Moyes warned Everton he wanted their stars

Manchester United boss David Moyes says he warned Bill Kenwright he would return to Everton for some of his players.

Moyes spent 11 years with Everton before leaving Merseyside to replace Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford last summer. And the Scot angered Kenwright and Everton’s fans by returning for Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines and offering what was perceived to be an “insulting” joint £28million bid.

And though Fellaini eventually made the move on deadline day for £27.5m, Baines remained, with Everton rejecting Moyes’ final advances.

“Once I got the United job I discussed it with Bill near enough immediately,” said Moyes. “I said that there would be some players I would be interested in. Bill was well aware of it but obviously it was always going to be a difficult thing when it actually came to it.”

In hindsight, Moyes recognises the situation might have been handled differently.

“There were bits of it I would have liked to have done better but there were also bits of it as a whole I think could have been done better,” he said.

“We both knew that this would happen but it is never that easy.”