page_title: History of Everton F.C.
section_title: David Moyes era (2002–2013)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Everton F.C. / David Moyes era (2002–2013)
caption_attribution_description: Marouane Fellaini playing for Everton in August 2013.
context_page_description: Everton Football Club have a long and complex history. The club's roots loosely lie with a Methodist New Connexion congregation who had a chapel on the corner of Breckfield Road North and St. Domingo Vale in Everton, Liverpool. Initially formed as St. Domingo FC, named after the chapel, the football team was renamed Everton in 1879 after the district of Everton. Since then Everton have had a successful history winning the Cup Winners' Cup, the league title nine times and the FA Cup five times. They were the first club to play over 100 seasons in the top flight of English football, the 2018–19 season will be their 116th.
context_section_description: In March 2002, the board turned to promising young Preston North End manager David Moyes with the task of moving Everton forward after years of underachievement, and he was able to steer the club to safety in the last few games of the season, finishing 15th. In Moyes' first full season in charge, Everton finished seventh in the Premiership and just missed out on a UEFA Cup place in a campaign which was dominated by the emergence of brilliant young striker Wayne Rooney, who came to national prominence with a spectacular last-minute winner against league champions Arsenal, becoming the youngest English league goalscorer ever and Everton's youngest ever scorer, and consigning the champions to their first league defeat for almost a year.
  2002–03 was Everton's best season since the sixth-place finish of 1995–96 and for a while it had even looked like they would qualify for the Champions League. In the FA Cup the Toffees were on the receiving end of a giant-killing, away to Shrewsbury Town, who were managed by former Everton captain Kevin Ratcliffe and were just four months away from being relegated from the Football League. The following season's league form was a stark contrast, with the club finishing 17th and accumulating the lowest points total in the club's history.
  Wayne Rooney handed in a transfer request and was sold to Manchester United in August 2004 for a fee of £23 million, with a potential to rise to £30 million due to bonus payments for league positions, trophies, international caps and 25% excess sell on fees. Despite the loss of Rooney, Everton's 2004–05 was much more successful and finished fourth in the table, their highest position since 1988, achieving Champions League qualification, ahead of rivals Liverpool. They played some of their finest football for years, thanks greatly to the 4–5–1 tactic of Moyes and the form of Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen, who was sold to Real Madrid midway through the season.
  Despite the euphoria of the previous season and the Champions League qualification, Everton started the 2005–06 badly, with their Champions League campaign ending in defeat by Villarreal in the qualifying stages after referee Pierluigi Collina controversially disallowed an important Everton goal. After being demoted to the UEFA Cup, they were knocked out by Dinamo București, who thrashed the English side 5–1 in Romania.
  After occupying the Premier League relegation zone throughout October 2005, Everton stopped Chelsea's nine-game winning run with a 1–1 draw to spark a short revival that saw the team finally start to get regular results to put much needed points on the board. However, this was followed by another dismal run including several 4–0 defeats to sides in the bottom half of the table and a one-sided derby match. A 0–1 win at Sunderland on New Year's Eve started a run of five straight Premiership wins and six matches unbeaten including victory against Arsenal – the club's best run of results since the Premiership began which hauled the team away from the relegation zone, and made a top half finish or even Europe a real possibility. This was not to be as the team remained as inconsistent as ever and a disappointing draw on the last day meant an 11th-place finish instead of moving into the top half. Inconsistency and a shortage of goals let Everton down in 2005–06, and ended their hopes of another European campaign.
  Everton began the 2006–07 season well, including a first league win at White Hart Lane in 20 years, followed by a 3–0 win over Liverpool. The club's transfer record was broken with the signing of Andrew Johnson from Crystal Palace. At the end of the season, Everton were in sixth place and qualified for the following seasons UEFA Cup competition. During the summer of 2007, the club announced the acquisition of a professional basketball team, called the Everton Tigers, and were entered into the British Basketball League as one of three expansion franchises for the 2007–08 season.
  In 2007–08 Everton again broke their transfer record with the signing of Yakubu for £11.25 million from Mid
caption: In 2008, Everton signed Marouane Fellaini for a club record £15 million
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