by finishing in the European places this season, if possible, while trying to remain realistic when results haven’t gone his side’s way.
At present, with Everton’s home form the way it is, the greater prestige of the Europa League is likely to remain out of reach. However, the Europa Conference League, the tournament Moyes won as manager of West Ham, could be a realistic target given the permutations around who wins the domestic cup competitions and how many Champions League spots will be given to English clubs for next season.
Bearing in mind the standard of opposition, Conference League qualification could be the ideal compromise option for the Blues next season, providing the manager to rotate out his senior players in favour of giving valuable minutes to younger or fringe squad members, at least until the later stages when the assignments become more difficult.
Should the club allow the prospect of any European involvement in 2026/27 slip through fingers, it would, to these eyes, be hugely disappointing. Obviously, there are those who point to the chaotic Moshiri years and those brushes with relegation and wonder what more Evertonians could ask for beyond mid-table safety.
It is true that most of us would have been quite content with a season of boring mediocrity but from the moment Everton signed Grealish, Dewsbury-Hall’s talents were added to a side already boasting the brilliance of Iliman Ndiaye, and the team found itself in the top six in the early weeks of the season, supporters’ eyes were opened to the possibility of more.
“You can’t go from fighting relegation to finishing in the top six,” has been trumpeted more than once by those arguing that the club can’t run before it can walk. Fans of Leicester in 2016 and Nottingham Forest last season would beg to differ and had either Claudio Ranieri or Nuno Espírito Santo taken the same attitude, those clubs would have been denied some wonderful memories.
Granted, both teams had deep squads and the Foxes, in particular, were able to capture lightning in a bottle in their stunning title-winning season thanks to some masterful recruitment and a perfect game-plan engineered to make the most of players like Jame Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Ngolo Kanté.
And therein lies the key. One of the pillars of Moyes’s relative success in his first tenure as Everton manager was player recruitment. From Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar to Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini, the Scot built teams of tremendous ability and that thrived on the strong defensive foundation he built.
The game changed in the time he was away. Not only is it rare for clubs to find hidden gems like a couple of those aforementioned stars but the Premier League is full of teams coached to play more of a pass- and possession-based game, something that the current iteration of the Blues’ team often struggles.
What hasn’t changed is that sound player identification and acquisition remain central to surviving and thriving in the top flight and if Moyes and the transfer committee can get that right, next season should be a lot more even with a genuine tilt at Europe more sustainable.
In the meantime, Moyes himself will continue to divide opinion, particularly with the future beyond his current contract in mind (a topic for a future article), and there will be undue focus on Everton’s home form and its impact on the wider question of Hill Dickinson Stadium, its atmosphere, empty seats, early leavers and other bones of contention.
A win over Manchester United under the lights on Monday night would go a long way to quietening all that talk down, at least for a while!
Reader Responses
Selected thoughts from readers20/02/2026 07:26:21
An obvious appointment or a lazy appointment, could also have been the title for this article Lyndon.
Succession planning by clubs for their managers/head coaches is an absolute minefield. Nowadays, even when a club gets it very right, the appointment rarely lasts more than three or four seasons. The manager falls out with the board, runs out of ideas or momentum, falls out with the players or gets poached by another club. Getting it right twice in a row appears nearly impossible.
You get rare exceptions to a manager having longevity at a club. Pep at City, Dyche at Burnley, and Moyes at Everton. Pep stays at City because he and the club suit each other. They fit his type of club, he has given them consistency and success. Dyche and Burnley, for slightly differing reasons, the same. Burnley are Dyche's type of club, he guaranteed them consistency and success in that they survived several seasons in the PL on a small budget. Moyes suited both sets of owners that he has worked under, and has met his brief, again offering consistency and the owner's idea of success.
City fans will be the happiest of the bunch. Trophies speak for themselves. Burnley fans will have been happy to some degree, but may be wondering how they eventually got relegated, rather than managing to kick on somehow. For Everton fans, read the column above.
I do have some level of sympathy for Moyes. He came to Everton the first time with an intimate knowledge of the Championship and it's hidden gems. He picked up wonderful players on Everton's budget. But time has moved on. His intimate knowledge of players isn't as relevant anymore. Also, Everton's budget hasn't moved with inflation. A 3m-4m quid player in Moyes' first tenure is now is now a 20m quid plus player. Lukaku when we bought hum would now be sixty million quid plus minimum, not 27m.
However, Moyes' stubbornness and lack of flexibility with his squad has appeared to worsen. He seems incapable of making the most out of what his owners can now afford to buy him.
