Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The summer break before the 2002/03 season was a busy one for Everton. Ahead of his first full season in charge at Goodison Park, David Moyes strengthened his squad by signing some highly rated players.
Moyes's first signing as Everton boss was �5 million Nigerian Joseph Yobo. Yobo played in all of his country's games at the World Cup in Japan and Korea and his signature was a transfer coup for the Blues, who fought off interest from Arsenal and Serie A giants Juventus for the talented defender.
Other high profile signings were England goalkeeper Richard Wright for �4.5 million and Brazilian ace Juliano Rodrigo for �2 million.
But most of the talk and pre-season hype was about a home-grown talent who cost the Blues nothing! Local lad and life long Evertonian Wayne Rooney had been scoring freely for the youth side the previous season on the way to the FA Youth Cup Final, and he even made it on to the bench for a Premiership game at only 16 years old. And he didn't disapoint when given his chance in the first team for the pre-season games.
Everton started their pre-season preparations with a trip to a training camp in Austria, concluding with two games in two days against lowly Austrian opposition, both of which the Blues won comfortably. Rooney scored his first senior Everton goal in the 3-1 victory over SC Bruk/Mur and 24 hours later both he and Kevin McLeod bagged hat-tricks as Everton destroyed SC Weiz 10-2.
The Blues returned to England and a few days later travelled to The Gay Meadow for a game against Shrewsbury Town.
Everton, who wore their stylish white away shirt for the first time had captain Duncan Ferguson up front alongisde Radzinski.
Paul Gerrard kept goal, despite the recent signing of Richard Wright,and he gave a good account of himself.
Juliano Rodrigo had a good game on the left side of midfield, running the Shrewsbury defence ragged at times and suppling dangerous crosses into Big Dunc territory.
This match was like a walk in the park for The Toffees, infact, all the Evertonians had to worry about was the heavy rain on the away terrace for most of the match.
Subs not used; Simonsen, Pilkington, O'Hanlon, Clarke. Goalscorers; Radzinski 41, Campbell 52, 65.
Attendance; 4,152
The second stop on the Scottish tour was East End Park where the Blues took on Dunfermline. Goals from Gary Naysmith, Thomas Gravesen and Campbell saw Everton beat The Pars 3-0.
The final game of the Scottish tour was in the capital Edinburgh against Hibernian. Everton took the lead with another Rooney goal, but then needed a late David Unsworth penalty to earn a 2-2 draw at Easter Road.
An Everton XI travelled to the Deva Stadium on the last day of July to take on Chester City. Everton fielded almost a reserve eleven, but first team players Naysmith, Steve Watson and Peter Clarke were involved for the match practise. And it was Clarke who scored the only goal as the Blues won 1-0.
Everton then travelled to Wales to play Wrexham at the Racecourse.