Moyes faces a battle with Rooney

A different interpretation from those close to Rooney suggests Moyes faces the most delicate and potentially damaging problem of his managerial career as he attempts to find a balance between the football and financial gains to be made from the Liverpool- born forward's stunning impact over the past year.

A strong signal from Moyes that he disapproved of a flying visit to Spain for a Coca-Cola commercial was sent with clear intent. Although the manager reluctantly gave Rooney permission to make the midweek trip on a day off, it was supposed to ensure that Everton could count on the real thing when Rooney stepped out against Bolton. It backfired alarmingly.

Instead of being motivated to rediscover his lethal touch near goal, Rooney apparently felt he was being backed into a corner. When an illuminated 18 was held aloft to signal his substitution early in the second half, he felt that his misgivings had been reinforced.

As Moyes attempts to smooth over the first sign of unrest in his handling of Rooney, he will be mindful that the teenager's advisers, Proactive, have lined up further lucrative deals with MasterCard, Nike, Ford, EA Sports and Pringles, and that there will be more requests for days off to be spent endorsing their products.

For all his determination to copy Sir Alex Ferguson's kid-glove treatment of a youthful Ryan Giggs at Manchester United, Moyes appreciates the need for flexibility, while remaining adamant that nothing should jeopardise Rooney's prospects of developing into one of the world's most accomplished marksmen.

There seemed little that could get in Rooney's way this time last year when, for all the furore over his unbuttoned collar and crooked tie, he was acknowledged as the country's outstanding youngster at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. But the script has gone sadly awry since then, and Moyes privately accepts that the balancing act over Rooney's activities on and off the pitch is crucial to steering him back towards the peaks of achievement.

Coaxing the best out of his prodigy could also hold the key to halting a slump that has left his side in relegation trouble barely a year after they were rubbing shoulders with Arsenal and Manchester United in the top three.

The transformation in fortunes could hardly be greater. Twelve months ago, Moyes headed to St James' Park on the verge of being named November's Manager of the Month after reeling off six straight League wins.

Even when Craig Bellamy shaded a 2-1 win for Newcastle with a lastgasp winner, it could not diminish a growing self-belief that took Everton agonisingly close to a UEFA Cup place. The years of fretting over an ever-present danger of relegation were surely in the past, and it was all down to Moyes' attention to detail and knack of making players perform to their maximum. To the dismay of Everton's hierarchy, the promise has proved shortlived, and Moyes finds his standing as the game's brightest young boss under the closest scrutiny.

If ever proof were needed of the influence a manager can exert, it can be found in the simple statistic that eight of the side who were involved at Newcastle a year ago were also culpable for Saturday's shambles at Bolton that left Everton followers fearing for the club's Premiership future.

As he tried to rediscover the formula that had been bringing the required response, Moyes promised to turn round his team's fortunes, and said: 'We are very aware of our position and are going to work to get ourselves out of it.

'There will be no hiding. We have to show a bit more heart but I can assure everyone that the players are hurting as much as the supporters and me.'