Ten years for Moyes, but how much longer will he stay?

Moyes will hope for more moments like this on Tuesday in the Merseyside derby

On March 14^th 2002 at Goodison Park, a 38-year-old Scot named David Moyes was unveiled to the media as the new manager of Everton Football Club. Presumably, Moyes himself could not have forseen the impact of the words he uttered that day. ‘I am joining the people’s football club’, he declared. Who would have thought that almost ten years later, those words still ring true to the majority of the blue half of Merseyside? Even more remarkably, who would have thought that the man who said them would still be in the job? The people, it is clear to see, love Moyes. For anyone unfamiliar with Everton or the workings of modern football in general, lasting ten years at one club must mean the manager is doing pretty well.

Indeed, Moyes has performed wonderfully at Everton for a decade and there are no signs that his performance at the helm is on the wane. Saturday evening saw an excellent 1-0 home win against Tottenham, to add to the scalps of Manchester City and Chelsea already taken this season. Results like these are nothing new to Moyes’s Everton. They have helped him guide the club to consistent top-half league finishes for several years, with perhaps his greatest achievement coming in 2005 when Everton ended the season in fourth place, displacing their great city rivals Liverpool and disrupting the ‘top four’ that had previously been thought of as ‘unbreakable’. Since then the club have finished inside the top eight in all but one season. An FA Cup final in 2009 was another highlight, and they have enjoyed several well-earned European journeys under the stern ginger Glaswegian. In the decade he has walked the corridors at Goodison, Everton fans will most likely tell you that they are in a much better state than they once were.

Moyes’s success has come against a backdrop of severe financial limitations. Many fans feel that a lack of new investment and a lack of transparency over club economics from owner and chairman Bill Kenwright has hindered the club’s progress. Still, it is a testament to his managerial abilities that Moyes has been able to operate in a manner that belies the restraints that have clearly prevented Everton from again becoming one of English football’s dominant forces. He has been astute in his recruitment of players season after season, with perhaps current skipper Phil Neville his most underrated and influential acquisition. Overseeing Everton’s academy has yielded fruit, too. Moyes professes that a certain Mr. Rooney is the most talented player he has ever seen at the club. Several other signings such as Tim Cahill, record signing Marouane Fellaini and the recently departed Mikel Arteta have helped endear Moyes to the supporters. Apart from Fellaini and very few others, Everton have been forced to spend small under a burden of debt and rely on offloading and loan signings to reform and bolster a squad that has also been extremely unfortunate with injury. Yet still Moyes has soldiered on and in 2012 Everton’s current 7-game unbeaten run sees them in ninth, just two points off the men in red across Stanley Park.

The question ‘what next?’ has been sounded many a time with regards to David Moyes. He has the unwavering support of Kenwright and the board – something that is refreshing to see in today’s game and one of the reasons he has been able to celebrate ten years in charge. However, with concerns over the club’s long-term ambitions and whispers of managerial movements elsewhere, it is not imprudent to suggest that Moyes may not be at Everton much longer. Many believe Moyes would fare expertly at a club who can provide the funds he likely craves. Moyes himself is a highly determined character and may see the lure of riches and potential trophies at other clubs too tempting to refuse. He has been touted as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor at Old Trafford, as well as being linked with the post at Chelsea and at Tottenham. But for now, what is clear is that Moyes loves the club, and the club and its people love him. What is also clear is that whatever happens in the near future, it will be a long time before the words ‘David Moyes’ and ‘Everton’ don’t fit snugly together in a sentence.