Everton And David Moyes

In the Premier League era its easy to see where Everton have found themselves at the end of most seasons and dismiss them as nothing more than fodder for the more fashionable clubs; a club with little ambition, happy to just be seen near the top table, let alone take it's place among those currently occupying it.

That would certainly have seemed the case until the early 2000s when Everton went from a giant of Scottish football in Lanark born Walter Smith - a man who had won everything north of the border and who's CV could rival that of Sir Alex Ferguson at the time - to another Scotsman who was barely known outside of those who regularly followed the Football League at the time.

David Moyes was a young manager with a point to prove and the hunger to make it to the big time. He'd come from Preston North End, who like Everton, were founder members of the Football League and another club with a stories history in it's infancy, but not a lot to show for itself in recent years. Everton were similarly in something of a barren spell and weren't looking like things would change any time soon.

Little did we know then, but David Moyes would become an era defining character for most of us. Initially things were rocky, with early round cup exits to minnows of the lower Football League and not a few close calls with the relegation zone. But slowly, as the years rolled on and Moyes was able to shape the team with what little pocket change Bill Kenwright could give him, a team emerged that could challenge the established "big 4" and were somewhat regular to the European stage. David Moyes brought a glimpse of the glory years to an entire generation who had only heard stories of the night games against Fortuna Sittard and Bayern Munich, or the final against Rapid Vienna in Rotterdam.

We had our own established heroes like Tim Cahill, Tim Howard, Mikel Arteta, Leighton Baines and Tony Hibbert. Every season it seemed Everton were linked with the next best thing in European talent, but just didn't have the deep enough pockets, so inevitably each time they would end up at Arsenal, Chelsea and more painfully, that lot across the park.

Everton Football Club was comfortably the "best of the rest" in the eyes of most and with hindsight should be up there still had things gone as they ought to have done. David Moyes though, was meant for a bigger stage it seemed and was chosen as Sir Alex Ferguson's successor at Manchester United. An established name with the background to keep the behemoth of a ship on course.

Of course everyone knows what happened, Ferguson was far too tough of an act to follow and Moyes failed to keep Manchester United at the top. Initially Everton fans were somewhat hostile to their former manager but deep down as the years have gone on, we have all yearned for those David Moyes days again.

In the intervening years we have seen far too many false dawns and promises of greater glory only for it to end either in failure. Initially Roberto Martinez's tenure seemed promising, and most forgot that Moyes existed for a brief moment, then the shine wore off and he was sacked. A string of short term appointments followed with little success but the new owner provided backing to each like they had been here for years; spending more money than we had in the years David Moyes was at the helm.

We had brief flirtations with Europe but nothing stuck and with all of that spending came a bloated squad with no progress made and impending doom of financial fair play.

Things have looked very grim for Everton in the last few years but like the bright dawn after a night-long storm, David Moyes is back in the hot seat at Goodison Park in the Grand Old Lady's last hurrah before the club moves to a brand new arena next season.

I cannot think of anyone better suited to bringing a close to the Premier League era at Goodison Park than the man who arguably has been Everton's greatest manager of that period. There is a confidence in Everton fans that we haven't seen for nearly a decade and a genuine brightness to our future now.

What's more is that there are still links to Moyes' first run to bridge that gap, just like there was for us when we were kids. Leighton Baines is still at the club as a coach, Seamus Coleman is club captain; a player Moyes signed for a scarcely believable £60,000 in 2009, Jordan Pickford played under Moyes at Sunderland during his time away from the club as did Ashley young at Manchester United.

There are younger stars too, who we know David Moyes can shape into heroes of the new generation, like Iliman Ndiaye, Jarrad Branthwaite, James Garner, Dwight McNeil, Vitaly Mikolenko, Youssef Chermiti and Jake O'Brien. Who knows, maybe Moyes can get a tune out of Nathan Patterson when he's fit.

There's optimism again amongst the blue half of Merseyside and it's largely down to the return of the man who laid the foundations for us once before. He's got white hair now... and we still don't care... Davie Moyes!

UTFT