David Moyes steered Everton to nine top-eight finishes during his first spell in charge of Everton, including their highest-ever Premier League placing of fourth in 2004/05. The Blues currently sit eighth in the table again, a position they haven’t finished as high as since 2019.
Given the close nature of the division this season, Moyes’ men are currently just five points adrift of their neighbours and defending champions Liverpool in sixth place. However, after finishing in the bottom half for the previous four years, would Europe next season be good for Everton or would it be a step too far, too soon?
The ECHO’s Everton reporters have their say...
I had the privilege of being the only UK journalist dedicated to reporting on Everton at the Premier League Summer Series in the USA ahead of this season, and when sitting down for my one-on-one interview with David Moyes at the team’s hotel in Chicago, he told me the following: “These six months coming back and managing Everton has given me a huge boost because the players have been so good and the crowd have been so good, they’ve really accepted me coming back.
“I also think I’ve come back a bit more experienced with what I’ve seen and what I’ve done. I wouldn’t want to use the word dream, but I’ve got an ambition to see if I can get Everton back towards European football.
“That’s what I think I have to make my first target. There are nine teams from the Premier League in Europe next season and somehow, we have to give ourselves some goals.
“I could be shooting way above the level, but I feel like I have to shoot high because I’ll not be around doing this for another 10 years and I don’t expect to be. I just want to be able to leave Everton in a good place, whenever that time comes.”
Back around the turn of the calendar year, when the Blues were down to the bare bones, Joe asked the Glaswegian gaffer if the week that saw the team go into 2026 with a hat-trick of home games went wrong – which it did – would he still be pushing to try and get a European place, and Moyes insisted he wanted his team to go for it “full throttle.”
No wonder then that Everton’s longest serving and most consistent manager of the Premier League era was so disappointed then after his side threw away their lead against Bournemouth to lose 2-1 and extend their winless streak at Hill Dickinson Stadium to six matches.
Before a ball was kicked this season, I tipped the Blues for a top-10 finish and that remains well within their grasp, but European qualification, that has always been a tall order this term. It remains the case, especially given the lack of a prolific goalscorer, the failure to bring in a new right-back and the injury that is set to keep Jack Grealish sidelined for the remainder of the campaign.
But, the task remains within Everton’s grasp if they can just find that bit of consistency that eludes them, especially in recent times, by the banks of the Mersey in front of the vast majority of their fanbase. Moyes wants to go as far as he can as quickly as possible and as the oldest manager in the Premier League, who can blame him?
That experience – and only serial title winners Alex Ferguson of Manchester United and Arsene Wenger of Arsenal have now taken charge of more matches in the competition than him – also brings wiseness and the 62-year-old would not be sending out such messages if he did not think it was in the club’s best interests. The new-look Everton Football Club and Hill Dickinson Stadium could both benefit from European football quickly and then the emphasis would be on The Friedkin Group to put their money where their mouth is and back those ambitions.
Their pockets are certainly deep enough, and hopefully, unlike previous owner Farhad Moshiri, with Moyes at the helm, those funds should be spent wisely to try and raise the bar again.
I think Europe would be good for Everton. Yes, qualification this year would clearly be ahead of schedule and I can understand reservations around the club getting there too quickly and over-reaching. There is little doubt the squad as it currently is would be ill-equipped for fighting on a fourth front.
It is important to remember that another summer transfer window lies between now and next season though. The Friedkins wish to build on the work of last summer and I believe there is an understanding within the boardroom that another summer of investment is needed in the squad. Moyes certainly believes he will be given funds to take the team forward.
The question is less about whether money will be available and more about what it could be spent on. Moyes was clearly frustrated last summer by the struggle to convince top targets to move to Merseyside. One factor was that the club’s reputation was suffering a hangover from the relegation fights and off-pitch turmoil of previous years - an image that is now being rehabilitated through the progress of this campaign and with the help of big names like Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish having signed for the Blues.
Another problem, Moyes repeated, was that Everton could not offer European football. Nine of their Premier League competitors could. In that context, I almost see European qualification as a boost for squad-building more than providing another competition Everton could target.
If the aim is to build a squad that can push high up the table then acquiring talent capable of doing that is key and if Everton can offer midweek games on the continent next season then they enter another stratosphere in terms of who they can target.
Those additional games do not have to be a millstone, either. Moyes has bemoaned the lack of games he has had this season (in the case of the Carabao Cup I think he has to take responsibility for the approach to the game at Wolves) and how that has prevented him from giving more players greater opportunities.
Everton have a core of young players on the periphery of the first team who could play a greater role should Everton have a European adventure - such games could be invaluable for the progress of the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Tim Iroegbunam, Harrison Armstrong, Tyler Dibling and Adam Aznou. This is not me saying that Europe should be the aim solely to help the development of squad players, but that those extra games would be useful in both attracting better players to the team AND in helping the promising ones to grow.
Throw in the commercial boost of the extra games and new platform to showcase this great club on and the excitement it would generate among a fanbase that has endured too much hardship over recent years and I think, if managed sensibly (and I think TFG and Moyes would be perfect stewards in this regard) then Europe would be a positive for the Blues.
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