Moyes era sees early casualties
By Sam Wallace

THERE is no formal induction into the ways of the Premiership's 24-hour, billion-pound industry, so Everton's new manager David Moyes found his own way to announce his arrival. Paul Gascoigne, he said, has asked to leave and David Ginola will not be in today's squad. And with that, a new regime was born.

Moyes has been English football's Premiership manager in waiting for more than a year. Now that his time has finally come, it would appear that the moment will be lit up by the bonfires of two of the decade's most famous careers. In football's endless cycle of decay and renewal, Everton's support might just have to say goodbye to Gascoigne and au revoir to Ginola before the re-birth of their club.

Moyes: "More than anything, I want to win. I want to have players with me who want to win."

"I'm keen to keep all good players and Paul Gascoigne's a smashing player, but he seems a little bit down and maybe looking for something else," Moyes said. "It's something I'll have to talk to him more about. This was on-going before I arrived.

"He has suggested that he is quite upset about one or two things - nothing to do with Everton - but he feels it may be right for him to seek his football elsewhere." `Elsewhere', for Gascoigne, may be Burnley, who may now step up an attempt to sign him.

Moyes admitted that he tried to sign Ginola when he was the Preston manager but said that now "there are different levels involved". The French winger, who fled Liverpool for London after he was named on the bench last week, will have to make his own interpretation. But the battle for Premiership survival can only be waged from Everton's Bellefield training ground, not north London's commuter belt.

The club to the west of Liverpool's Stanley Park have kept things quiet since that last league title in 1987. The FA Cup triumph in 1995 was the only time that those huddled in the gloom outside Goodison Park on Thursday night could remember the trophy cabinet creaking open on its hinges.

But the coronation of a new manager will always draw a crowd in the car park, whatever the hour. It was 5.50pm on Thursday that Moyes took the call from Everton's vice-chairman Bill Kenwright to tell him that he had the job and another two hours before the 38-year-old's car pulled up outside the ground. In the foyer at Goodison Park, Kenwright looked out at the supporters in the drizzle. "I'm going out to see my friends," he announced.

Those Everton fans may only have glimpsed their new manager but they got some quality time with the vice-chairman. The millionaire theatre impresario spent 20 minutes discussing the club they all support while they waited for the man who everyone hopes will carry out the rescue. "I know what will happen next," one official in the foyer muttered. "Bill will want to bring them inside."

"These people are cold, why can't we bring them inside?" asked Kenwright, about 10 minutes later. "Is the Legends bar open? Can we put them in there?" Eventually, the fans stayed outside and waited for the delivery of Scottish football's latest management talent. And Kenwright came inside to put the finishing touches to the one of the busiest weeks in his reign at the club.

"I have never had less sleep - it was a troubled week but like every first positive meeting, when I met David Moyes I thought `Wow'," Kenwright said. "There is a real energy and desire to learn. He told me about how he was a coach when he was 22. I said `Why, did you want to be a coach?' And he said `No, I wanted to be a better footballer.'

"We talked about his desires for the football team and at the end he said, `But more than anything, I want to win. I want to have players with me who want to win.' It was a very good first few hours together."

For a man who built an empire of West End shows from nothing, there was doubtless something impressive about a football manager who has paid his own way at every major football tournament of the last decade. Moyes has invested in his own football education, which is a good job, because Everton do not have a great deal to invest in new players.

Almost two years since Kenwright led a consortium buyout of previous owner Peter Johnson, the club still have a debt of around £20-25 million to the Co-operative Bank. A securitisation deal with Allied Irish Bank, for £30 million over 25 years, will allow them to pay off the Co-operative Bank. The remainder will go towards improvements to the academy, Bellefield and transfer funds.

"The club is everything - the commitment couldn't have been bigger since I was four years old, but as the massive thing that is Everton gets bigger I have to say so does the self-doubt," Kenwright said. "Anyone you talk to who is comfortable in that situation, I would say was a liar. I haven't enjoyed a game for a long, long time.

"I don't know any other way. It's a privilege, isn't it? I was on the train coming in thinking `how am I different to other fans?' Not in terms of passion and devotion and paying for my four season tickets. But I did think `My goodness, do you realise in your hands is the destiny of this football club?' - that's the only difference."

There is also that vast slab of Kings Dock awaiting the 55,000-capacity stadium that will become Everton's home around 2005. Which means it could be the last time a small knot of Everton fans convene in that particular car park to welcome a new manager. The message, though, will remain the same: this is one famous old club who will not let modern football slam the door in its face.

© 2002 Electronic Telegraph