Boring, boring Everton... and that's a good thing! This is how David Moyes got the club back on track in just 12 months - and what comes next

Everton are boring. Not on the football pitch - and this is not an insult. In fact, it's something David Moyes is taking delight in.

‘You boys are out of questions, there’s nothing left to ask,’ he joked with a small number of reporters this week - and though this affable manager is always up for a natter, there was probably some truth in it. There was not much to grill him about.

That is something to be celebrated. On this day last year, Moyes was signing his contract after Sean Dyche was sacked following a nosedive in results.

Before the change of manager, Everton were dancing dangerously over the trapdoor to relegation and potential freefall.

In the months before and after his appointment, Moyes and Dyche had to answer all sorts, with topics ranging from points deductions, ownership changes, a transfer kitty smaller than most in the league and the very real prospect of falling into the Championship.

But a year on, Everton are indeed boring. To reiterate, their brand of football – not always but mostly, anyway – is front-foot and energetic, with some talented players to be championed. But off the pitch, at last, there is little to trouble the scorers.

David Moyes his approaching the anniversary of his return to Everton, and there is a much better mood around the club than there was a year ago

Moyes quickly steered the Toffees to safety last term, avoiding any anxieties around the last game at their old home of Goodison Park

No negative headlines any more and those working in the legal and financial teams could have a few days off this year without the existential worry of previous Christmas breaks.

There are a number of figures to thank for that, most of whom are names non-Evertonians will not have heard of, the hard-working souls behind the scenes. But gluing it all together is Moyes, the 62-year-old who was happy to put his feet up before Everton came calling.

‘I hope that the year has looked like a progression really,’ says Moyes when asked to evaluate his job so far 12 months in – a question he joked he liked more than those about transfers and contracts.

‘From avoiding relegation, moving on to big games at the stadium, winning big games last season. We started this season really well. I don’t want our expectations to be too far from where we have been but we have been able to move into the middle batch at the moment.

‘My dream is that we can be close enough at the end to challenge for a European spot. The realism is we are only in the middle batch and we have to find a way of staying there or getting better. But it is a good progression over the last 12 months.’

Talk of Europe is probably banned in some training grounds for fear of jinxing it. But why not aim high? Fans love to dream of better days ahead and boy have the Everton supporters been starved in recent years. Ambition was lacking until Moyes returned.

His predecessor Dyche did an underappreciated job and was part-time football manager, part-time fire fighter, part-time spokesperson for the owners. He was the one fronting up to everything – most of it out of his control – and it wore him down.

So in came Moyes, on this weekend last year, and he kept them up. He made it look easy but, given the situation he inherited, safety was by no means a given. The Scotsman had been approached to manage Nottingham Forest and Wolves but only wanted a return here.

'My dream is that we can be close enough at the end to challenge for a European spot,' says Moyes of Everton's ambitions this season

The Scot has a strong relationship with Everton's fanbase, forged during his first tenure on Merseyside between 2002 and 2013

It helped that he was a club legend but he would have got the fans on side soon regardless with some important victories to give Goodison Park a fitting finale. He was subsequently backed with signings like Jack Grealish, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Tyler Dibling.

Moyes did not come back for something to keep him busy. He was happy relaxing in his house, not far from Preston, and doing a few bits and bobs such as work for UEFA. He returned because he genuinely believes he can get Everton back to the biggest stage.

The Scot, remember, took West Ham to the Europa League semi-final and Conference League glory. Just look at where the Hammers are now in the post-Moyes world.

‘I would like to copy (what happened at West Ham) if I could,' he adds. 'What we did was get West Ham in Europe after being a relegation team or just avoiding it. European football was amazing for West Ham supporters who hadn’t been there.

‘It will be amazing for Everton supporters when they get the chance to get back to Europe again. If you think where Everton have been for the last few years, it sounds like a big jump. But I want to be ambitious. I don’t want to be negative.

‘Everton have had too much negativity over recent years. I want to champion a new stadium, a team with Grealish, Dewsbury-Hall, Harrison Armstrong (the young midfielder just recalled from a loan at Preston who is rated as their best academy talent).

‘If we can do what West Ham did, it would be amazing. It would be great for the club, the stadium. I remember David Sullivan said to the media that he would bring European football to the London Stadium. Everyone thought he was off his head but he did it.

‘We need to try to bring it to the Hill Dickinson, whether it is this year or next year, we need to do it.’

Moyes facilitated an injection of real quality into Everton last summer, in the shape of players like Jack Grealish

'Everton have had too much negativity over recent years,' adds Moyes. 'I want to champion a new stadium, a team with Grealish, Dewsbury-Hall (pictured), Harrison Armstrong'

It so happens that this anniversary coincides with one of the most uninspiring weeks of the last 12 months, with a 4-2 defeat by Brentford followed by an insipid draw at home to Wolves. After just one loss in their first six at the new stadium, Everton have just one win in their last five.

That is something that must change, while Moyes will be praying for a swift return to fitness of key men like Dewsbury-Hall and defender Jarrad Branthwaite. The England international has missed the entire season but is slowly stepping up his road to recovery.

Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye are away at the Africa Cup of Nations and sorely missed, too, while Grealish – suspended this weekend – has struggled to replicate his early-season form and fitness in recent weeks.

Veteran defender Michael Keane – one of Moyes’s biggest success stories given his Everton days looked numbered this time last year – is also unavailable after an appeal to overturn a red card for hair-pulling was rejected on Friday.

The past year hasn't quite been perfect. Fans were aggrieved at Moyes’s team selection in the Carabao Cup exit to Wolves earlier this season and Saturday’s FA Cup clash against Sunderland is a chance to right that wrong. How nice a cup run would be.

But overall, Moyes's first 12 months back on Merseyside have been a roaring success – and European football is no longer a distant dream but a realistic goal, albeit maybe a step too far this season.

Moyes poses with the Premier League's Manager of the Month award for February 2025 after making an instant impact on his return to Everton

The Toffees are a united club pulling in the right direction once again, and Moyes has lofty ambitions for the next few seasons

In a table since Moyes’s reappointment, the Toffees are eighth, four points behind the team in fifth. Given they were relegation-threatened last January, that is spectacular. Now they are planning how to take that next step.

Asked to outline his ambitions for the next year, Moyes adds: ‘There are a lot of things within the club. The club is starting to get itself back together. I want to see the Everton young teams to be really successful again.

‘I want them all challenging, Under 18s or 21s, I want them winning European youth tournaments. I want so much behind the scenes at Everton to improve. Last season was difficult as we had some PSR issues and we are only really just seeing the back of all that.

‘I am hopeful we can take another building block and put it on top of what we have done this year.’