Moyes on Verge of Agreeing Deal With Everton

David Moyes is expected to finally commit to a new five-year contract at Everton this weekend having denied the Goodison Park club are in free fall. "There is nothing rotten here," the Everton manager insisted yesterday, following a dismal spell that has seen his side exit the Carling Cup and Uefa Cup and suffer a convincing derby defeat at the hands of Liverpool.

Moyes' lawyers spent yesterday working through the final details of a package that will double his salary to £60,000-a-week and extend his six-year reign until 2013. The contract saga has been an added problem in a troubled season for Everton, with the manager initially refusing to sign until transfer funds were released and then stalling over several financial issues, though not the salary itself.

Having admitted the delay had spread uncertainty through the club prior to Everton's Uefa Cup defeat to Standard Liège on Thursday night, however, Moyes hopes to restore some stability by signing the deal as soon as possible. "I have always said I am staying put," he said. "It may not be signed today but it certainly will be in the next few days. The lawyers are working through things just now and over the next day or two, and maybe before the weekend, I will be able to say I have signed at Everton."

Moyes' contract alone is unlikely to lift the air of despondency at Goodison Park, and the Everton manager admitted there was a certain inevitability about his side's sorry start to the season given the problems the club endured this summer.

He said: "This week has been a horrible week of results. But what am I going to do? I'm going to turn around and fight. I'm going to have a go. I think I needed European football last year. The players needed it too. We have lost it and it is something we need to get back. But it is going to be very hard this year because of the level of investment at certain clubs. But isn't that the way we've done it over the six years I've been here? It has never been done with a big check book. I think the structure that myself and the board have put in place has got Everton in a good position and that will be the structure that we continue to follow. We knew we would start this season with a lot of injuries but there is nothing rotten here. Not at all."

Tim Cahill will miss tomorrow's visit of Newcastle after the midfielder lost his appeal against a three-match suspension for his red card in the Merseyside derby.