David Moyes beat off competition from Celtic, Rangers and Preston to secure the services of Scottish starlet James McFadden, who arrived at Goodison in a £1.25m deal in September 2003.

The Glasgow born player worked his way up through the ranks at Fir Park and became a regular in the Motherwell first team and the Scotland squad by the age of 20.

James made his debut for the SPL side as a 17-year-old and became a regular in Terry Butcher's team by the end of the 2000/01 season.

By the end of his first full season with the 'Well, he had scored 10 goals in 25 games and was included in the Scotland squad that toured Asia before the 2002 World Cup Finals.

His appearance as a substitute against South Africa in May 2002, earned him his first international cap, at the age of 19.

The 2005/6 season was McFadden's best in an Everton shirt. He forged a good partnership with James Beattie, scoring some spectacular efforts in his haul of seven goals.

2006/07, however, was a frustrating season for McFadden. The arrival of Andrew Johnson, the emergence of Victor Anichebe and James Vaughan plus a couple of injuries - including a broken foot - meant the Scotland international was restricted to first-team opportunities.

He netted three goals in the season, the last of which was a last-minute match winner against Charlton in April that helped guide Everton to European qualification and earned McFadden the April Goal of the Month award from Match of the Day.

Since his recovering from injury, James started 2007/08 in blistering fashion scoring important goals for club and country notably the winning goal against France in Paris.

Yet McFadden found first team opportunities limited and joined Birmingham City in 2008 January transfer window for £5 million rising to £6 million.