If Moyes was to go this summer instead of the next, who succeeds him? Will whoever replaces him be capable of picking up where he left off? Will we be any better off this time next year?
My final point, I would agree that the Conference League would be brilliant in terms of squad development. I think most Evertonians would embrace it and enjoy it.
20/02/2026 08:25:56
Excellent article need.
My perspective is that DM is indeed a “safe pair of hands”, but is also more than that, he “gets the club”, and is a better manager than when he was tempted to Old Trafford.
Yes he is stubborn, and can be frustrating with his team selections, but he has given us genuine results based optimism.
No mean feat for being 12 months in.
Thank you DM.
20/02/2026 11:19:19
Excellent article as usual Lyndon and what you write is what most sensible evertonians would agree with.
Given our predicament when TFG took over it was surely no surprise that Moyes was appointed not so much to steady the ship and propel us forward but to stop us getting relegated.
As you say, he did that in short order and this season has been better than expected for most but because of that we are now ready to be frustrated if we don’t get into Europe.
Ultimately Moyes isn’t the man to take us forward to the promised land but who is?
Most of us would have been happy if Thomas Frank had been appointed but he totally crashed and burned at Spurs. Irriola at Bournemouth also seems to fit our criteria (if our criteria is a young, tracksuited coach) but would he find the demands and extra pressure of a club with much greater expectations too much?
Silva didn’t make it and seems to have found his place at Fulham where again expectations are lower than ours.
I’ll turn up regardless of who has the job I suppose my overriding impression this season is one of better than expected.
20/02/2026 13:45:00
If David Moyes, truly understands the supporters expectations (sorry but have to mark you down for this statement Lyndon!) or in the words of Frank, “gets the club” then it explains why we haven’t won a trophy for so long.
I don’t believe he does either, but maybe I’m just an old moaning bastard, who just doesn’t understand Everton Football Club, anymore?
20/02/2026 14:40:29
Thanks for the article, Lyndon. I guess the longest serving managers tend also to be the most pragmatic. That’s how they survive and make themselves the safest bet in the eyes of risk averse owners.
I agree qualification for the UEFA Conference League is a realistic target. Obviously we will need to increase the depth of the squad but the new recruitment team will have had around nine months to prepare for that work ahead of the summer transfer window.
European competition makes it easier to manage a full squad, providing an opportunity both for development and the maintenance of match fitness levels. Moreover the revenue from gate receipts, TV and a prize pot for the winners of around £18m would enhance the steady improvement in the club’s financial situation.
The failure to deliver more points at Hill Dickinson is very disappointing. Moyes was fortunate in his early home games last season to host two of the four worst teams in the league, Spurs and Leicester. I think even a Sean Dyche managed team would have beaten those two. Having gained momentum from those two wins we expected more to follow. We failed however to record another home victory until the final game against an already relegated Southampton.
With the additions of Grealish and Dewsbury-Hall we expected more this season. It has been surprising to witness our inability to maintain control of matches but even more so to see a Moyes team exhibit defensive fragility at so many set pieces. At times the players have looked distracted, torn perhaps between the desire to express themselves on the ball and the need sometimes just to win ‘ugly’. I think most fans will be content to gain a few more wins from the latter approach between now and the end of the season.
20/02/2026 15:36:50
You make many good points there, Lyndon, as do the posters, but I don't think you dwell enough on the early, almost immediate, cup exits under Moyes II.
Home defeats to Bournemouth and Sunderland in the FA Cup. And, after a 2-0 home win over Mansfield, we jumped out of the League Cup, losing in September to a Wolves team that had lost all five of its league games.
The club badly needs a trophy. The new stadium needs igniting and an FA Cup fifth or sixth round thriller might have been the spark.
Of course, we might see a thriller on Monday night. We shall see.
20/02/2026 16:58:25
Very astute observation Lyndon,
I myself am very happy with how things are going under Moyes, to be safe at this point in the season in comparison to previous campaigns is a vast improvement and one that won’t be ignored by TFG.
To be where we are currently wasn’t anticipated so we’re exceeding expectations. Will the owners stick or twist? What’s the alternative? Iraola? I’m not convinced, maybe we do need a manager that’ll be braver with a more expansive attitude but for now we should stick I think.
This season was never going to be pretty and we have had our share of issues (questions) that remain unanswered.
