First of all I should say upfront that I am an armchair Everton fan, albeit a devoted one. This review comes via information that can be gleaned from television (on the rare occasions they deign Everton worthy enough to broadcast), newspapers and the Internet.

Speaking as an Evertonian not based in Liverpool, we’re not exactly swamped with in-depth articles on the club from a media that is obsessed with the 'Big Four', Carlos Tevez’s contract and Steve McClaren’s teeth. In fact, casting my mind back, I can remember a cursory nod at David Moyes' fifth anniversary (with the club, not his wife) and something about James Vaughan as an emerging force. Apart from that, the most we can expect is some curmudgeonly approval of Goodison being '‘a tough place to get a win’' from Mark Lawrenson on Match of the Day.

Before we can put this season in perspective, it makes sense to cast an eye over the preceding one, when we were frankly rubbish for a large portion of it. So when the summer of 2006 rolled around, we wondered exactly what Moyes would do in terms of recruitment. Remembering his experiences from the previous year, he moved quickly in securing three new recruits, Andy Johnson, Joleon Lescott and Tim Howard – the latter on loan from Manchester United – with not much in the way of a clearout going the other way.

The season began indifferently with an unconvincing win over Watford and was followed by a draw against Blackburn. The football was workmanlike then we beat Spurs away with 10 men and played an absolute blinder. On a high after the victory and the fact it was achieved after Kevin Kilbane had been sent off, Moyes promptly sold Killa to Wigan and we thrashed Liverpool at home, with two goals for Johnson who was on fire.

A downturn in form was then followed by a backlash against Johnson’s ‘diving’. Eventually Moyes went to see refereeing supremo Keith Hackett with a series of tapes, and Hackett, to his credit, announced that Everton had been denied 10 penalty appeals, of which eight should have been awarded.

Even that epitome of self-obsession, Jose Mourhino, had the decency to apologise after calling Johnson a cheat, but it didn’t stop opposition fans booing him every time he touched the ball.

Coming into 2007 our results were patchy; we beat Newcastle but lost to Manchester City, dropped disastrously out of the Cup to an obdurate Blackburn side, drew with Reading and then beat Wigan. We were comfy in the top half of the table. But the catalyst for the fine run to the season’s end was the home defeat by Spurs. Everton were at the closing stages of the game looking to hang on to the draw, and Moyes’ defensively-minded substitutions drew the wrath of the home crowd. He looked to be going for some kind of record in terms of how many full-backs he could get on the pitch. Spurs scored a late winner and the team – or more accurately the manager – were booed off.

As the season drew to a close we lost to a resurgent West Ham, courtesy of a Bobby Zamora cracker, and then looked to be on course for three points at home to Manchester United before we imploded. The second United goal was courtesy of Manuel Fernandes, a Portuguese international on loan from Benfica, who had come in and endeared himself to everyone with some ludicrous drag-backs and shimmies. Like most fans, Evertonians love nothing more than a player who can make the opposition look amateur – and Fernandes definitely fits that category.

UEFA Cup action next season was confirmed after beating Portsmouth in a game so uniquely weird that Gary Naysmith scored with a diving header. We followed that with a point off Chelsea in the last game of the season, and this particular Evertonian in a much brighter frame of mind than a year or even six months ago.

Our new signings have been uniformly excellent, with Lescott, Johnson and Howard all bedding in quickly and having impressive seasons. In fact our owner – Bill Kenwright – remains the subject of much debate among Evertonians, even more so than the manager. Whilst it’s true that he is a terrible luvvie whose media interviews can induce goose-bump cringes, he can also take credit for putting Moyes in charge and backing him as much as he is able, something that is perhaps hard to appreciate when all around you are throwing money at available players with abandon.

On the other hand, Kenwright’s penchant for grandiose statements and promises can be intensely irritating when they amount to nothing, as with his promise of Fortress Fund investment and the aborted new stadium at the King's Dock, a location that the vast majority of Evertonians would have been much happier with than the newly-proposed Kirkby stadium.

It’s tricky to talk about the money side of the game at Everton, though, without reflecting on the way the game is run as a whole, which is rather top-heavy in terms of funding. The fact the biggest earners in Europe have decided to form a ‘pressure group’ called the G14 (invitation only, I’m afraid) to canvass FIFA and UEFA for changes to the game to suit them, is reflective of how much the venture-capitalist ethic has informed the New Football. If you support anyone else, you’re left with a conundrum that the whole thing seems a bit distasteful – but really, do you want to be left behind?

There’s no room in the G14 for the likes of us, but if we could just get that bit of investment, if we could just convert the odd draw into a win, if we could just break into the 'Big Four’, then suddenly the idea of Europe’s ‘top clubs’ would be exposed for what it is – not necessarily the top performers, but the top earners.

Putting that aside, it’s been a good season for Everton overall, though of course whether Moyes can sustain this form over the course of next season whilst indulging in a bit of UEFA action remains to be seen. I think he can, especially if Kenwright can find the funds to bolster one of the Premiership’s smallest squads.

There is already talk of Phil Jagielka and David Nugent, though most Evertonians would probably put the promising Fernandes at the top of their wish list. I think that Moyes seems to be re-energised, and has finally assembled the spine of a squad that will no longer yo-yo between fourth and 17th but stabilise in the upper reaches of the Premiership and qualify for Europe consistently.