Everton are one of the Premier League’s most renowned football clubs and have an expert coaching staff beside manager David Moyes. But who features amongst the Gaffers crew?
Manager: David Moyes
The current first-team manager of Everton since January 2025 is David Moyes, who returned to Goodison Park after 12 years away to replace Sean Dyche at the helm.
Toffees chiefs sought to welcome Moyes back to Merseyside with the Blues battling relegation from the Premier League and with the Friedkin Group having also recently become the owners of Everton.
Dyche had himself joined Everton following the sacking of Frank Lampard in January 2023 to help the Blues avoid relegation, and he achieved the feat in 2022/23 and 2023/24.
Assistant manager: Billy McKinlay
Everton overhauled their first-team coaching staff in January 2025 as the Blues parted with Dyche and his team for Moyes and a group the Scot trusted. One of the changes Moyes oversaw to the Everton coaching staff was hiring Billy McKinlay as his assistant manager.
McKinlay is one of Moyes’ most loyal servants having worked with the coach extensively since November 2014. Moyes first hired McKinlay whilst in charge of Real Sociedad and they later reunited at West Ham United in November 2017 and again in July 2021.
McKinlay, who played in midfield for Dundee United, Blackburn Rovers, Bradford, Preston North End, Leicester City and Fulham between 1987 and 2005 first started working as a coach at Craven Cottage shortly before retiring.
He was a part of Fulham’s reserve set-up and served as their youth manager from February 2006 to November 2012 before joining their senior staff under Martin Jol. McKinlay has also worked for the Northern Ireland national team, Watford and Sunderland as an assistant.
Assistant manager: Leighton Baines
Moyes named three assistant managers following his return to Goodison Park in January 2025 including an Everton legend in the Blues’ iconic left-back, Leighton Baines.
Baines signed for Everton from Wigan Athletic under Moyes in August 2007 and went on to play 420 games for the club, in which the defender born in Kirkby scored 39 and assisted 63 goals.
The 30-cap England international, who started two games at the 2014 World Cup, moved into coaching with Everton’s academy immediately after retiring in 2020. Baines went on to serve as Everton’s Under-18 manager and caretaker first-team manager after firing Dyche.
Assistant manager: Alan Irvine
Everton confirmed Alan Irvine was to return to Goodison Park as part of Moyes’ coaching staff in January 2025 as a third assistant manager.
It marked Irvine’s third spell on Merseyside after playing for Everton between 1981 and 1984, plus working in Moyes’ coaching staff from July 2004 to November 2007 and later as Everton’s Under-18 manager from July 2011 to June 2014.
Irvine was out of work after leaving West Ham United alongside Moyes in May 2024. He first joined the Hammers as Moyes’ assistant manager in July 2017 but left London Stadium in May 2018 when the Scot was fired, before both returned in December 2019.
Irvine also worked as Moyes’ opposition analyst at West Ham to add another role to a coaching CV which started as the academy manager at Blackburn Rovers in July 1993, before later taking over the same role at Newcastle United in July 2001.
Preston North End prised Irvine away from Everton in November 2007 to be their first-team manager for 110 games.
He also coached Sheffield Wednesday for 59 games and West Brom for 22 games, before returning to a No2 role at Blackburn under Paul Lambert and Norwich City under Alex Neil.
Head of first-team sports science: Jack Nayler
Jack Nayler is Everton’s head of first-team sports science with a plethora of footballing experience at some top clubs under his belt.
He started his career in July 2008 with a medical placement in Chelsea’s medical team, before returning to Stamford Bridge in a full-time sports scientist position in November 2010 after working for Loughborough University as its Rugby Club Chair in the interim.
Since then, Nayler has worked at some of Europe’s top clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain (2012-13), Real Madrid (2013-15), Celtic (2016-21) and RB Leipzig (2021-22). Nayler joined the Everton coaching staff in September 2022.
Lead first-team performance analyst: Matthew Hawkes
Matthew Hawkes is the first-team lead performance analyst among the Everton coaching staff and has held the role since August 2021 after earning a promotion under Rafa Benitez. Hawkes first joined the Everton coaching staff in July 2018 as a first-team analyst.
Marco Silva initially welcomed Hawkes into the first-team Everton coaching staff after taking notice of his work as the Toffees’ Under-23s analyst since July 2017. He was also a first-team performance analyst intern at Everton in the 2016/17 term under Ronald Koeman.
Previous to joining the Everton coaching staff as an intern, Hawkes also worked for the Lancashire FA (2014-15) and Blackpool (2014-16) mainly as a youth analyst.
Head of academy coaching: Carl Darlington
Carl Darlington has held the role of head of academy coaching at Everton since October 2022. He joined the Toffees’ backroom team after almost 19 years working with the Football Association of Wales (FAW) alongside various coaching positions at lower-league clubs.
Darlington first worked as a first-team coach in 2006 with Newi Cefn Druids FC before enjoying spells at teams including Wrexham AFC and Airbus UK Broughton FC.
His time with the FAW, meanwhile, saw Darlington work with the men’s and women’s Wales national teams at the Under-16, U17 and U19 levels plus as a senior national team opposition scout.
Working for the FAW also saw Darlington serve as a football development officer for the Wrexham area, as a senior coaching coordinator and as its head of coach education.
Match analyst: Charlie Reeves
Charlie Reeves joined the Everton coaching staff in June 2017 initially as a first-team data analyst, before changing roles to performance insights analyst in August 2021, to senior lead for performance insights in October 2022 and to be the head of performance insights in November 2023.
Reeves had only previously worked for Forest Green Rovers as a performance data analyst prior to joining the Everton coaching staff.