One being our inability to perform at our new home,
It’s stark contrast to our away form, bare in mind Goodison was our home for well over a century so moving to somewhere new especially so different as BMD is with its state of the art architecture and grand appeal it’s almost somewhat of a tourist attraction, it’s going to take time to bed in, it has obviously had an affect on the players and the club as a whole, playing away takes the pressure off, a bit like being back at Goodison in many respects. Something we’ll grow out of I’m sure.
Another issue is recruitment.
Moyes deserves another season and I’m sure TFG will back him, this time next year we will be much more qualified in our opinions.
20/02/2026 17:14:56
Excellent point about cup exits.
Also, the manager insists on playing young, developing players out of position as a matter of course. A contigency with a veteran player is one thing, but multiple young players out of position every match is failure-whether of recruitment or tactics or selection.
We have all seen the difference in overall team performance with Patterson at RB and O'Brien. There is no way the manager hasn't seen it. So why does he choose the worse option every time it's available?
I've seen people post here, I'm assumming with straight faces, that maybe it's because of what the manager sees in training that the rest of us don't. Only somone dedicated to defending the manager at all costs could say such a thing. Moyes has some kind of tough guy, hard ass, old school, no nonsense, my way or the highway philosophy is the only reasonable explanation I can think of, and players like Patterson have run afoul of it. As much as I wish football and many other things could return to the nonsense-intolerant old days, that is not the world of professional football any longer. Sacrificing points in the table to send a message to certain players is pure folly.
20/02/2026 17:24:41
Excellent description of of Moyes Mark II part1. TFG Chief Data Officer, Ken Elliott, emphasizes that success depends more on “business change readiness” and culture than on technology itself. This is the exact challenge TFG face at Everton and where we are at imo.Moyes has delivered on his Data Profile for stablity.What needs to happen for him.tp.push on from thst?
20/02/2026 17:36:13
Thank you Lyndon I think you have made a very fair assessment of David Moyes, and I agree his record with the team last season and this has been better than we may have expected. But this season particularly there have been disappointments. I am thinking of,
1) Our home form, the new stadium is difficult to get to and ticket prices more expensive, and we haven't yet created any sense of Home Advantage.
2) Our style of play or lack of it is often boring to watch, and we will have to play better at home to continue attracting 50,000 plus crowds, remembering the access issues, far too many night matches and the increase in ticket prices.
3) David Moyes is certainly unadventurous when it comes to team selection and as a result many of the younger members of the squad have played very little football. And his willingness to play players clearly out of position is frustrating and unfair to the individuals concerned.
4) The very early exits from the two Cup competitions was a big disappointment.
So in summary my view is we are doing ok but no more than that, and I fully expect that we will have a difficult end to the season and will not qualify for a place in Europe next season. This summers World Cup will affect a lot of players next season and that may open up opportunities for Clubs such as ours. But this summers recruitment will again be key to any possible success, and so I am happy for Mr Moyes and Co to continue for one further season and then it must really be time for us to move on.
20/02/2026 18:13:56
Lyndon, very well-balanced article.
There's not a doubt in my mind that if Moyes continues to deliver more or less as he has this season that he will be kept on for another year. I've always assumed the TFG folks care right now only about the quality of the results, not the quality of the football. And they care very much about the stability Moyes has provided.
Part of this bias may well be a lesson learned from Roma, where the well-intentioned hiring of club legend De Rossi as manager turned into a full year of chaos and three more managerial changes. The Friedkins didn't want to repeat that, so much so that they planned to keep Dyche in place when they took over Everton, and only went looking for a replacement when they had no choice.
I think that, barring a significant losing streak over the next couple of months, Moyes will be fully in charge of the summer window and will be managing the new recruits in the fall.
20/02/2026 18:31:22
For those of us who felt Moyes Mk I rather out-stayed his welcome & weren't too keen on his return, then all the old frustrations are clear to see. Leopards don't change their spots. However, I fully expect Moyes to see out his contract. He delivers what's needed, if not what's desired, albeit in none too stylish a manner.
I would be most concerned if TFG were contemplating extending Moyes' contract any further. To me, that would signal that solid mid- to upper mid-table + the occasional venture into a lesser European competition is where their ambitions lie. That would be under-whelming, to say the least.
I hope they are realising that the Club is capable of so much more, if properly managed from the top down.
20/02/2026 19:52:50
Dennis, rather than limited ambitions, it might signal that TFG believe Moyes is the guy to bring the club up to those levels. That would be more concerning, because it might take a couple of years to realize they were wrong.
