David Moyes has always been able to evolve, so do not write him off at Everton

David Moyes took over at Everton in March 2002 with a squad populated by some famous old names unwilling to change and a team plummeting down the Premier League – so something had to give.

Moyes, then just 39, fresh from four years at Preston North End, implemented double training sessions immediately. Paul Gascoigne, then 34, departed shortly afterwards. David Ginola, then 35, who had signed the month before Moyes arrived, made only one further substitute’s appearance and retired at the end of the season. Yet other experienced players like Kevin Campbell, then 32 and the club captain – who passed away last year – thrived under Moyes. Duncan Ferguson, then 31, played more games per season under Moyes than he had under his predecessor, Walter Smith.

Everton, one of the Football League’s breakaway big five who had formed the Premier League 10 years earlier, were falling far behind their rebel peers. Moyes hauled them back into the top half, then, after sliding back to 17th in 2003-2004, into the top four. Over 11 years he changed the club as coach, manager and probably director of football, too. At the end of every season he insisted each department review their performance and assess how they might do better. He saw it as his job to drive up standards.

He changed the mood of the old Bellefield training ground with big pictures and motivational messages. You see those everywhere now but in 2002 they were something new that Moyes had adopted from elsewhere. The positivity of it belied the occasionally gruff Glaswegian’s public persona. That is what those who know Moyes say about him: in private he is much more akin to the laid-back, storytelling character that he was on Gary Lineker’s recent podcast interview, when he held court with a glass of wine and no fanbase poring over his every word.

Back at Everton now, 12 years on from the guard of honour that saw him on his way that last day at Goodison, so much has changed. Moyes left Everton that summer exhausted, and with his contract expiring he may have gone anyway. But then Sir Alex Ferguson took him to dinner and offered him the Manchester United job – Moyes’s world must have jolted on its axis. Life has never been the same since. As Moyes famously said of that meeting, he was told Cristiano Ronaldo was returning that summer, and Cesc Fàbregas and Gareth Bale were coming to Old Trafford, too. He ended the summer unable even to land Leighton Baines, now a coach at Everton. Marouane Fellaini was the only addition to a very tired United squad.

A meticulous man, and a workaholic who likes to be in control, the intervening years have not always been easy on Moyes. There was the trauma of the 10 months at United, then the relegation at Sunderland. Good times too, like West Ham’s first trophy in 43 years. Meanwhile, football changed completely in the Pep Guardiola era. The old intensity of Moyes’s best Everton team came to be viewed as a little déclassé. Players changed too – many less able to handle the kind of fiery admonishments that would have been commonplace in the Everton training ground in the 2000s.

Moyes has never really talked about a playing philosophy – which does not help the brand when compared to younger coaches. At West Ham, some fans declared themselves unable to take any more of his football, but subsequent events have shown the difficulty of managing that club. There is no doubt that peak-Moyes Everton were exciting to watch with the likes of Steven Pienaar and Baines in the wide positions and Fellaini embarrassing more famous names with his unpredictability and strength.

Moyes attracted the nickname “dithering Dave” for what was considered his indecisiveness. It is true that, first time around at Everton, they recall him watching the young Millwall attacking midfielder Tim Cahill eight times in person before sanctioning his signing – and what a signing it turned out to be. The same was the case with Mikel Arteta, Baines, Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott and, in his last Everton transfer window, from Barnsley came the teenage centre-half John Stones. It was never going to work with West Ham and their director of football Tim Steidten. Moyes needs that control himself.

At 61, his work ethic remains strong: first in, last out at the training ground. He likes to watch new signings in person. Although he does tend to delegate to those staff he trusts, he expects the same dedication and in football that is not a standard everyone can match. Moyes took charge of Preston 27 years ago this month which makes him and Jose Mourinho, born within three months of each other, the game’s top-tier elder statesmen. Indeed, Moyes is the age now that Ferguson was when he first decided against retirement in 2002.

There is great interest in who Moyes appoints to his staff. An old faithful, Billy McKinlay, has returned but there is likely to be a younger coach. As for a director of football, the current incumbent at Brighton, David Weir, an Everton player when Moyes took over in 2002 and a friend, is one suggestion, but none who will overrule the manager.

The new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and preserving the club’s Premier League status is, of course, paramount. Whatever it takes in the short term, as was the case in 2002 and then two years later when Everton struggled against relegation again. But it would be interesting to see where Moyes goes with a vibrant well-run club. He has managed the biggest name in English football, at the worst possible time. He has had a club in the early stages of a big stadium move – albeit not the stadium the fans wanted. He has never had the right club at the right time since he got Everton purring.

Privately a committed Catholic, those who knew Moyes at Everton the first time around fondly remember his Christmas Day tradition of inviting a priest to speak to the players over lunch. Less a sermon, more – it is recalled – a BBC Today programme “Thought for the Day” style musing. Could Moyes still do that now, given the greater diversity of religious beliefs and the much-scrutinised sensitivities of 2025 compared to 20 years ago? Hard to say, but close to his fourth decade in management he has always been able to evolve.