DAVID MOYES leads Everton into the biggest game of his managerial career today with a warning the club cannot allow the momentum behind its first FA Cup final appearance in 14 years to come to an end. Everton have overcome Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester United to book a Wembley date with Chelsea and, although Moyes accepts only major finance will threaten the monopoly of the Big Four on Champions League qualification, he has identified the FA Cup as a potential catalyst for success at Goodison Park.
The fiercely-ambitious Scot believes Everton have twice missed the opportunity to progress during his reign; when the team failed to reach the Champions League group stage in 2005 and when last season’s fifth-placed finish preceded a delay in transfer funds.
Now, in a challenge to players and the boardroom alike, Moyes insists a third invitation to raise Everton’s status must be taken.
“If we are fortunate enough to win the FA Cup, it cannot stop here,” the Everton manager said. “This is just the start of where it has to go; this is just the beginning for us and not the end. This is not the point where people say ‘Thank goodness Everton have won a trophy and David Moyes has won one’. The message I want to get through to everyone and the club as well is that we have to keep going. You can’t stop when you have the momentum. We have a definite momentum around Everton right now, a positivity that is going through the club and the team that we have to keep pushing forward.
“It is not easy to do and this season we’ve probably done better than we thought against the odds. But we are on the climb, we are still climbing the mountain and going forward. We’ve not reached the top yet and I think there is more to come from the team, but we are going to have to show it at Wembley because we are facing a team of very good players.”
Moyes’s ambition was illustrated perfectly following Everton’s penalty shoot-out victory over United in the semi-finals when, as hysteria greeted Phil Jagielka’s decisive spot-kick among players and supporters, the manager declined to celebrate.
“I didn’t feel making the final was success for me,” he explained. “We won on penalty kicks and it is always difficult for the losers in that respect so I wanted to be humble and in no way make them feel worse than they did. The congratulations took place in the dressingroom. I was really excited by it, but I wanted it to be a win. If we beat Chelsea I hope then you will see me in a different light.”
Everton were beaten home and away by Chelsea in last season’s League Cup semi-final, results that forced Moyes to concede there was still a gulf between the Premier League’s fifth-placed team and the leading pack.
“There is undoubtedly still a gap. Their team is something like £330 million (€377m), ours £90 million (€102m), but I think we have stepped up again and have improved as the season has gone on. No one will be talking about the gulf between the two clubs when we cross the line, but it exists. That’s why we go in as underdogs and that suits us. The pressure will be on Chelsea.”
Having finished fifth in the Premier League for two successive seasons, and beaten three of the top six to reach Wembley, Moyes believes Everton are close to stepping out of Liverpool’s shadow again.
“You cannot keep performing at the levels we have, with the consistency we have had, and not get rewarded somewhere in the end,” he said. “The club plays second fiddle to Liverpool in the city, and it’s important that Everton are still seen as part of the city of Liverpool. They are a big part of it. It would mean something very special to every Everton supporter if we could get a trophy.”
