Cahill content as Everton seek stability and success

Plenty has changed for Tim Cahill in his four seasons on Merseyside. The sparkling black Ferrari parked outside a new multimillion-pound training complex yesterday showed the rewards now on offer at Everton, but it was the Australian who defined progress with the insistence that Goodison Park no longer represents a stepping stone towards success.

Cahill arrived at Everton just as Wayne Rooney was agitating for his move to Old Trafford in 2004, leaving behind accusations that his ambitions could never be satisfied by his boyhood club. From someone of Rooney's rare talent those barbs remain valid but, just as the Carling Cup provided the Manchester United striker with the first trophy of his career in 2006, so it gives Everton an opportunity to alter wider perceptions of the club against Chelsea tonight. For the Australia international, however, the outlook has already changed inside Goodison.

"I'd sign a contract every year here if I could," said the midfielder, one of several coveted talents to commit to new long-term deals at Everton last summer. "For footballers, the big thing is stability and security for your family. Here you can a see a goal and you can see where we are going. The club have put the money up for me and the big players and they have shown they are looking to build.

"In the last three years we have smashed the club's transfer record - for James Beattie, AJ (Andrew Johnson) and then Yakubu Ayegbeni - and the gaffer has brought stability. Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert signed new contracts this week and we believe the core of a good side is there."

That stability stems from David Moyes himself, believes Cahill, who takes the suggestion that the Everton manager would have been interested in the recently vacant Newcastle job with a silo of salt. "I think he is here for the long haul," says Cahill, the match-winner for Millwall in the 2004 FA Cup semi-final against Sunderland.

"Managers' jobs are very hard to keep these days but he is building something special. I think it would be a hell of a waste if he walked away from it. He has got so much to achieve with us. He can see a goal and we can see a goal. He has made us all part of it. Mikel Arteta has signed a new deal, I have and a lot of the players have. That is the main key to a side - stability and the core of a team."

It is a process that Moyes is adamant will not end even if Everton fail to overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit tonight. "We are working really hard to get a level here and we are not going to stop, we'll keep going," said the Everton manager. "And if we have to do the same thing again for the next six years to get there, then we'll do it. Hopefully our new time will come again, even if it takes another six years to build on what we have now."

Everton could be severely depleted for tonight's semi-final second leg. Yakubu, Joseph Yobo and Steven Pienaar are all absent on African Cup of Nations duty while Johnson, Osman, Hibbert, Leighton Baines and the new loan signing Manuel Fernandes all face fitness tests before kick-off.