David Moyes has agreed the terms of his emotional return to Everton and will be announced as their new manager over the weekend.

The 61-year-old emerged as the leading candidate to succeed Sean Dyche, with talks over the structure of a two-and-a-half deal until 2027 ending with Moyes agreeing to his comeback almost 12 years after leaving.

Moyes will have five days to prepare for the Premier League fixture against Aston Villa on Wednesday, the first of Everton’s 19 remaining games of their relegation-threatened campaign.

While he recently stated he did not want to return to management to be in a job “fighting relegation”, he will be doing just that at Goodison Park. He inherits a team one point above the bottom three and a record of one win in their last 11 Premier League games.

After being appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours list for services to football, he said: “Football is in my blood. It has been since I was a boy.

“I love watching football and I have enjoyed my career. If there is another part to it, so be it. But I would only want it to be a good part. I wouldn’t want to be coming in and doing something which is very difficult.”

Moyes will be taking the club into their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and the length of his contract suggests he will be in charge of a rebuild of the squad, with 12 players either out of contract or returning to parent clubs in the summer.

During his 11 years as manager until 2013, Moyes took the club into Europe and regularly finished in the top half before his departure - although the immediate aim is survival after fighting relegation under Frank Lampard and Dyche.

Everton’s American owners The Friedkin Group were in control of the club for 21 days before dismissing Dyche.

Not all managerial returns are doomed – as Moyes knows full well

David Moyes is back. Twelve years after he headed east for a brief, ill-starred spell at Manchester United, the veteran manager is nearing a return to Everton, the place he made his name, charged with the responsibility of ensuring the magnificent new Bramley-Moore Dock is not to be the finest stadium in the Championship next season.

Like with smouldering fireworks, in football they say you should never go back. Managers, however, clearly pay no heed to collective wisdom. Moyes is by no means the first to return to former glories. Here, in reverse order, is our top 10 of others who have revisited familiar places.

Quique Sánchez Flores

Flores became Watford manager in June 2015, the fifth man to hold the job in a year. He did well, delivering comfortable mid-table security and taking the side to the FA Cup semi final. But, in typical Vicarage Road style, he was let go at the end of that season, the expectation among fans being he would simply join the growing line of forgotten ex-Watford bosses.

But then, to much astonishment, in September 2019 he was back, replacing his floundering fellow Spaniard Javi Gracía. Unfortunately his second game in charge was a stinging 8-0 defeat at Manchester City. By November, after just eight weeks as boss and having delivered only one win, he was gone for a second time.

Comeback rating Zero

Roy Hodgson

Appointed by Crystal Palace in 2017 after the disastrous short reign of Frank de Boer, Hodgson did something no one had done before or since in the Premier League: he kept a team that had lost their first seven games of the season in the division. After bruising experiences at Liverpool, then England, going back to his boyhood club seemed the perfect place for Hodgson to see out his career. Loved by the fans, he remained there for four happy years before retiring, having already set the record as the oldest manager in Premier League history.

Retirement, however, was not for him. He was soon back in the dugout at Watford, before announcing that was it for what appeared to be the final time. But when Palace needed someone to steady things after his replacement Patrick Vieira’s management began to unravel, he went back to Selhurst Park in March 2023. It was not a particularly happy return, he looked increasingly doddery on the touchline. The rumours were circling that he was about to be replaced when, in February 2024 he was admitted to hospital and resigned, this time for the last time.

Comeback rating 1/5

Kevin Keegan

In 1992, eight years after he finished there as a hero of a player, Keegan was appointed Newcastle manager, reckoned a real left-field selection given he admitted he had watched only two live games since he had hung up his boots. His task was not a simple one: it was to stop the club being relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history. He not only did that, surfing a wave of excitement, he took them first into the Premier League, then to within a whisker of winning it. His brand of charismatic, attacking football electrified the Geordie faithful and when, in 1997, he fell out with the board, his subsequent departure almost precipitated a full-on fan revolt.

When he returned in January 2008, replacing Sam Allardyce, supporters were full of hope he might deliver the same level of fun as his first two stints. Instead he took nine games to record his first win. A late rally helped the team finish 12th, hinting that the good times might return. But he fell out with the owner Mike Ashley over summer recruitment (or lack of it) and resigned for a second time that September.

