In this weekend's Royal Blue column, Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas writes that his assessment of the club's current position is rooted in how David Moyes found it upon his return
Joe Thomas is the Everton FC correspondent for the Liverpool ECHO. He follows the Blues home and away, providing match reports, analysis and insight into events at Goodison Park, Finch Farm and beyond. Joe spent more than a decade covering news on Merseyside, working on award-winning investigations and extensively covering matters related to the Hillsborough tragedy - including the recent criminal prosecutions. Always grateful for tips and feedback, he can be contacted at joe.thomas@reachplc.com and on Twitter via @joe_thomas18
David Moyes looks on during the Carabao Cup second-round match between Everton and Mansfield Town at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images
David Moyes looks on during the Carabao Cup second-round match between Everton and Mansfield Town at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images
New Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear has spent the summer urging Everton supporters to judge the club’s recruitment on September 2, not before. That moment is almost upon us as we enter the final days of the transfer window and the Blues still have work to do.
The arrival of Tyler Dibling this week was a huge step forward and meant David Moyes finally now has a specialist option on his right wing - failure to provide him with that would have been inexcusable.
There are still other areas that need strengthening - another season spent relying upon makeshift right backs would be immensely frustrating and an additional figure in central midfield would be welcome.
But while there may be some disappointment if Moyes remains light in some areas, any judgement on the club’s summer business should be measured. Solving every problem on the ‘to-do’ list was always going to be a challenge and, while the team rode its luck to defeat Brighton, the return of Vitalii Mykolenko in midweek created a domino effect that restored balance to the team.
There are some things the club could have done better this summer - Moyes himself has railed at what was, after the move to sign Carlos Alcaraz on a permanent deal, a slow start to business that left him short heading into pre-season. As alluded to above, a new right back would be nice (and could yet happen).
A lot has been achieved, however, certainly when you assess Moyes’ impact since he returned in January amid a relegation flight and after those two turgid defeats either side of the new year. As I wrote earlier this week, after Alcaraz's influence in the win over Mansfield Town, imagine if someone had told you that, with Everton lifeless in front of goal and hovering just above the bottom three, eight months later they would have an attacking midfield that now includes Jack Grealish, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Alcaraz and Dibling.
Moyes, in steering the club to safety at warp speed and finishing the campaign with a flourish, has restored the ability to be positive about Everton’s future. He has also secured a crucial personal Holy Trinity - avoiding defeat in the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, winning the final game there and then the first at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Asked to reflect on the last eight months, he said: “I'm probably beginning to feel much more comfortable being back. I've had an incredible response from the supporters coming back, which is, I think it helps any manager when you're hugely supported. But I do believe that the biggest thing that surprised me was how well the players who were here have done, and how they've done, and we don't want to take away anything, the bedrock, in the main defensively we've pretty strong and what we have tried to do is add a bit more attacking flair to it if we can.”
As ever, he turned a question on the past into one about the future. The biggest shift at the club upon his return was his demand that expectations rise and, from securing memorable away wins to landing England star Grealish, he has led the bid to turn words into action.
He cannot do everything, everywhere, all at once, though. He said: “We're trying to up the quality as we go along. But I'm sort of saying it now because we're just about at the end of the window, we just can't do everything and we generally don't have the finances to do everything in this window.”
The work this summer has meant there are players for the now, as there had to be, but also players for the future with the club investing in a core of starlets including Alcaraz, Dibling, Adam Aznou and Thierno Barry.
PSR rules mean that in order to sustain a rise up the table the club has to invest in players who can grow with the ambition of the Blues rather than take them there immediately.
There were also the important contract breakthroughs at both ends of the age spectrum within the squad. Securing the future of star man Jarrad Branthwaite and extending the stay of the best player of last season, Idrissa Gueye, were both important wins.
The end result will not be perfect, even if Evertonians are happy come 7.01pm on Monday. It could never have been perfect, though.
Acknowledging this, Moyes said: “I think I've probably tried to be completely upfront and let the supporters know exactly where we've been. We've probably had a difficult summer right from the start. We've been finding it a struggle to really get a lot of players in, which we've tried to do. But I'm quite pleased with what we've got. I think we've brought in a balance of some experience, some young ones, from Adam to Tyler and Barry. We've brought in a couple of young players and a couple more senior, like Grealish, so we've tried to get the balance right.
“I think if you go too young you could possibly jeopardise your position in the Premier League so we have to make sure we have enough experience, Premier League experience as well, so we're trying to get the balance of that correct. But I've got to say it's been a difficult summer and we were probably a bit slow in coming to the market really. But I understand there were probably other situations, maybe some other things had to be resolved before we could get to getting on with getting the players.”
Whatever the result of the coming days - and I have not even mentioned the move to the new stadium - there has been progress.
Moyes has repeatedly said this summer has been harder than he expected. If selling the club to targets has been tough, the foundations have surely been laid to build a season in which Everton can start to convince talent that it is a project they should want to be part of in the future.