Everton transitional phase under Moyes ending as Friedkin Group set to enter ‘exciting’ next stage | OneFootball

Everton are reportedly going to sack head coach David Moyes ‘in the near future’ and this makes perfect sense as their transitional phase ends.

Back in January, we rejoiced at Moyes returning to Everton for their Goodison Park farewell, as it was the right move at the right time for all parties.

At that point, Sean Dyche was becoming increasingly unpopular as Everton were too close to the relegation picture for comfort, so their final season at Goodison Park risked becoming incredibly dour.

Everton had more than enough quality in their squad (especially with how poor the bottom three were) to avoid relegation, and Dyche would have likely secured their survival, but it would have been far from pretty. This meant that a change was required to raise morale in the stands and on the pitch, thus ensuring that they could close out their time at Goodison on a high note.

This made Moyes‘ return to Everton a perfect fit; he is equally as renowned as a firefighter capable of staving off relegation as Dyche, but is also a Toffees legend who could galvanise the club and send them on an upward trajectory.

And this appointment worked a treat, with Moyes winning the Premier League Manager of the Month award for February and helping Everton shoot up the table to finish 13th. That emotional final day at Goodison Park would not have been the same had it been Dyche in the dugout.

This made it a no-brainer to keep Moyes on board for the start of their first season in the Hill Dickinson Stadium, with ambitious new owners, The Friedkin Group, setting their stall out with a statement summer transfer window, in which they spent around £115m on signings and brought in Jack Grealish from Manchester City on loan.

Everton have spent many years languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table and narrowly avoided relegation on multiple occasions. However, their recent takeover and move to a new stadium has set them on a path to return to where they should be: challengers for European qualification.

However, these aspirations would have been derailed by an unforgivable relegation last season, so Moyes has had a vital role to play to steady the ship before handing the reins to his successor.

And Moyes could be set to do this sooner rather than later, with a respected account on X with a ‘team of five elite reporters’ revealing this week that he could be replaced by ex-Celtic and Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers.

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They said: ‘Exclusive: According to sources, Everton are looking at the options of bringing Brendan Rodgers to the club as the new manager in the near future

‘#EFC owners (The Friedkin Group) want exciting football at their new stadium & David Moyes is on thin ice. Watch this space.’

This news has emerged while Everton are on their first really poor run of form under Moyes, with the Merseyside outfit only winning one of their last eight games in all competitions since their away victory at Wolves at the end of August.

So it’s certainly not unforeseeable that Moyes loses his job following Saturday’s home match against Fulham, with this their last before the infamous manager sacking window (i.e. the November international break).

This would be pretty harsh on Moyes, but he really could not have expected anything different. He was appointed to oversee a transitional phase, and yes, he has done an exemplary job, but Everton are now ready for their next stage and his latest gig was always going to be short-term due to his effective but uninspiring tactical approach.

Once Everton were away from danger, it was inevitable that the Friedkin Group would look to usher in an ‘exciting’ brand of football and Rodgers has proved in his previous jobs that he fits what they want, with more of a focus set to be put on Grealish, Iliman Ndiaye and co. rather than their workmanlike defence.