LIVERPOOL: David Moyes plans to celebrate 10 years in charge at Everton with a Merseyside derby win over Liverpool at Anfield today.
Moyes has become one of the most respected managers in English football during his reign at Goodison Park, with limited resources hampering him in comparison with the wealthier clubs in the Premier League.
Yet a typically strong second half to the current campaign by Everton has seen them beat Chelsea, Manchester City and, on Saturday, Tottenham to showcase Moyes’ talents yet again.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s recent dreadful form, which has seen them fail to win in the league since January, has left them faced with the depressing prospect of dropping below bitter rivals Everton if they lose today.
That would be the perfect way for Moyes to mark his milestone and he said: “I still think that if we finish in the top 10 it will be a good result for us.
“After Tottenham and, with Liverpool on Tuesday, it will still be hard to finish in the top 10.
“We have a wee bit of momentum and some players coming back but those players were among those who weren’t performing in the early part of the season.
“They are coming back but in truth they were the boys who weren’t getting results at the start of the season.
“We have dug in and tried to get results and now we are getting results I am complaining that the performances aren’t better.
“We have come the whole journey at Everton. If we win, I want a good performance and if we don’t win I just want to win.
“If we carry on like this, I’ll be delighted because it will have meant we have finished the season well but I will have to get back to the drawing board again to think about pre-season and why we start seasons so badly.”
Everton chairman Peter Kenwright paid his own tribute to a manager whom he considers a personal friend and hopes that Moyes can win a trophy for the first time in his 10-year stay at Goodison by claiming this season’s FA Cup.
Kenwright, who also re-iterated his position that he is attempting to sell the club, said: “It has been 10 years of absolute friendship. We’ve had maybe two what you could call rows but they would last five minutes, words rather than rows maybe.
“More than anything I want David Moyes to get that FA Cup so he can say I got you some silverware. The one thing he has done for this club is he has made us all believe again and 10 years ago we had lost some of our belief.
“We love nights like the ones against Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham but we live in a game dominated by money.
“I know this club is revered throughout football for the way we try to do it but it is a huge job and it gets more and more difficult.
“The one thing he does is he gets every single brass farthing available and he does know no-one takes any money out of this club. But at the end of the day I have to find a new owner.”
While Everton hope to end the season on a high, Liverpool’s star is falling rapidly, at least in the Premier League, with Saturday’s defeat at Sunderland leaving the League Cup winners 10 points behind a Champions League place. — AFP