Everton manager David Moyes must move on

Even if Everton had won the FA Cup this season, I don't believe it would have been enough to keep David Moyes as manager at Goodison Park beyond the end of this campaign.

After 10 years at the club, and with his 49th birthday approaching next week, I think it is inevitable that he will leave Everton in the summer because there is a sense that he has taken the club as far as he can.

If he goes, Moyes will not be deserting a sinking ship. He has been loyal, committed and dedicated throughout his decade at Everton, but it really is time to move on.

From listening to him, it is obvious that he is ultra-ambitious and wants to prove himself to be a top-class manager. And the reality is that, although he has worked phenomenally hard to stop Everton falling off the face of the Earth at times, the guys who are ultimately remembered as the top managers are those who win Premier League titles and Champions Leagues.

That's why this summer seems to be the right time for him to take on a new challenge elsewhere if a top job comes up. He has the track record and is a young man in the managerial stakes and somebody with his career still ahead of him.

If he moves on, Everton will be the unlucky ones because he has held the club together over the past decade with little or no resources and has somehow ensured that they have regularly achieved better positions in the league than they might have expected.

The fact that he hasn't been able to take Everton to silverware or build a team capable of challenging for the title or a place in the top two or three is more the club's problem than his.

Everton are a club blessed with a great history and sensational supporters and they deserve to be challenging for the big trophies, but the reality of modern-day football is that they have been unable to do so because of the financial restrictions that have dogged the club throughout his time as manager.

The problem for Moyes is that he will be burdened by Everton's inability to compete until he leaves and gets a really big job elsewhere.

Even now, after the job he has done at Everton, some supporters will say he hasn't won a league game at Anfield during that time or he has failed to win a trophy while the likes of Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Birmingham have done.

Maybe so, but where are Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Birmingham now? What Moyes has brought to Everton has been stability and the true test of the club will be to sustain that when the day arrives that he is no longer the manager.

Over the past 10 years, so many clubs have chased the dream and ended up in administration or receivership, but Everton have never been close to that under Moyes.

They have had brushes with relegation during that time, but have never looked in real danger of going down and that is an achievement in itself considering the way that finance now plays such a big part in the fortunes of Premier League clubs.

The question for Moyes, however, is where would he go next to take his managerial career on to the next level? Chelsea are looking for a new manager, Manchester City could be and, if Harry Redknapp gets the England job, Tottenham will be looking for a new man at White Hart Lane.

But for whatever reason, when the likes of Chelsea and City make managerial appointments, they tend to look abroad for rising stars or people with a successful track record away from the Premier League.

Sooner or later, those clubs might start to look at the long-term and build the club up because the ultimate barometer of success is Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United because he has been at Old Trafford for about 100 years!

But if Redknapp does leave Tottenham, then you would have to suggest that Spurs is a real possibility for Moyes. You hear names like Brendan Rodgers being suggested in connection with Tottenham but, while he has done a terrific job at Swansea, he is in his first season in the Premier League.

Moyes has the experience and the ambition to take on a big job, however, and that will eventually be bad news for Everton. But when he does walk away from Goodison Park, he will do so with his head held high, regardless of his lack of silverware during his 10 years.

His real achievement in keeping the club on an even keel will only be appreciated fully when he has gone.