David Moyes had already been invited back to Goodison Park before the call came last week to see if he would return as manager.
The former – and now current again – Blues boss was offered the chance to come to a game at the Grand Old Lady before the gates close on it one final time at the end of this season.
Moyes, 61, planned to bring his dad, David Sr, along. Moyes’ family had become intertwined in the fabric of Everton during his 11-year stay between 2002 and 2013. So much so that his father would sometimes socialise with fans around Goodison.
There would be no way Moyes couldn’t return after admitting he previously avoided trips to the stadium because he didn’t want to sit in the stands when current managers were under pressure. Now the Scot’s invite back is a little more formal.
It includes the challenge of ensuring their farewell to Goodison does not avoid relegation and a two-and-a-half year contract.
“I’d had a message asking me to come to one of the games before the end of the season with my dad,” said Moyes.
“I thought it would be brilliant to get back to Goodison before the end and to bring my dad down. You have to remember my family were so embedded in Everton. My kids were young, my dad was drinking with all the boys in the street, and all the other things that go with it.
“Leaving was terrible because we were really close after 11 years. Now I’ve got the chance to manage here again.
“I’ve just got to make sure that when we walk out of Goodison and lock the door for the final time, we can all walk down to the new stadium in the right position.”
Goodison’s goodbye cannot coincide with dropping to the Championship ahead of their move to Bramley Moore Dock.
They sit just a point above the drop zone ahead of tomorrow’s game with Aston Villa.
When Moyes took over Everton from Preston in March 2002, he was soon to turn just 39. Now here he was back again at 61 after over a decade at Goodison where he took them from relegation candidate to Champions League qualifiers.
There was an ill-fated – and very short – reign as Sir Alex Ferguson ’s successor at Manchester United, time at Real Sociedad, a relegation at Sunderland before success in two stints at West Ham, winning the Europa Conference League as a highlight.
It’s a different Moyes now but also a different Everton. Then it was the late Bill Kenwright who owned the club, now it is the new American owners in The Friedkin Group.
Moyes was reminded of a Howard Kendall quote when he left Manchester City to return to Everton in 1990 as he said that the Toffees was a “marriage” with other clubs “love affairs.”
Moyes said: “I think if people looked at David Moyes ’ career they would probably think ‘Everton’. It was a long time ago and it’s a different David Moyes who’s coming back to Everton but it’s also a completely different Everton that David Moyes is coming back to.
“I won’t overstay my welcome this time. I don’t think I’ll be here for 11 years, but I hope that I can guide the club a little bit towards, and steer the ship, in the right direction.
“I hope I can regenerate the club. I was a young coach hoping it would go right [in 2003] and now I am older and wiser. I know I have to get it right.”
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