Based on past business record, Friedkin is a highly success-oriented guy. His movies, resorts and other ventures are all high-end, and TFG have spent generously at Roma. I do not expect them to willingly settle for long-term mediocrity at Everton. They just need to recognize that the manager required to take us above that level on the pitch is someone besides Moyes, and I doubt that right now they do.
20/02/2026 21:09:56
Indeed, Mike. I hope they'll realise Moyes' limitations in time to decide not to extend his contract & to allow for planning his replacement at the end of next season.
20/02/2026 22:29:27
Thanks for comments thus far, folks, and for wading through a piece that took me many days to write on and off because I was mulling over what the focus should be.
In the end, I decided to stick with the here and now and park the question of the medium-term future but a lot of the responses above have raised the issue of whether Moyes stays beyond this season or sees out his contract and, in either case, who should replace him.
As I hinted at the end, I'll address those thoughts in a future article.
21/02/2026 10:42:12
This has been such a strange and frustrating season for me as a season ticket holder only attending home games. The league table position is at total odds to the football so far served up at home and in fact the general malaise around BMD is similar to the feelings in the final seasons at Goodison but completely bereft of the passion the fans exhibited. I would imagine the consensus of opinions on Moyes amongst the away support would be far more positive than the home support where the familiar issues of poor tactics, player and game management and long term player recruitment have carried over from recent bad years but have been magnified and made worse by frustrations with the ‘new’ match going experience.
I am 50/50 over Moyes but I do believe that he has the interests of the club at heart and generally he gets it right far more than every one of the managers who followed him. I’ve heard it said that Moyes is a 75/25 manager where 75% of the time you agree with what he does but 25% of the time he boils your piss. In my opinion I welcome the current stability but things have got to improve fast at home or face an exodus of support.
21/02/2026 11:34:26
I must say as a first time poster on this platform I am astounded by the in-depth well thought out opinions of the posters and the quality of the articles.
Truth is Moyes is a safe pair of hands and no more I was one of the fans that did not want to see him anywhere near this club that I have supported for well over well over forty years. he has done what he was hired for and may well continue to do so and I am happy about our current position in the table but that does not mean I am happy with Moyes his team selections his tactics or lack of and his continued insistence on never playing all players in their natural positions and his reluctance to blood younger players to find out if that player can cut the mustard
Moyes must think his current trusted first team eleven are never going to age he always seems reluctant to make timely substitutions tending to leave it till extremely late in the second half or bringing in the od attacking players with hardly time to get any mud on their expensive football boots.
Moyes is yesterday's manager bought in to stabilise what was definitely a sinking ship but if we want to be the prevebial phoenix that rises from the ashes of our own inforced mediocrity he is not the manager or the man to lead us into the 27/28 season.
21/02/2026 12:03:09
An interesting reflection on a baffling season. We're one of a large group of teams who can beat anyone on their day while being equally capable of losing to anyone.
TFG have secured the business and are pointing it in the right direction. That was their first, and most important job. Of course it's an investment; they have invested millions with the aim of making more millions. I'm fine with that. I also like the fact that they're low-key, recruiting people and letting them get on with it. After Kenwright and Moshiri, I'm glad to be spared the embarrassment of our top brass spouting rubbish.
Stability off the pitch has been matched by stability on it. I hoped for quiet midrable mediocrity. Moyes has provided it. The fact that many of us are even contemplating Europe is evidence of both Moyes' work and the averageness of the current league.
This summer, with PSR being further lifted, will be my acid test for both TFG and Moyes for their respective ambition. I can't see Moyes getting another contract. I can see him leaving a better situation than the one he inherited.
I don't envy TFG for their forthcoming decision. Potter, Amorim & Frank were all touted as 'progressive' managers. Were they victims of basket case clubs, or simply overrated and out of their depth? Moyes, with less money to spend, was ahead of all three.
21/02/2026 17:16:41
Well Lyndon, as you ponder your next article, working title Life after David Moyes ? I am sure you will generate much debate, as he has proved that he was the Right Man to take over last season, and in all fairness based on the Teams results he has earned another season.
However, he and his lieutenants are reaching pensionable age, and maybe next season should be their last ? But as we all know you cannot guarantee that a new manager will be successful so we will have to be careful just what we wish for.
My favourite EFC manager was Jonny Carey, as his teams played open attractive football, but as history will tell you he was sacked as his teams failed to win enough games. Another past manager Rafa Benitez said when appointed, 'that football fans want to win matches'. Well yes that's true but unless teams do so with style the football becomes boring. So that's the challenge, if we are to move forward as even some 'successful Managers' are in charge of boring teams. And I for one have seen enough boring football to last me a lifetime.
