David Moyes on Everton's Turbulent Season and Owner Communication
David Moyes has revealed he has never met or spoken to Everton owner Dan Friedkin since returning to the club in January 2025 – despite the turbulence of a summer that left supporters furious and the squad stripped bare.
Friedkin, head of The Friedkin Group, completed his takeover in December 2024 but has not attended a home game since. The club is effectively run from Houston, and at a time when transfer decisions have enraged fans, the distance at the top of the club has never felt more stark.
Asked directly on Friday whether he had met or spoken to Friedkin at any point in the 20 months since his reappointment, Moyes needed only one word.
“No.”
Instead, the manager’s lifeline into the boardroom runs through chief executive Angus Kinnear and Friedkin’s son-in-law, Rishi Majithia.
“My real contact is Angus,” Moyes explained before Sunday’s game against Manchester United. “Angus is the one who I would go to see. Rishi is the next one and then the head of the Friedkin family in America.
“I don't really get any direct conversations with them, but I do through Rishi, he is the one I would speak to.”
That lack of direct dialogue has been thrown into sharp relief by a chaotic end to the transfer window that left Everton with just 18 senior players – and only one recognised striker, one right-back and one left-back.
The tension boiled over at Bournemouth last Saturday. News broke during the game that Everton had accepted a £40m bid from Nottingham Forest for Harrison Armstrong, one of the club’s most highly rated assets and an England Under-19s midfielder. The reaction in the away end was instant and furious.
The club eventually pulled out of the deal, but the damage to trust lingered. Supporters looked at the rest of the window and saw a board making high‑risk calls with little margin for error.
On deadline day, Beto was sold to Fiorentina before a replacement centre-forward had been secured. USA international Folarin Balogun then pulled out of a proposed move from Monaco at the last moment on Tuesday, leaving Moyes short in the one area he could least afford it.
The manager did not hide from the supporters’ anger over Armstrong. He aligned himself with them.
He reminded everyone the club was “managed by an Evertonian” and added that “supporters aren't always wrong”, a pointed nod to the mood on the terraces and the unease at how key decisions are being made.
Moyes also accepted that the internal structure at Everton remains a work in progress.
“We've got new owners in who are still feeling their way in the club,” he said. “I think if we get to know each other more it will get better.”
For many managers, the lack of communication with the owner, the thin squad and the transfer chaos might have been enough to spark thoughts of walking away. Moyes insisted that is not on his mind.
“Everton's different,” he said when asked if he had considered quitting. “I wouldn't have come back for anybody but Everton.”
This is the club he previously guided to a string of top‑five Premier League finishes between 2002 and 2013, the club where he built his reputation and forged a bond with a fanbase that expects struggle but demands fight.
That bond is what he is leaning on now.
“I think the club here has had enough days where the people find a way of recovering,” he said. “People saw the face of Evertonians last week and it can be really powerful. I would expect them to be really powerful now.
“But powerful for the team, powerful for the players. What we're going to need from them is extra because we're short, so we need them. If they're not with us, then it's terrible. And they are with us, I believe they are with us.”
The owner may be thousands of miles away and silent, but Moyes knows the noise around Goodison – and the response to this threadbare, patched‑up squad – will define what comes next.
