Source: Liverpool_Echo
Everton pre-season special: David Moyes up for big challenge
SATURDAY evening, May 30 and a plush hotel in West London is preparing to stage a grand dinner. Usually when people turn up to such functions, knowing that the food will be good and the wine will flow, they arrive in high spirits but on this occasion, those walking through the doors were sombre and subdued - Everton, after all, had just lost the FA Cup final.
Predictably, the subject that dominated conversations was why the famous old pot had ended up in Chelsea's hands, rather than being perched in the middle of a vast ballroom that was bedecked in royal blue and white.
It could, quite easily, have been a solemn occasion and there is little disputing that the first half of the evening was quiet; that the second half was anything but was helped largely by the words of Bill Kenwright and David Moyes.
When he was handed the microphone by his chairman, it was easy to see that Moyes was hurting and would probably have appreciated some time to get over the huge disappointment of losing Everton's first appearance at Wembley since 1995.
By the time he had finished speaking, however, you could sense he would not spend the summer wallowing in self-pity and his pay-off line proved that.
'It won't be a case of if we get back (to Wembley),' Moyes promised. 'It will be a case of WHEN we get back. This is where this club deserves to be.'
How, then, does Moyes repeat the trick? Where do he squeeze the extra improvement out of a squad to get Everton in to the Champions League places without having the financial resources of other clubs?
Many on the outside, of course, will say it is impossible, that last season was as good as it will ever get for Moyes and Everton - i.e. a fifth place finish and a gallant run to a cup final - and they have reached the ceiling of their ambitions.