21/02/2026 21:11:37
As usual an interesting and thought provoking contribution Lyndon. It is true that Claudio Ranieri’s tenure as Leicester City’s manager gave supporters unforgettable memories but following the appointment of Ruud van Nistelroy the club now languishes in the lower ranks of the Championship. Van Nistelroy could not be described as a dinosaur, but neither could Koeman, or Martinez. Indeed many of the managers who have been discarded by their clubs over the last twelve months were relatively young, thought to be progressive but found wanting.
Somewhere out there there might be a manager who will,lead us to the promised land but the dismissal of Moyes, who has served us well, would not guarantee an improvement in team performance.
21/02/2026 23:42:38
I think it’s difficult thinking what to do post Moyes really. I think flavours of the month like Thomas Frank, Glasner or the Brighton or Bournemouth managers just remind me of Mike Walker who was a disaster. One out of left field - how about bringing Frank Lampard back?
22/02/2026 06:41:30
Absolutely not Andy!
Lovely guy though Frank Lampard is, you don’t bring back a manager you’ve previously sacked.
Although Coventry have won their last two games after a long wobble and scored a lot of goals I think the Championship is his level.
22/02/2026 07:37:36
Paul @19 makes a good point about the impact of the summer transfer business. I can't see the summer transfer fund, regardless of PSF, being any bigger than what other mid-table clubs are willing to spend. It means that we will be competing with several clubs potentially for the same available players. A manager's vision may be what swings a player's signature in our favour.
Paul is right to think about how the transfer business will reflect the club and Moyes' or any other manager's ambition. Will funds be released by the owners, or will they be raised off the back of player sales? Unless the squad has been improved by the end of the summer window then we are standing still.
In terms of the owners' ambitions, will they be happy with what Moyes has achieved come the summer? It may well be that targets have been met along a given timeline and everything is going according to a sensible plan. A budget that suits the club is in place and Moyes is the man to manage the budget and the squad until the end of his contract, which may also be tied to timelines, targets and reviews. Or, it may well be that they are not willing to spend the money needed to properly back or sack Moyes and his coaching staff.
More questions than answers for now.
22/02/2026 08:15:55
In terms of managers, it's the usual merry-go-round. The usual choices as mentioned above. Frank was a good fit at Brentford but apparently a disaster at Spurs. I say apparently because they're polar opposites in terms of how managers are appointed. I would hold fire on Frank until he has been with another club. I wouldn't be against his next club being us but would rather wait to see how he does somewhere else.
Nuno was a good fit at Wolves and did well at Forest until he fell out with the owner, who, from the outside looking in, seems difficult to get on with. Again, I would wait to see how he does at West Ham before passing judgement. If he does well at West Ham, who need the fix Moyes has given us, his reputation may well be improved.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples, but like I said, it will probably be a manager from the usual list of suspects. It will be the usual gamble as always.
22/02/2026 09:30:08
‘ the Scot currently has the Blues sitting in the heady heights of 8th place, seven points shy of the Champions League spots and just five off the Europa League with 26 games played’. The cold logic of the above facts should have all Evertonians buzzing after the near relegation nightmares of previous seasons. But it doesn’t. Not me anyway.
I am still very much in the disgruntled camp, frustrated by the current ethos of an acceptance of mediocrity which surrounds the club, and even worse, has filtered down to many Evertonians. I hate it.
There is a continued call for patience but I don’t want to be patient any more. At the very least give us a style of football that gets fans out of their seats and makes you long to watch Everton again.
Give us our Everton back.
22/02/2026 09:32:10
Recruitment recruitment recruitment
Moyes is the only person in this club who believes that players coming in must be of a higher standard than what we have now. So many think paying millions for some to just 'do a job' is a valid strategy - good job fans don't make the decisions
At the moment he is par for the course. Give him longer and more diamonds will be found in the rough.
I don't get why so many are negative about him. Know your level, then you can start trying to punch abovve your weight.
We've done the careful what you wish for and it fucked us.
Time to be a bit more pragmatic eh?
22/02/2026 09:49:46
I’d sat down to write something very similar and was planning to edit and send it today. I don’t need to now. As so often, Lyndon calmly lays out a balanced view of something that people seem to put themselves on extreme ends of.
My view is summed up as Moyes does the main 80% of the job really well, but the highly visible 20% of team selection, tactics and substitutions is often completely baffling and seems rooted in negativity and fear. There’s always that feeling that ‘if only’ he’d picked a team full of players in their correct positions and given young attacking talent the chance to thrive then we’d have 7-10 more points than we do now.
