Everton manager David Moyes will celebrate 10 years in charge of Everton on Wednesday – just 12 hours after his side travel across Stanley Park to Anfield.
A decade at one club is a remarkable achievement in any era but in the present climate, where managers are lucky to last one year let alone ten, his work at the Toffees deserves to be commended.
His harshest critics will point to the lack of trophies and Moyes will freely admit his biggest regret is not earning the club silverware.
But, again, we live in an era where the small cluster of trophies on offer are largely dictated by the size of your wallet – and Moyes has hardly been able open his.
He inherited a club in freefall and among the favourites in the relegation betting after a dismal 3-0 defeat to Middlesbrough in the cup and a 12 week run without a league victory.
The dressing room was packed full of aging players with big egos with little cash to change things around. Indeed the crippling debts that so nearly tipped the club into administration a few years previously meant he has was constantly battling he problems left by his predecessors.
But despite all that Moyes had led Everton to top ten finishes in every full season in charge bar two – in the ten year prior to that they achieved that feat just once, in 1996.
Such work has not gone unnoticed and the jobs at Chelsea and Tottenham have been waived in his direction by the media. Moyes is too driven to pay attention to such rumours now, but he knows that with finances set to be tight again in the summer, he cannot keep Everton going on fumes forever and the chance move to a club with greater financial resources may prove too good to miss.
Not that he wouldn’t feel sad departing Goodison, the club is well and truly in his blood. And leaving or not he would dearly love to add the FA Cup to mark his decade in charge.
The club face a pivotal week which takes in a Merseyside derby at Anfield – where a win will see them leapfrog their near neighbours in the table – before a FA Cup quarter-final at home to Sunderland.
Two wins would see Everton in seventh place and on their way to Wembley with an 11 game unbeaten run behind them, a great way to celebrate 10 years in charge. If you bet on the FA Cup do not discount the chances of the Toffees, despite the presence of more illustrious names in the hat.
But knowing Moyes that will not be enough and the Scot will have already moved onto the next challenge – which is the very reason behind his enduring success.
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