Everton defender Leighton Baines has tipped Wayne Rooney to help the club end their 22-year wait for silverware.
The Toffees have spent almost £100m on new signings already this summer, the most notable of which saw Rooney return to his boyhood club following a hugely successful 13-year spell at Manchester United.
Rooney won every trophy available to him during his time at Old Trafford, and Baines believes that the 31-year-old's winning attitude is exactly what Everton need to take them to the next level.
"A trophy is the ultimate goal and I think that is what the manager has come here to do – to push us on to another level, and get us there. During my time and in recent seasons we have just been beneath, we have come close a few times with cup finals, semi-finals, trips to Wembley but falling at the final hurdle. So we have to take that step. As a fan, absolutely it would be the ultimate. That is going to be the objective with this project that the manager has taken on," Baines is quoted as saying by The Guardian.
"Obviously with the new owner and with the chairman, that is the objective, to take that next step. Everyone understands it will be tough. Tough to spend the money, yes we can go out and do it, but everyone else is going out to do it too. We have already got a bit of a gap to bridge and we are working on it and we hope to do it. I'm fully aware of what Wayne can bring to us and I think he has already shown it in the few weeks he has been here.
"He's done well in the games he's played in, he's got goals in the other games he played in, and he is a big character in the dressing room for us at half-time, before the games and around the training ground. He's someone that you need in the squad. You need a handful of players who have got that personality and character. And he comes in as one of them.
"We've got a good mix. We've got that group of lads who have been here and know what the club is all about, lads who have been around and played a lot of Premier League football, young lads coming through who are full of ability, enthusiasm and excitement and now some foreign players coming in who are new to the league. It's just about trying to marry the whole thing together and that is obviously the manager's job."
Everton's last trophy was the FA Cup in 1995, when they beat Manchester United 1-0 in the final.
Barney Corkhill
