But that hasn't happened, and while the Toffees have had a comparatively easy start to the Premier League season, there will be tougher tests to come.

But they have still navigated a draining transfer window which exposed ineptitude at the highest level. Everton cashed in on a number of their top players without effectively replacing them.

In fairness, Everton are a club who sell pretty well on the whole, but that's not to say that cashing in handsomely always proves the right decision.

Everton's biggest sales: Where have they struck gold?

Everton cashed in on some big names this summer. In total, they made £93m, but it would be fair to say that Moyes has been left unsatisfied by the replacements provided by the owners.

Iliman Ndiaye, for example, was arguably Everton's best attacker, and now the manager has been forced to contend with Brennan Johnson on the right flank.

But Romelu Lukaku remains the most expensive sale Everton have made. Recognised for his elite potential at Chelsea, the hulking striker failed to make the grade, then moving to Everton and growing into a superstar.

The nomadic forward may well have been at his zenith when terrorising backlines for the Toffees. Manchester United signed him for £75m in 2017, and that remains Everton's record departure.

Was it right to cash in on Lukaku? To be honest, Man United's offer was irresistable. Dominic Calvert-Lewin joined a year prior, while Richarlison arrived from Watford one term on, securing a degree of sharpness in attack for the coming years.

However, that's not to say all of Everton's big-money sales have been the right decision (just look at Ndiaye).

And now, the same issue could arise as one of Moyes' most trusted lieutenants continues to go from strength to strength.

Everton on course to seal biggest sale since Lukaku

Up front, Everton have a talented forward in Thierno Barry. Sure, he's the only centre-forward at the club, but he's got enough quality to suggest he could be a star down the line.

He's not Everton's new Lukaku, though. That would be James Garner, who also failed to make the cut at a top Premier League club before finding his way to Merseyside and growing into a star.

Garner, 25 years old, is not a forward, but he was a Manchester United outcast when he left and signed for the Goodison Park side in a £15m deal back in 2022. Now, he is a superstar, revered at Everton for his remarkable performances in the Premier League last season.

The versatile midfielder packs quite the punch. He is a rounded and multi-functional player, hailed as a "really good leader" for Everton by Moyes, who conceded that he didn't realise how good the English midfielder was when he first took the reins.

Last season, Garner produced impressive all-action displays in the centre of the park. He created 12 chances and won 3.2 tackles and 5.5 duels per game. Quite the effort.

BBC reporter Matt Jones actually believes he should be "£80m as a minimum in the current market". If the journalist is on the money there, that would take Garner above Lukaku and cement him as Everton's record sale. Call him the modern-day Lukaku, if you like.

Whether TFG would let him leave is another question, but if the money's right, they just might. Garner did attract interest this summer from Aston Villa and Chelsea, but he signed a new contract with Everton back in January, giving them all the chips at the bargaining table.

Garner may not be a free-scoring striker like Lukaku, but he has walked a similar career road to the Belgian thus far, discarded by one of the Premier League's 'Big Six' before finding the security and stability at Everton to bounce back and cement himself as an elite option.

Interest will not go away over the coming years, but even if Everton do end up selling, they will cash for a pretty penny, perhaps even eclipsing that significant fee that saw Lukaku leave for Old Trafford.