He has been here before, literally and metaphorically. ‘David Moyes, Everton manager,’ is a title with which he, and we, are well acquainted and the feelings he had 23 years ago will be just as familiar when he begins Act Two.
When the call came in March 2002, Moyes — then aged 38, managing Preston and burning with intensity — did not hesitate to say yes to Bill Kenwright. He carried on from a scouting mission to see Nathan Ellington, a striker at Bristol Rovers, to meet Everton’s late chairman at his London home.