HARRY Redknapp is unconvinced of its worth, Fulham’s Moussa Dembele is unlikely to be a fan, but the Europa League still has an ardent admirer in Merseyside.

While Spurs fielded a young team on Thursday to edge past Rubin Kazan, and Cottagers boss Martin Jol may well be thinking twice about the point of starting his side’s season in June when he sees players strangely dismissed by weak officials, David Moyes would gladly swap places with them.

Everton might currently be sitting in 15th place ahead of their Sunday visit to Craven Cottage, but it hasn’t stopped Moyes dreaming of a return to the continent.

“It can be tough, but I’d take it today if you gave it to me,” said Moyes, whose team last played in Europe when they were knocked out of the Europa League at the round of 32 stage by Sporting Lisbon in February 2010.

“I’d love it to be us when we are talking about playing Thursday and then Sunday, because here at Everton we need European football.

“We want it, and it is something I think we would desperately love to get back.

“We have not been in it for the last couple of years now. Yes, it was awkward and makes things difficult and your job a bit harder, but I would rather have it than not have it.”

While Moyes has sympathy for Redknapp’s predicament, he would still consider a qualifying finish this season as success.

“I can understand when you’ve been in the Champions League like Tottenham have, and then you’ve got the impracticalities of the Europa League, while you’re trying for the top four again, I can see why that would be a burden for them,” he says.

“But for us, we were in it a few years in a row and we've missed it.

“It was always my drive to get Everton in Europe the way they used to be in the past, but the last two years we’ve been close.

“Last season if the cups hadn’t gone the way they did we would have been in Europe.

“We’ve always been in it or on the verge of it the last few years. I think we need it. Financially it would have helped a little bit as well and it may have affected your Saturday games, but we’d have had to try and find a way by playing the younger boys.”

Talk of Europe may seem far off to supporters at present, with the Blues struggling for form on the back of a rare consecutive string of three defeats.

But Moyes refuses to let the poor run against some of the division’s top guns get him down, even as he acknowledges the importance of three points against Fulham tomorrow.

“We’d like to win the game if we can because we’re in a difficult glut of games in between these international games really,” he says.

“We’ve not had the best record there but I kept getting told I had great records against Man City and Chelsea so it can change.

“It’s always been a tough ask to go and Craven Cottage still is.”

With Manchester United and Newcastle on the horizon after this weekend, could it be that Everton must weather more disappointments before the fixture list becomes less exacting?

“I hope it’s not the case but it could be the case, we have to get on with it and pick up some points,” says Moyes.

“We always knew this was going to be a difficult month, and a difficult run for us. We need to get over it.

“You play everybody twice, whether you play all the so called big teams in a row or it’s more spaced out. That’s the way it works, and it’s the same for every team by the end of the season.

“We’ve had periods like this in the past. Bolton have had a tough run recently too.

“It would be different if the results were spaced through the year, it’s more noticeable when you get a run of them.”

The Blues have only won one of their 10 Premier League away games against Fulham, when a Leon Osman brace helped them to victory in May 2009 a week before the FA Cup final.

Meanwhile the Cottagers have lost just one of their last 13 top flight matches at Craven Cottage.

“I'm aware that Fulham have got a very good home record and we've always found it hard at Craven Cottage, but we'll go there and try and get all three points," he insists.

“Martin has come in and I'm sure tried to alter things and change things himself and move Fulham on and they've signed one or two interesting players.

“I'm sure he'll do fine because he's a very experienced coach and manager and I'm sure he'll get Fulham going in the right direction.”