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Moyes: High hopes

The last thing we can do is take our foot off the pedal, because others will overtake us.

David Moyes
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Everton manager David Moyes is confident his side can break into the 'big four' of the Premier League.

The Toffees were being touted as the side to bring to an end the monopoly of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool on the top four in the league following an impressive first half of the season.

However, ahead of the final day of the campaign Everton can hope for a fifth-placed finish at best, providing their result at home to Newcastle on Sunday is better than that which Aston Villa record away to West Ham.

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan recently announced that it is impossible for any side to challenge the 'big four', but Moyes is positive that Everton - who finished fourth in 2005 - are capable of upsetting the long-term odds.

Realistic

"I think in a lot of ways he (Keegan) is right, but I don't want to believe it and I'm not going to accept it," Moyes said in The Independent.

"I can't turn up at the start of next season believing we can't be up there. Even this season, until the beginning of March, we had a realistic chance. And if we could have got there it could have changed Everton for a long, long time.

"We're probably more ready now than we were three years ago. With the money that's on offer we could have changed things. But it didn't happen."

Meanwhile, Moyes has held discussions with chairman Bill Kenwright about which players he is keen to bring to Goodison Park this summer in order to improve his squad.

New faces

"I've told the chairman who I'd like to buy and, hopefully, I'll find out pretty soon whether I can pursue them," Moyes added.

"I'd like A, B and C, but it's a question of who we can afford, and also who we can hope to turn into better players.

"That's our basic philosophy, and it would apply even if we were given vast sums of cash, but, in the same breath, I would like to put the emperor's clothes on now and again.

"I have a really good relationship with Bill, but nobody pushes him more than me to kick on. We have to keep improving the squad.

"The last thing we can do is take our foot off the pedal, because others - Tottenham, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Portsmouth, Manchester City, Blackburn - will overtake us."