David Moyes was reminiscing about arriving at Everton. Not this time, but 23 years ago, before he had won a European trophy or earned an OBE, when he was management’s rising star, lured from Preston North End. “I had to walk into a dressing room with Paul Gascoigne, Duncan Ferguson, David Ginola and Tommy Gravesen. With me being a young coach, I said, ‘they won’t even know who I am’,” he smiled.
He need not have such fears now. “People know me a bit more,” he added. Moyes has been gone for the best part of 12 years but returned to a club with many a familiar face; behind the scenes, in his squad, in captain Seamus Coleman, even in the media room. “Too many old faces,” Moyes said. “Mine included.” He has more wrinkles than when he first walked into Everton, the scars of more than 1,000 games in management, but more experience too. He is appointed in part to be the David Moyes of old, but he is an older David Moyes. “I am not coming back to the same Everton as I left but I don’t think Everton are getting the same David Moyes,” he outlined.
