Tag: Dominic

David Moyes has spent a fair period of his life on the roads around Halewood driving to Finch Farm — but on his approach to Everton‘s training base last weekend, he was a bag of nerves.

The Scotsman, who returned to management exactly 27 years after his first match as the fresh-faced boss of Preston, has taken charge of 698 Premier League games — more than double the next-closest active manager in the top flight. But still, he felt like a man on edge.

Ever since he reversed into his parking spot by the main entrance, though, he has been only moving forward, trying to get the club back on the straight and narrow, just like in 2002. And such is the relentlessness, there has been no time for more nerves.

At 61, Moyes was all but retired. He joked that he considered ‘hanging up his tactics board’ and was at peace enjoying a calm existence since leaving West Ham, going about life at a slower pace from his home in coastal Lancashire, not far from the Open golf venue at Royal Lytham.

But as many veteran bosses have mused, football management is a drug that sucks you back in. For Moyes, it was not management in general — he turned down many potential jobs after departing east London — but managing Everton. He had an itch and needed to scratch it.

‘I am hugely buzzing,’ he told us on Friday. ‘It is something I do, something I love. I might not have done this for any other clubs, this is the only one I think. I am back on the horse.’

Back in the saddle, back at the club he holds dearly in his heart and thought he had missed his chance to return to. So, how did his first week unfold? The first thing that struck Moyes was the number of staff in the building.

When he left for Manchester United in 2013, it was a tight-run operation — now there are hundreds patrolling Finch Farm and the country lane adjacent to it often acts as an overspill parking area, such is the volume of staff.

Moyes mused he is bad with names and will forget many of them at the beginning, but he has warmly impressed everyone. That starts with the first-team squad but extends to all, such as the groundskeepers he stopped to chat to or security team who Moyes has greeted.

One of his first decisions was to promote club legend Leighton Baines from Under 18s manager to a member of his first-team staff, and head of academy goalkeeping David Lucas is also understood to be stepping up to the senior set-up with Jordan Pickford’s blessing.

Pickford, it is worth saying, was personally recommended to Everton’s late chairman Bill Kenwright by Moyes after the pair worked together at Sunderland. These moves, Moyes believes, will not only help bridge the gap between a stuttering academy — there is a lost generation of academy kids as many have been sold to help funds — but also help him have people on his side early on who richly understand the club for good and bad.

Former Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam is one name under consideration as a set-piece coach after he departed Fleetwood just before Christmas. Watching Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings dominate Everton’s forwards on corners on Wednesday, it is clear that new role is needed.

It will be a quirk if a former Liverpool player comes in, especially as ex-Toffees defender Johnny Heitinga is part of Arne Slot’s Liverpool staff — much to Moyes’s regret, as the Dutchman left a memorable mark as part of his West Ham backroom team.

Alan Irvine will join up with the coaching staff in the coming days, with Billy McKinlay already in situ and taking a hands-on approach in training. Moyes was going through requests regarding potential staff last Saturday and sounding out contenders.

The manager has also held meetings with most players. The messages to the stars have been described as ‘focusing on positives’ — but Moyes has not been afraid to lecture the squad, in a productive way, about their obvious shortcomings.

They did not need telling that improvements on the pitch were needed. The record of one win in the last 12 league games highlights that — plus the damning statistic that they have scored a goal in just two of their last 11 games ahead of Sunday’s visit of Tottenham.

So Moyes didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that one of his first ports of call should be Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He challenged the striker, who has scored two goals in 20 league games this term, to start to deliver and get into the six-yard box more.

The boss has leaned on club captain Seamus Coleman, the injured Irishman who took charge with Baines as caretaker boss when Sean Dyche was sacked. Instead of showing Coleman the ropes, as Moyes did upon signing him in 2009, the roles were reversed.

One of Moyes’s quips has been how he wishes he could find some more gems for £60,000, Coleman’s transfer fee when he joined from Sligo Rovers. He desperately wants new faces.

Such is the way of the world in 2025, any £60,000 buys will not be happening. The club is in a much better state when it comes to transfer dealings after being cleared of any more breaches of financial rules, plus the new ownership — but it is still far from easy to find deals.

Dyche often would say managing Everton is like ‘juggling sand’ and that dealing with negative noise of fans is like ‘sticking your fingers in a burst dam’. Fans grew tired of his style of football, but the former Burnley boss was a wordsmith.

Moyes is targeting several players this window and has spent many hours already in the recruitment room but will not act for the sake of it. One problem Everton have is the rule that they can only have two domestic loanees on their books.

One of those slots is taken up by energetic winger Jack Harrison, a favourite of Dyche’s due to his off-the-ball work despite a subpar attacking output, and the other by Armando Broja, who is out injured for at least two months with parent club Chelsea digging their heels in over recalling him.

That means loans for players in this country are off the table for now. Former Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham star Willian has been offered to the club among others such as Lyon winger Ernest Nuamah. But Moyes also understands that transfers will not solve everything, and a lot of the work will be done on the training pitch with a focus on addressing their attacking problems.

Sources say Moyes’s sessions centre much more on attacking drills, whereas Dyche focused on shape and solidity. Players are said to have already taken to the new regime and are enjoying the daily work more.

‘It’s only a week, but he’s been spot on since he’s come in,’ said defender Jake O’Brien. ‘His messages have been very positive. I think he just wants to start playing more, get a bit more possession. It’s all been positive, you can see his ideas he’s trying to implement.’

O’Brien was signed from Lyon in the summer for £17million but played just 34 league minutes under Dyche. Moyes appreciates the attributes of the 23-year-old, such as his pace — and fellow summer buy Jesper Lindstrom could play more, too.

Moyes liked Lindstrom when he was playing at Eintracht Frankfurt and is planning to give the Dane more chances after he was limited to mainly substitute appearances. He told Lindstrom he preferred him on the right wing rather than the left, where he had been playing.

But overall, the Scotsman has been focusing on improving the culture and atmosphere. He has talked about how this season will be ‘nip and tuck’ in terms of safety again, and in his first months he is ‘sticking an Elastoplast’ over Everton’s problems.

Soon, the cuts of a decade of mismanagement on and off the field will start to heal. Moyes, by his own admission, is no magician — but he knows this club better than most and his quest to improve their fortunes is well under way.