Wayne Rooney says he had to get used to a “new” and bigger Everton when he returned to the Club last summer - and the Toffees' history-making attacker is set on helping the Blues “move forward” and establish themselves as a “major force” in English football.

England record goalscorer Rooney graduated through the Goodison Park Academy and made his Everton debut as a 16-year-old in 2002.

He moved to Manchester United two years later and won five Premier League titles and the 2008 Champions League during 13 years at Old Trafford, before completing a switch back to his boyhood club last summer.

Rooney has latterly flourished in a deep-lying role under Sam Allardyce. The 32-year-old scored in three of the manager’s first four games in charge back in December – having plundered a hat-trick in front of the watching boss-in-waiting as Everton beat West Ham United 4-0 late in November to launch a terrific run of form on their own ground.

The 17 points collected from the past 24 available at Goodison have fuelled a charge up the Premier League table, the Blues closing to within two points of seventh-placed Burnley, having been two points above the drop zone on the eve of Allardyce’s appointment.

And while Rooney is pleased to have helped Everton recover from a difficult start to the campaign, he is determined to aim higher in future seasons.

Asked what is driving him to continue excelling at the pinnacle of his profession, Rooney said: “It is winning. It is what I have always wanted to do.

“I am playing to win – I am not playing to just finish off the season, take my summer holidays, and that is it. I am playing to win.

“As a club, you set objectives at the beginning of the season… and they might change throughout the season.

“But you keep setting new targets and you need to try to hit those expectations. That is what I want to do. I want to help Everton move forward as a club."

Everton have finished in the Premier League’s top eight in 10 of the past 13 seasons – with six of those campaigns ending with the Blues in a top-six spot.

And Rooney, whose immediate focus is on this weekend's top-flight clash with Watford, insists that relative consistency must be used as a springboard for the Club to begin scaling greater heights.

“For too many years now Everton has been a club which has been finishing sixth or seventh,” said Rooney.

“What really hits home is when you see Leicester winning the Premier League [in 2015/16], which they deserved, and I am not being disrespectful to Leicester.

“But Everton is a much bigger football club than Leicester. Everton has to move forward and I want to be part of that. Whether or not we win silverware when I am here remains to be seen, but I want to be part of getting that ball rolling, and getting the wheel spinning, which will start us on that forward momentum to help us get there. It might take four, five years or whatever, but we have owners who are willing to back the Club.

“And I think if this club gets backing, and we should hopefully have the new ground before too long, then Everton can be a major force in English football again and, hopefully, I will be here to see that happen.”

Rooney has already featured in 31 games in all competitions for the Toffees this term. He is the Club’s top scorer with 11 goals – he hit 15 in his previous Goodison spell – and has provided three assists into the bargain.

The only man to chalk up a half-century of goals for England, Rooney’s 119 Three Lions caps is a record haul for an outfield player.

But while he hung up his international boots last year, the former England skipper’s appetite for club football shows no sign of diminishing. He has been further energised by the opportunity to train every day at Everton’s pioneering USM Finch Farm Facility – the Club’s headquarters since 2007, when the Toffees relocated from the Bellefield training base where Rooney learned his trade.

“I think as a club it has grown [while I was away],” said Rooney, who scored 53 goals for England, to add to the staggering 253 he bagged for United.

“The training ground is much better and the facilities are a lot better for the players. I think the Club as a whole has grown.

“But there are lots of staff here who I worked with when I was here last time, and there is still that friendly feel to it, if you like.

“There are lots more foreign players now, as there are throughout the game, so the game has adapted and changed since I was here last time.

“I have changed as a person and player, too. It is almost like coming to a new club that I have not been at before. But there is still a lot of the history and those staff I worked with who are still here – it is great to have them around.”