The best stories relate to private jets in the late night and this illustrates the length at which David Moyes will collect a jewel.
Jack Grealisk will appreciate today how Marouane Fellaini once felt, in the summer of 2008, and it makes sense here to underline the ambition of a manager for a club and the powerful way in which he can speak to convince a player to work with him, when other destinations seem more likely.
Fellaini, the star of a hugely talented Standard Liège team 17 years ago, had many options throughout Europe when it became clear that he would leave Belgium, but Moyes, together with his deceased chairman Bill Kenwright, made his mission to force Everton to the front of the queue.
Yet Deadline Day arrived and, with nothing, phone calls were still addressed to the representatives of Fellaini. Moyes knew what was at stake and that he had to make an important gesture. Kenwright led Kenwright to have put a flight to Brussels from Luton for his manager, who turned the M1, stepped in and then stormed to meet the midfielder in the Sheraton Hotel of the Airport.
Racing against the clock, Moyes entered the room where Fellaini and his entourage were when his phone rang.
It was Kenwright and wondered if the mission would plan and was on the way to be completed.
'Good?' Kenwright, asked his question by the impatience of a chairman and the curiosity of a fan. “How are he?”
There was a break.
“Big,” Moyes replied calmly. “He's big, Bill.”
And also, the dream that Moyes sold the next hour: let alone the other options, just think of Everton – think of the fans, the way they will align; Think of the platform that you have to thrive when things are going well and the environment we have created to help you succeed.
Fellaini listened carefully and did not hesitate to sign the documents for him. Fast forward to now and Grealish, a man who responds to a manager who will put an arm around the shoulder is about to do the same. Moyes, if he wants something, is very convincing.
Inevitability is some bickering about Everton who signed someone who had just been unveiled four years ago this week as the first £ 100 million player of English football in a season loan, but this transfer is logical and crucial to relieve a fire in Grealisk.
It would not be wrong to say when the name of Everton was put on his radar for the first time, Grealisk was not entirely in the camp of 'Love at First Sight'. He had options on the continent, led by Napoli and Atletico Madrid, where Champions League football would have come as part of the package.
Gradually, however, the pieces of the puzzle began to make sense to the England International and Moyes, whose desire to bring in an star name to illuminate the beautiful new stadium of Everton, went to work and explained what could be possible.
The Scot is a realist and knows where a difficult few years has left Everton. For example, it is the reason that they have signed Thierno Barry for £ 30 million, the France under-21 striker, from Villarreal instead of fighting for his international colleague Hugo Ekitike against Double The Price.
“We hope to build Barry into a really good player,” Moyes explained. “But now we are still a work in progress.”
However, realism is not a barrier to prevent a man from dreaming and Moyes' ability to project Everton on potential arrivals is second, because a story from earlier this summer will emphasize with Liam Delap.
Delap had decided that he was going from Ipswich to Chelsea, but from courtesy, he chose to talk to Moyes after Everton had entered this race late. But the meeting was so mandatory and so passionate about the young striker, who is represented by the same agency as Grealisk, wondered what to do.
It was compared by someone who was familiar with the discussions, with Clark Kent his shirt open and instead of being a 's' on his chest, a gigantic blue Everton 'E' – Delap was told about the history, the power of Everton's number nine shirt and the admiration that recommends. It almost paid off.
Word spreads in football and Grealish – whose talents are too lush to stay on the sidelines – will have realized that Moyes could be the key to help him go back to the English team for next summer, with the crushing disappointing of missing Euro 2024.
This will not be a foamy arrangement where Grealisk will be surrendered. Moyes does not do that, not for a second. He will not hesitate to tell someone when they fail to do the standards he expects and his body language on Saturday, after a 1-0 defeat against Roma, was told.
“We have a lot to do, right?” Was his sudden answer, when he was asked how he felt his team looked. “But this is a brilliant football field. It is a great stadium and hopefully it will see some really good players and some good teams. '
Why can Grealish, who underwent a medical medical on Monday, are central to those who try to build Moyes? He had a fantastic time in City, won more in the last four years than the vast majority gain in their career, and his influence on the Treble campaign should not be forgotten.
He became a major role in the second half of that unique season, which was interrupted by the Qatar World Cup, after Pep Guardiola had a meeting with him after a Christmas holiday in which he pronounced how he felt that Grealish could come to life.
Before Qatar, the statistics of Grealisk were amazing: one goal and no assists. He could not believe the second part of that strand, especially because Liverpool -goalkeeper Alisson Becker had registered more than he was. Then the heart-to-heart came and a slightly switched.
There were four goals and 11 assists, a desire to get into the opposition's penalty area and to make a disaster. To see him look so depressed last season, when the aura of the city was broadcast and Guardiola became an ever -distant figure, was miserable.
Change is happily. Grealisk has questions to answer and he knows that the level of his new teammates will not be the same as what he has left behind, but that will not prevent him from playing on his face with a smile for a crowd that is desperate to be entertained.
When you spend time in company with 'Jack, the boy of Solihull', as he will tell you, it is impossible not to smile.
The same applies to football players who have an audience with Moyes. It is the reason that the Grealisk shirt for this season will change from light to royal blue.