Everton sign £1m Moyes
by Dominic Fifield, The Guardian
Friday March 15, 2002

David Moyes was last night unveiled as Everton's new manager after 24 hours of frenzied boardroom negotiations. Walter Smith's successor must now confront the daunting task of preserving the club's top-flight status.
Moyes has signed a four-year deal worth around £16,000 a week, with Preston's loss tempered by a £1m compensation package, on a par with the deal struck between Tottenham and Leeds for George Graham in 1999 as the biggest settlement for a manager's services. But Preston will receive a further £500,000 if Everton avoid relegation this season.

The 38-year-old Glaswegian, mobbed by ecstatic Evertonians as he arrived at the stadium, will meet his new players this morning but will have only one training session to assess their strengths before the Blues play Fulham at Goodison tomorrow. That is the first of nine games in which he must accrue enough points to ward off a first relegation from the top flight in 48 years.

"I don't know how much I can do to influence that game, but I can speak to the players and reassure them," he said. "I'm from a city not unlike this, brought up with Glasgow Celtic and Rangers, and I'm joining the people's football club in Liverpool. The majority of people you meet on the street are Everton fans and I hope to give those fans something to be proud of."

Everton's pursuit of the Scot appeared to be on the brink of collapse earlier in the day because of an impasse over compensation. It took a madcap dash up the M6 by Everton's owner Bill Kenwright for last-ditch talks with Preston's chief executive Tony Scholes to reach a compromise.

"It's been a fairly traumatic few days, but David has everything you'd look for in a manager," said the Everton chairman Sir Philip Carter. "Youth, potential and success, he's got them all."

Moyes said: "I'm young and relatively inexperienced but I've served an apprenticeship." He will bring in his own coaching staff after Smith's No2 Archie Knox left yesterday.

"I've been connected with winners for four years at Preston, albeit not in the top league, and I've not come here to lose," Moyes added.

"I'm under no illusions. You don't get jobs in football management when they're easy and this is a big task, but I'm really positive about it. I've got great belief in what can be achieved here.

"I said 'yes' straight away. I have spoken to other clubs in the past, but it was going to take a good offer and a big club for me to leave Preston. I feel very privileged to have been given this opportunity."

Moyes has met Smith to discuss Everton's strengths and weaknesses and will be handed around £5m to bolster the ailing squad, though he must do so before the looming transfer deadline of March 27.

His priority will surely be a striker. Everton have scored only six goals in their last 13 league games, with Brighton's prolific forward Bobby Zamora - whom Moyes attempted to sign for Preston earlier this season - likely to be his principal target. But with Albion challenging for promotion from the Second Division, luring him away could prove problematic.

At Preston, however, Scholes believes Everton have got Moyes on the cheap. He said: "When you consider we sold Jon Macken to Manchester City for £5m, it doesn't quite stack up that we only get £1m for our manager."

The assistant manager Kelham O'Hanlon and first-team coach Jimmy Lumsden have been put in temporary charge of the team for Sunday's derby at Burnley.

© 2002 The Guardian