Before the second coming of the ‘Moyesiah’ this week, Howard Kendall was the only other Everton manager to return, and he compared his relationship to that of a man and wife – now the Scot is tasked with bringing back the spark before it’s too late.

The title of Kendall’s 2013 autobiography Love Affairs & Marriage: My Life in Football references the declaration he made on being unveiled as Everton manager for the second time in November 1990 as the former Blues boss returned to the club where he had won the League Championship as a player before guiding them to a brace of titles plus an FA Cup and European Cup-Winners’ Cup during his initial spell in the dugout, after less than a year in charge at Manchester City.

Writing in the book, Kendall admitted: “I’m not sure who was more shocked by my return to Goodison Park. Me, or English football in general.

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“There was a cloak of secrecy to the moves to rehire me that seem completely unconceivable in today’s world of rolling news, social media and internet. When I stepped from behind a screen in one of Goodison Park’s lounges on 6 November 1990, there was a touch of theatre to proceedings, almost like a new Pontiff being unveiled before St Peter’s Square.

“Certainly, there was a hush of incredulity from the assembled press as a battery of camera flashes lit the room. ‘When you talk about Manchester City you talk about a love affair,’ I told them. ‘But when you talk about Everton you are talking about a marriage’.”

Back then, everyone was expecting to see Joe Royle emerge from behind the curtain, but the Oldham Athletic boss had to wait another four years for his turn, guiding the Blues to FA Cup success in his first season, which almost three decades on, remains their last major trophy to date. Relationships were also on the mind of this correspondent’s colleague Joe Thomas when offering his verdict on Sean Dyche’s time at Everton following his sacking, and he wrote: “Dyche and Everton increasingly had the feeling of a loveless relationship, a marriage of convenience – one that needed to be endured rather than enjoyed. Once the takeover was completed it therefore felt a case of when, rather than if, his time at the club would end.”

With Farhad Moshiri having churned his way through eight managers in as many years at Everton and the way they finished 2024 with four head coaches at Roma in the calendar year, new owners The Friedkin Group were understandably reticent to swap partners midway through ‘The Last Dance’ with the Grand Old Lady as Goodison Park plays host to her final season. Dyche never glided across the floor with elegance but for a year-and-a-half, his tight grip at least kept her on her feet, despite several worrying wobbles.

However, with just three Premier League wins and 17 points at the halfway stage, bringing a meagre 17 points (less than 50% of the total Everton finished on at the end of Dyche’s first season in 2022/23, which was the lowest equivalent haul in their history as they avoiding a first relegation in 72 years by a single goal), this term has seen far too many missteps. If anyone knows how to change the mood music to a tune that Goodison appreciates, it’s Moyes.

Nobody was expecting the Blues to enjoy a vintage season or push for a European place, but the general consensus was that having retained the services of Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin while making a clutch of new signings in the summer, the squad is stronger than last season, when they would have finished level on points with 11th placed Brighton & Hove Albion had it not been for sporting sanctions. This should be a season to celebrate Goodison Park in her final days, but there has been precious little to cheer so far.

A big part of that of course has been the style of football that Everton have played. Now though, with Moyes back at the helm, it is time for that to change.

Reflecting on his first spell as manager in an interview with the ECHO earlier this season, the 61-year-old hinted at how that could happen as he said: “We were competitive, and nobody was enjoying coming to play us at Goodison, that was for sure. You have to look back to that time about the force of Goodison and how important it was.

“The crowd were alive because the team were alive as well. We didn’t win every game, and we didn’t play the best all the time, but I think in the main, the crowd appreciated the players there and what they were doing.”

Moyes added: “We’ve just talked about things and you’ve sprung my memory and a lot of things come flooding back. Games you’ve talked about, things like Big Duncan’s one-nil goal against Man United, the night against Fiorentina, which I was desperate to be as good as the Andy Gray night against Bayern, that’s the way I wanted it to be, winning the derbies at home, some of those days were magical.

“I think it was a bit of the intimidation that Goodison gave people, you always liked that. You sort of said: ‘Come on then, let’s see what you’re like coming out here,’ coming to Goodison.

“We didn’t hide the fact that we were going to use Goodison to the best of our advantage and I didn’t hide the fact in my programme notes that I wanted the crowd to be on the referees, I wanted them to be right behind the players, baying for everything if they could. We tried to use it to our advantage.”