Comeback rating 1/5

Howard Kendall

Everton have previous when it comes to going back to their past in the hope of stimulating their present. Kendall was easily the most successful manager in the club’s history when he took them to two titles, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the FA Cup in the mid-eighties. He resigned in 1987 to try his hand abroad, at Athletic Bilbao. He returned to Goodison in 1990, with the club adrift near the foot of the table. He stabilised things and restored a sense of upward trajectory. But he fell out with the board after they refused to let him sign Dion Dublin from Manchester United and resigned in November 1993.

With Everton again in relegation crisis, he was back once more in 1997, keeping the club up on the last day of the season. It was to prove his last job in English football.

Comeback rating 2/5

Kenny Dalglish

There was almost a 20-year gap between Sir Kenny’s two stints in the Anfield dugout. His first had been triumphant, winning the title three times and the FA Cup twice. But he was hollowed out by the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, his kindness and support for the victims’ families taking a huge personal toll. Exhausted, he resigned in February 1991, taking 10 months out to refresh his ambition. He was appointed Blackburn boss that October, won the title with them two seasons later and also had spells at Newcastle and Celtic.

In 2011, with Roy Hodgson having departed, he returned to the Liverpool dugout, first as stand-in, then on a permanent basis. He won the League Cup, but poor league results and his handling of the Luis Suárez crisis concerned the club’s new American owners, and he was let go at the end of the 2011-12 season.

Comeback rating 2/5

David Moyes

His return to Everton is not the first time Moyes has been on the rebound. He has twice managed West Ham too. The first time, in November 2017, with the club in the relegation zone, he was employed as a firefighter, on a short-term, six-month contract. He did precisely what was required, and left with safety achieved.

After being out of the game for a year, he was back in December 2019, this time on a longer deal. And how he delivered. He qualified for Europe in his second season, then in 2023 won the European Conference League, the club’s first proper trophy since the 1980 FA Cup. A year later, amid some fan discontent at the style of football he espoused, he was not offered a new contract and left.

Comeback rating 3/5

Louis van Gaal

Never one for doing things by halves, Van Gaal has been reappointed manager of the Dutch national side not once but twice. His first spell began in 2000 when, despite his record as a coach with Ajax and Barcelona, he failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. Nevertheless he was reappointed in 2012 and took the side to Brazil for the 2014 tournament, when they were within a penalty shoot-out of qualifying for the final but won the third-fourth play-off.

And he was back for the Qatar competition in 2022, when his side again lost to Argentina on penalties, this time in the quarter-final. Never constrained by modesty, Van Gaal reckoned the only reason he had not won was because the whole thing was rigged to ensure Lionel Messi lifted the trophy.

Comeback rating 3/5

Harry Redknapp

Initially appointed as director of football in 2001, Redknapp took over as manager of Portsmouth in March 2002 and led them to promotion to the Premier League. However in November 2004 he resigned after a row with the owner Milan Mandaric. Pompey fans were more than incensed when he went down the road to lead their loathed rivals Southampton.

But then, a year later, with Pompey in trouble, he was persuaded to make the short return journey and prevented them being relegated that season. In 2008, having built the finest Portsmouth team in living memory, he won the FA Cup. Shortly afterwards, with the club facing financial meltdown, he resigned and moved to Tottenham.

Comeback rating 4/5

José Mourinho

After winning two league titles, the FA Cup and the League Cup, the ‘Special One’ found that even his level of success was not sufficient armoury in the internal political battleground that was Chelsea under Roman Abramovich. He was fired in 2007 and headed off first to Inter, then Real Madrid, adding yet more silverware to his ever-growing collection.

His return to Chelsea in 2013 was greeted as a second coming by the fans, who grew ever more certain of his specialness when he won first the League Cup then, in 2015, the Premier League title, his third with the club. It was not enough to satisfy his chairman, however, and a run of defeats – and an increasingly grumpy demeanour – led to his second sacking in December 2015.

Comeback rating 4/5

Carlo Ancelotti

Nobody has ever done a return quite like the man with the vertical eyebrow. He was first appointed manager of Real Madrid in 2013 and, in his debut season in charge, did entirely what was required of the position, winning the Champions League. The following year, however, his side were eliminated in the competition’s semi-final and, ludicrously, he was fired.

After detours via Bayern, Napoli and Everton, he went back to the Bernabéu in 2021. Where he has subsequently lived up to all expectation by winning, amongst other things, the Champions League twice. Nobody does it better than Carletto.

Comeback rating 5/5