Six takeaways from David Moyes’ first Everton press conference

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David Moyes has admitted that the offer to return to Everton after almost eight months out of football came as a complete surprise.

The 61-year-old was appointed on Saturday morning, less than 48 hours after the relegation-threatened Premier League side announced the end of Sean Dyche’s two-year reign.

In a frank first press conference a day after meeting his squad, Moyes revealed the timeline of negotiations, how he overcame his nerves and what he has already said to striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Here are six key topics Moyes discussed as he prepares for his first game in charge at home to an Aston Villa side 15 points above Everton in the table on Wednesday (7.30pm GMT).

Moyes to Everton: Friedkin Group acted quickly

The Friedkin Group completed their long-awaited deal to take over Everton on December 19, putting chairman and chief executive Dan Friedkin and the club’s new executive chairman, Marc Watts, in position to make major decisions.

One of the first of those was to sack Dyche, who previously said Watts had shown “nothing but support” for him during a “casual” meeting at the club’s Finch Farm training ground shortly after the takeover.

“It was really quick,” Moyes said of Everton’s initial contact, adding that he first heard from them on “Tuesday or Wednesday”.

“I got a call to say there was a chance there would be a change. I had several conversations with Dan and Marc, and that’s where it really took off from.

“Until that point, I had no idea. I thought Sean was doing a really good job and I didn’t see any changes materialising at the time.

“They’re in America and I’m here, so the conversations have been mainly through video calls. I had a couple of Americans over [on Monday].”

Everton ‘a different beast’ – and Moyes held previous talks

After being awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours, Moyes said he was open to a return to football but wouldn’t “want to be at the bottom fighting relegation”.

“In truth, I wasn’t necessarily looking to go back,” said the man who made his name during 11 years at the club, guiding them to eight top-seven finishes – including fourth place in 2004/05 – alongside four European campaigns and the 2008/09 FA Cup final.

“As everyone knows, this is a different beast to me than many other clubs. Everton’s different. I’ve had quite a few other opportunities to consider other jobs since I left West Ham [in May].

“I really didn’t expect the job to come up – I didn’t see it. But when I got asked, it was too big an opportunity to turn down.”

After first leaving Everton, Moyes briefly succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson in an ill-fated Manchester United tenure in 2013/14, ultimately rebuilding his reputation over two spells with the Hammers between 2017 and 2024.

Everton finished no lower than 12th and made the top 10 five times in their first eight seasons after Moyes left, but they have narrowly avoided relegation in each of the last two campaigns, as well as being deducted a total of eight points over financial rules last season.

“I’ve come very close to coming back on three or four occasions,” revealed Moyes, pointing out that his second spell at West Ham produced their first European trophy since 1965 in the form of the 2022-23 Conference League.

“I’ve had talks at different times and different periods in my career. That’s football, and I’ve no problem with it at all.”

Moyes feels ‘a huge pressure’

With 19 league games played, Everton have three victories and are a point above the relegation zone with a match in hand on the teams below them.

Only rock-bottom Southampton have fewer wins, and the Saints are also the only top-flight side with a worse tally than Everton’s 15 goals, which is five fewer than next-lowest scorers Ipswich Town.

“For a couple of weeks, I didn’t think there was any chance Everton would be in a relegation fight,” said Moyes. “I thought they would be strong enough to get out of it.

“I’ve come into the seat now and I’m going to back myself on that, saying we’re going to be strong enough to stay away from it. We need the players playing better and scoring more goals if we’re going to make that happen.

“I’ll be trying to stabilise, take the club in a different direction and make it better. I see it as a huge pressure.

“I can only remember us always feeling like a team who were always challenging against the top teams and trying to be in Europe.

“I did it quite quickly here and at West Ham, so my idea is to try to do everything as quickly as I can, because I’m not going to be here for 11 years, like I was before.”

Moyes said he felt “really nervous” returning to Finch Farm. “I hadn’t been back since the day I left,” he reflected, although his recollection of some of the high-profile names awaiting him when he took over in 2002, as a 38-year-old, gave him an element of reassuring context.

“The first day, when I walked in, I had to go into a dressing room with David Ginola, Paul Gascoigne, Duncan Ferguson and Tommy Gravesen. Being a really young coach, I said ‘my goodness, they won’t even know who I am.’”

Everton transfers: ‘Elite’ signings and contract talks

Former England striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin, midfielders Idrissa Gueye and Abdoulaye Doucoure and captain Seamus Coleman are among the players out of contract at the end of this season.

Moyes will also be able to assess some of the players Dyche signed during the summer, including Tim Iroegbunam, Iliman Ndiaye, Jake O’Brien and loan players such as Orel Mangala and Jack Harrison, as he plots survival and a stronger campaign in Everton’s first season at their new 52,888-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

“The stadium looks the business, it looks elite,” he said. “We need to start getting some elite players and start looking at the level of the players [so] we can give everybody something to shout about at the new stadium.

“I need to impress players and tell them that we need them to come. There are 11 players out of contract and that’s something we need to [deal with].

“I need a lot of those players to show that they’re up for helping us and not thinking about other things. There is a chance for a freshness.”

What Moyes told Calvert-Lewin

Calvert-Lewin top-scored for Everton in 2019/20 and 2020/21, but the injury-troubled 27-year-old scored as many goals in the latter of those seasons as he has in the four campaigns since, including only two so far in 2024/25.

Despite featuring in every league game and starting 16 times, Calvert-Lewin has gone 15 matches without a goal, although a run of four goals in five games in April and May showed that the 2020/21 Player of the Season still has the potential to produce.

“We all feel that he can be the one who can make a big difference,” said Moyes. “If he gets his goalscoring boots back on, it’ll be a big help to Evertonians and the manager as well.

“We’ll give him as much confidence and help as we can, but then you need the player to stand up and do his bit. I’ve told him that I’m needing goals off him right away and he needs to start delivering.”

Moyes backs owners – but stays ‘concerned’

The Friedkins’ takeover of Everton has put 10 of the 20 Premier League clubs in American hands, and Moyes also pointed out that US investors have become increasingly involved in English Football League clubs.

The Scot seemed upbeat about working under the group, who also own Italian giants Roma, where they have not been afraid to fire big-name managers including Jose Mourinho and Daniele De Rossi.

When he left the Serie A side in January 2023, Mourinho – briefly linked with the vacancy left by Dyche – said Dan Friedkin “doesn’t understand football”.

“Dan and Marc were very good,” Moyes observed of his talks with the pair. “A lot of Evertonians should be happy. It looks like they’re going in the right direction.

“You can never tell how managers are going to do, and managers can’t tell what owners are going to do. I’ve found the conversations good – they want to get us back on track and we need a little bit of a sticking plaster, at the moment.

“Who’s not concerned about their owners? All managers are. We have a huge influx of American owners in the Premier League, so we have to work out their cultures and what they’re expecting.”




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