EXCLUSIVE: Everton can soon be playing entertaining football and challenging for European places at Hill Dickinson Stadium believes Kevin Kilbane
Getting David Moyes back for their first season at Hill Dickinson Stadium can galvanise Everton to challenge for a European place through playing eye-catching football.
That’s the verdict of former Blues player Kevin Kilbane, who made 121 appearances for the club and scored five goals after being snapped up by Moyes in 2003. During his first spell in charge at Goodison Park, Moyes, who steered Everton to nine top-eight finishes, including their highest ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05, was able to adopt an increasingly expansive style of football and Kilbane reckons that Blues supporters will soon be enjoying a return to such eye-catching displays.
He told the ECHO: “I’m excited for Everton given the way things finished last season and I can’t take the Leeds game as something that’s going to change that. I think it was one of those early season games that are cagy with both sides feeling each other out and that was the case in several matches across the weekend.
“Across the season, as things start to develop, I think we’ll see a more open and expansive Everton side. Historically, David Moyes has always done that and once we get to around Christmas time, we’ll see Everton playing a really good style of football.
“We’ll all start to feel that we’re watching our Everton side playing in the new stadium to a certain style and I’m very hopeful. For once, everything is going in the right direction, and it’s not felt that way for such a long time with Everton.
“It feels like everything is aligned and everyone is pulling in the right direction. Hopefully now, we can start to look forwards and get some results.”
With Everton having moved from Goodison Park to the 52,769 capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium on the Mersey waterfront that will enable them to play in front of the biggest ever regular crowds, Kilbane believes it was crucial to get Moyes back at such a pivotal moment in the club’s history. Speaking to the ECHO on behalf of bojoko, the former Republic of Ireland international said: “After Sean Dyche and everything that went on around him, and I feel he probably would have got Everton safe last season, people can agree or disagree with that, however it was going to be, there was a feeling around the team that it was the same and it was going to be the same for this season, going into the new stadium. David Moyes came in and he got the team performing really well and I felt that towards the end of the season, Everton were a good watch again after a lot of games where I didn’t feel that way.
“Now, all of a sudden, there is optimism going to the new stadium. I know there were some Evertonians who felt they couldn’t warm to him in the way they once did after the way he left to go to Manchester United but I do feel that now everybody is on board with what he is trying to achieve and what he is trying to bring to the club.
“He’s got what is really needed at this time for Everton with his experience at the club. In these times with the change that is going on at Everton, I think he’s the right man to take them to that next level again.
“Whether or not he’s going to be around in another five or six years’ time, I don’t know, but I feel that over a two or three-year period, he was absolutely the right guy to come in and take the club forward into a new beginning that they’ve got. I was so happy when he got the job and many of my former team-mates and the players that came after me spoke out to emphasise the importance of this move.”
Kilbane added: “I was really gutted that I didn’t get back to Goodison last season. I’ve not been to Hill Dickinson Stadium yet but I’m looking forwards to it at some stage.
“Revenue is going to increase. Everton are going to be on a different footing these next few years down the line.
“So, I think it’s important now for Everton to start to compete again. I’m not saying with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, I don’t think they need to be thinking along those lines.
“When Farhad Moshiri took over, I think I myself was even commenting that Everton should be looking up to the fop-four, but we all jumped ahead of ourselves in not realising what it takes to get to that level. Look what Crystal Palace did last season though, and what Brighton & Hove Albion have done in recent seasons, Everton can easily compete with those clubs.
“Outside these teams who have slipped away a little bit like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, Everton have to be back competing with the top half of the Premier League, with the hope they can do something special like Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have done in recent seasons and I think they can easily get to that level.”