The rest of the season should have Branthwaite and O’Brien at CB, Patterson at RB and Garner and Dewsbury-Hall playing as the ‘2’ with a number ‘10’ ahead of them. Surely we’d all love to see this tried and surely none of us believe that it ever will.
22/02/2026 13:26:17
Mike (28) Moyes used Garner and Dewsbury-Hall as the ‘2’ with Charly Alcaraz as the number ‘10’ against Nottingham Forest on 6th December. We won 3-0 from five shots on target. Dewsbury-Hall was outstanding that day. He and Garner are our best footballers, understand the game and offer much to the team both in and out of possession.
The obvious dilemma concerns the number ‘10’ role where Dewsbury-Hall is currently our best performer by a considerable margin. Alcaraz is erratic while the other candidates such as McNeil and Dibling are either incapable or untrusted.
22/02/2026 13:39:53
Alkaraz, is twenty two, hardly plays and this might be part of the reason he his erratic John? Maybe not, but I look at his situation in a similar way to the one KDH, probably found himself in last season, because when you’re a professional footballer, you definitely need encouragement and a degree of trust from your manager and coaches, imo.
John B@26, I feel exactly like you and have just googled a statement the club released in October 2025, thanking the fans for staying loyal, now we have hopefully left the dark days behind. My feelings haven’t changed because I thought it was a very premature statement, and one befitting of a football club, that has become way too cosy, making up the numbers, imo mate.
22/02/2026 14:21:39
I also think with the novelty wearing off that TSF, will soon find out that if they want to continue filling the stadium, then results alone aren’t going to do it Mike@12, unless the team, is operating right at the very top end of the league table.
Stability is fine but the only other way that Everton, are going to really move forward is by playing in a style that was once befitting of our great club.
22/02/2026 14:34:44
Aye, if we have to settle, reluctantly, for mediocrity, then may we at least achieve that modest goal with a modicum of style? Occasionally,we might indulge in a little excitement - like a cup run of, say, 3 rounds?!
22/02/2026 14:40:03
A finish which provides UEFA Conference League qualification, with probably 6 or more revenue-increasing European games at HDS, would, I’m sure, satisfy the owners.
The prospect of a few trips abroad would also appeal to a number of fans.
I would have to accept that such a scenario would represent progress on recent years, but I can’t say it’s doing a lot for me.
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20/02/2026 04:38:28
Excellent perspectives Lyndon, I remember too well a similar article you had written in the other place after Moyes left in which, overwhelmingly, it was deemed that he should never darken our door again and that should there ever be a time when he did return then it should but on a very short term contract. Well, that time came and yet the powers that be did not heed our warning.
Yes, he what I personally hoped he would, he lifted the players out of the hole that Dyche dug. But most of us knew Moyes well enough to remember the good and bad of his first tenure. Would it be the same?
Despite new owners, new stadium and more money, Moyes finds himself once again, front and centre on his own, determining who he plays, who he buys and quite amazingly, the full backing of TFG to do so for the foreseeable future.
To me we are missing something really important in this conversation, we should not be singing from the same David Moyes songbook, written under the stewardship of dear old Bill..
Yet it appears not only do the new owners like what he is doing, he is meeting THEIR expectations. In truth he is also meeting mine, but from a point of resignation rather than satisfaction.
No stated vision to share with fans, no bucket of cash to get us there and no-one to restore our hope of silverware in the near future.
In short David Moyes will deliver financial security, stability and a best of the rest outcome all things being equal. But the questions remain:
1. In the eyes of the owners of this club, what is success?
2. How are they going to achieve it or have they done so already?
3. Are we just going to be milked and sold on as a club with potential?
4. If we should qualify for Europe, this season or next, will the squad be capable of progressing never mind winning!
5. Lastly, due to new players and David Moyes, we are no longer relegation fodder, if we are to challenge for any cup, European place etc, what needs to change?
When TFG returned to buy the club, l remember reading comments advising us not to expect updates or communications from the owners, but had already gotten used to that scenario hadn't we? But apart from a couple of welcomes to senior staff there has been zero involvement, communication or any physical attendance by our new owners. If it was a similar story ar Roma then perhaps I could just shake my head and mutter but it isn't is it?
We are an investment first, a risk second and something to be enjoyed at some point perhaps.
David Moyes, a means to an end or the end of our means?
Everything changes but still remains the same.
But a win on Monday would make me smile again!