Everton have made clever change to transfer plan

David Moyes’ return to Everton has been “perfect” for the club’s new owners The Friedkin Group, giving them the time they need to put their stamp on the Blues. That’s the verdict of former Everton captain Alan Stubbs.

Lifelong Evertonian Stubbs got his dream move to Goodison Park in 2001 when he joined Everton on a Bosman-style free transfer after his contract at Celtic expired but in the March of his first season, manager Walter Smith was sacked and replaced by his fellow Scot. Under Moyes, captain Stubbs led Everton to fourth place, their highest ever Premier League position, in 2004/05, before quitting the club only for the Glaswegian to re-sign him after just half a season with Sunderland.

Although the Blues were only one point above the relegation zone with just 17 points at the halfway stage of the Premier League season when Moyes returned on January 11, the 62-year-old – who was named Premier League Manager of the Month for the 11th time in his career for February, moving him above Jurgen Klopp and level with Pep Guardiola and ensuring only Sir Alex Ferguson (27) and Arsene Wenger (15) have more – picked up 31 points from his 19 matches with a sequence that included five away wins.

TFG’s takeover from Farhad Moshiri was only announced on December 19 – three weeks before they pulled the plug on Sean Dyche – but Stubbs reckons the decision to reinstate Moyes, who steered the club to nine top eight finishes during his first spell in charge between 2002-13, has been the key to enabling the Americans to implementing their ideas.

He told the ECHO: “I think that bringing David Moyes back to Everton has been the perfect appointment. Not just for the football club, but for the owners as well.

“From that point of view, it’s been absolutely perfect. Now that they’ve made that decision, I reckon the owners are probably looking at the situation now and thinking: ‘Wow, haven’t we had a stroke of luck?’

“It’s stabilised the football club in terms of the impact that David has had on the team since he’s come back in and how the players have responded to him. Overall, it’s given the owners a huge amount of breathing space to start implementing their DNA in terms of how they want to take the club forwards.”

Stubbs, who was speaking to the ECHO on behalf of Wildz Casino, added: “They haven’t had to rush decisions. It’s given them a bit of time and I think that’s absolutely perfect for where Everton are.

“What it will do, and I think this is really important for the Everton fans, is that the owners have got real confidence now to back the manager. They’ll be thinking ‘we like what we see,’ and that’s crucial.

“They’ve brought Angus (Kinnear) in as chief executive and gone with a different approach in terms of getting rid of the post for director of football and going more strategic in terms of putting in people who are more pivotal in terms of their departments, rather than having one guy who oversees all of it. I think it’s been really clever and it could be one of those if this works for Everton, other clubs might say ‘I like that model’ and follow suit.”

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