David Moyes expects Everton future to be decided at the end of the season

Current contract expires in the summer

Everton manager David Moyes appears poised to wait until the end of the season before clearing the air over his future.

Moyes celebrates the 11th anniversary of his tenure at Goodison Park in four weeks' time, but there remains a question mark over whether he will extend a contract that expires this summer.

The 49-year-old Scot, who has been a revelation throughout his time in charge of a club that has continually punched above its weight, today refused to shed any light on his situation.

Instead, Moyes looks likely to keep chairman Bill Kenwright, the players and fans in the dark over the closing three months of the campaign.

"I'll give as much as I can, but I've said - and I've spoken with the chairman - that I want to see how the team do," said Moyes.

"I want to see how we do in the cups, I want to see how we do in the league, and it's more than likely I won't make a decision until the end of the season.

"So you can ask me every week, but I'll probably give you the same answer."

Moyes' immediate focus tomorrow will be on an FA Cup fifth-round tie at League One Oldham, who last month pulled off a stunning upset with a 3-2 victory over the Toffees' Merseyside rivals Liverpool.

The Latics have changed manager since that shock win at Boundary Park, with Tony Philliskirk stepping in as caretaker after Paul Dickov resigned in the wake of a 3-1 defeat at Walsall a fortnight ago.

Under Philliskirk, Oldham last weekend triumphed 3-1 at home to the MK Dons, but remain in the bottom four and in the thick of a fight to avoid relegation.

Although the tie with Everton again represents a pleasant distraction for Philliskirk and his players, Moyes knows - as Liverpool and boss Brendan Rodgers discovered to their cost - the danger at hand.

Moyes can also recall his side's own harrowing defeat to Oldham five years ago when the underdogs won a third-round clash 1-0 at Goodison Park.

"We know what they can do as they did very well against Liverpool. It was a great result, but that's what the cup does," said Moyes.

"We've been knocked out by Shrewsbury (third round in 2003), knocked out by Oldham.

"I thought we'd prepared well when we went to play Shrewsbury, and again when we played Oldham, but we didn't get the result, and that is football.

"You have to play well, take your opportunities when they come along, which is cup football because you only have one chance.

"So we have been there, done that, we know what it's like and we don't want it to happen again.

"We'll do everything we possibly can to make sure it doesn't."

Unsurprisingly, however, given a choice between qualifying for next season's Champions League and winning the FA Cup, there is no contest as far as Moyes is concerned.

Everton remain in the hunt for a top-four finish in the Premier League, although have slipped of late and now trail Spurs by six points and Arsenal by two in the hunt for such prestige.

"Qualifying for the Champions League always means more because the financial rewards from that are far greater than what you get from the FA Cup," said Moyes.

"We can think of a lot of teams who have won the FA Cup and it's not desperately changed their fortunes, whereas qualifying for the Champions League does.

"If you do that, and you get into the group stages...look what it has done for Celtic, the profits they have made over the last six months, with most of it down to how they have done in the Champions League."

Moyes should have Sylvain Distin available after the defender missed Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Manchester United through illness.

Striker Victor Anichebe is a doubt, however, with a knock sustained in that game which saw him substituted just before the hour mark.

PA

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Caption competition
Caption competition
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Sport blogs

New day (slowly) rising – As Brasileirão gets underway, Brazilian football stumbles, rather than leaps into the future

The average Serie A crowd last year was 13,000 - comparable to Australia’s A-League.

by James Young

iBet: Mercedes and Hamilton to roar in Monaco

Monaco is a street circuit where driver ability is more important than anywhere else and if we take ...

by Gareth Purnell

On The Road at the Giro d’Italia: It sounds sadistic, but the team live for the mountain stages

Three weeks ago as I drove off the Eurostar, I remember thinking what a very long time it was until ...

by Martin Ayres

       

Day In a Page

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

In his first interview since 'plebgate', the former Chief Whip opens up just enough to concede that, in politics, you have to take the rough with the smooth
Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Special report: Met police call for criminal inquiry into former diplomat's Cayman Islands rule
Fallen angel: Winona Ryder on bouncing back from her decade in the wilderness

Fallen angel: Winona Ryder bounces back

She owned the 1990s... but then she disappeared. Now, Ms Ryder is back with quite the bang in her latest role, as the wife of a notorious real-life Mob hitman.
Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

The director's new film, 'Venus in Fur', is one of the raciest on offer
Rev Richard Coles: 'I don’t have any concerns that God is cross with me for being gay and eventually the Church won’t either'

Rev Richard Coles on the Church and homosexuality

The mellifluous, erudite and witty Coles is the nation's most pop-culture-friendly priest
'Baghdad likes to live from crisis to crisis': Civil war looms in Iraq

Patrick Cockburn: Civil war looms in Iraq

The governor of Kirkuk - one of the country's most violent but successful provinces - fears the worst
Written on the body: Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials

Written on the body

Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials
Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

The IoS marks the sixtieth anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reaching the peak of the highest mountain on Earth
A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

Rupert Cornwell: A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

The destructive power of tornadoes will be as nothing once the Great Plains' vast underground water reserve dries up
Every creature's needless death diminshes us all

Philip Hoare: Every creature's needless death diminishes us all

A 60 per cent decline in our national species should alarm us, yet few of us act. But to mind more about animals would reflect well on society
Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground - and the monks at the heart of it

Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground

Six years ago, the world cheered the monks behind Burma’s Saffron Revolution. Now, a horrific new eruption of religious slaughter is being blamed on a 'Buddhist Bin Laden'.
Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

You can’t always depend on the weather – but you can avoid the pitfalls of the British barbecue by preparing an elaborate outdoor feast indoors ahead of time...
The Calvin report: Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance

The Calvin report

Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance
10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

Warren Gatland's squad fly Down Under aiming to do justice to the expectations – and hoping the Wallabies stay in the pub
The Last Word: Golf must end the hypocrisy before its halo slips totally

The Last Word

Golf must end the hypocrisy before its halo slips totally