VIEW FROM THE BLUE

So Near Yet So Far

Way back around the start of this past season, on the back of what was a largely frustrating summer, I predicted that Everton would be hard-pressed to finish successive seasons in the top six. Forget notions of breaking the monopoly of the "Sky 4", I foresaw a tough challenge just repeating the success of the 2006/07 campaign and gaining entry to Europe again.

David Moyes didn't sign his first new player until the first week of July and, at the time, fans were bemused by the inference that Phil Jagielka was the priority of the close season and that all other acquisitions were dependent on landing the utility man from Sheffield United first.

In between inflated soundbytes about the "deal of the century" in Kirkby, CEO Keith Wyness was blathering on about how some transfer windows develop late. Behind the scenes, though, as August dragged on and the new season started without the appearance of the key central midfield signing that was so badly needed, rumours gathered strength that Moyes had made his displeasure at a lack of funds abundantly clear to the Everton Board.

Though that showdown with Bill Kenwright had the desired effect when £20m appeared out of nowhere ? later to be traced to investment from new Director Robert Earl ? for the purchase of Ayegbeni Yakubu and Manuel Fernandes, only the Nigerian striker arrived; Fernandes effected a stunning u-turn and signed for Valencia and Moyes had to make a desperate loan move for Thomas Gravesen, whose career, hot rumour had it, was effectively over due to the state of his knees.

All the while, rival clubs like Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, Portsmouth and Manchester City, whose financial resources out-stripped those at Moyes's disposal by varying degrees, were all strengthening at an alarming rate. And as Sven Goran Eriksson's City set the early pace and seemingly set their stall out as the greatest threat to the depressing hegemony of the top four with some stylish attacking football and worrying fortitude at home, it looked as though fears that Everton were being left behind were being realised.

After earning a morale-boosting home win on the opening day and then destroying free-spending Tottenham on their own turf three days later, the Blues stumbled their way somewhat through the next six weeks of the campaign. Yakubu arrived and scored just 10 minutes into his debut at Bolton but not even he, the club's new record signing, could spark the team into any sort of consistency. Had the club missed another opportunity to sufficiently strengthen in all departments in order to compete on, potentially, four fronts?

Turning points in each of the three competitions in which the Blues were involved before Christmas, however, propelled Moyes's side from also-rans in the early going to being seriously talked about by the New Year in terms of surprise Champions League qualification, potential Caring Cup glory, and a possible Uefa Cup Final.

A close brush with another embarrassing elimination from the early stages of the Uefa Cup in the unfamiliar surroundings of Kharkov in Ukraine kick-started a phenomenal club-record run of eight wins out of ten in that competition. On their way out on the away goals rule at the hands of little-known Metalist Kharkiv, late strikes by James McFadden and Victor Anichebe ? the latter a scintillatingly precocious finish ? rescued Everton and sent them into Group A which they went on to win handsomely with a 100% record.

Meanwhile, Tim Cahill returned from a lengthy metatarsal-related absence and scored a vital extra-time winner at Luton Town, part of a 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions that would last two months and feature the best period of sustained passing and attacking football witnessed at Goodison since the 1980s. It was a long time coming but received no less warmly for it.

Indeed, by the time Arsenal came to Goodison Park for the final game of 2007, Everton were being praised in the media for their style and slick passing game, and for 45 minutes they out-passed Arsene Wenger's renowned side, leading the Title hopefuls by a Tim Cahill goal at half time. The reality check that followed in the second half ? the Gunners scored four times to record another emphatic victory ? didn't derail the Blues' charge but it was in line with a wider inability of Moyes's team to cope with the top four.

In all they played ten games against the quartet of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool over the course of the season but had only a solitary draw, secured at the death at Stamford Bridge with a stunning overheard kick by Cahill, to show for their efforts. Granted, there was controversy in the Goodison derby (where Mark Clattenburg scratched his name into Everton's history of refereeing injustice with a couple of the most revealingly biased decisions ever seen) and a late moment of madness by Steven Pienaar that threw away a point at Old Trafford, but overall ? and the League Cup semi-final second leg defeat by Chelsea in which the Blues never looked like getting past Chelsea's resolute defence was particularly indicative of this ? Everton made the gap between those clubs and themselves look like a yawning chasm by their performances against them.

Nevertheless, as they marched through February undeterred by that Carling Cup disappointment and an ignominious home defeat by Oldham in the FA Cup 3rd Round, the Blues gained a solid foothold in fourth place and looked for all the world as they would make that fourth and final Champions League qualification spot their own at the expense of rivals Liverpool.

That they eventually didn't came down to one salient factor: disruption to a close-knit but dangerously thin senior squad. The African Cup of Nations deprived Moyes of his top scorer in the form of Yakubu, one of his defensive rocks in the form of Joseph Yobo and his signing of the season in the form of Pienaar for six crucial weeks in January and February.

Then, injuries took their toll on key players. Arteta struggled through much of the second half of the campaign with a mysterious and persistent groin and stomach muscle complaint and was a shadow of his former self; Pienaar suffered a training-ground injury prior to South Africa's third and final AFCON game and didn't really recover his form until the final game of the Premier League season; Tim Cahill was struck down by a recurrence of the metatarsal fracture that prematurely ended his 2006/07 campaign at almost the same juncture; and James Vaughan also saw his season come to an unexpected end with a serious knee injury.

Finally, Everton's magical Uefa Cup journey came to an abrupt halt in the most heart-breaking fashion with defeat by Fiorentina on penalties. Having rescued the tie against enormous odds by overhauling a 2-0 deficit from the first leg, the Blues just couldn't find the all-important third goal and decisive spot-kick misses by Yakubu and the otherwise impressive Jagielka condemned them to a painful exit from the Round of 16.

That appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back. With the wind knocked out of them, the wheels came off Everton's charge for fourth place with demoralising defeats against Fulham and Liverpool and frustrating failures to secure all three points against the likes of West Ham and Birmingham City. Indeed, for a couple of weeks their hold even on fifth place ? the only place that would guarantee Uefa Cup football next season ? was under threat and it took a vital home draw in a "six-pointer" against Aston Villa and a stellar home victory over Newcastle on the final day to secure that important spot.

In the final reckoning, though, Moyes had improved on last season's placing, beaten Everton's previous highest Premier League points haul, and guided the club to a top-six finish for the third time in six seasons. The eight wins the team amassed in the Uefa Cup set a club record, elevated their previously negligible team co-efficient for European competition past the 40-point mark ? that will put us among the seeds for next season's draw ? included a victory at AZ Alkmaar that ended Europe's longest unbeaten home record in Uefa competition, and provided some truly memorable nights for long-suffering supporters. Oh, and his team beat the eventual Uefa Cup winners, Zenit St Petersburg.

The manager also steered the Blues to their first semi-final in a major competition for 13 years, saw them score more than five goals in a game for the first time under his tenure not once but twice, and could also take credit for Yakubu becoming the first Everton player to notch more than 20 goals in a season for almost two decades.

In a League dogged by the dominance of the monied "Sky 4" elite and at a time when Everton's inabilty to compete with the spending power of many of their rivals continues, Moyes achieved all that could realistically be asked of him: he finished "best of the rest".

Debates over his suitability for the Goodison hotseat and the responsibiilty of trying to haul Everton back to the big time would seem absurd to the outside observer and yet Moyes did come in for some sustained and barbed criticism towards the end of the campaign from some quarters (with a good deal of it coming from contributors to this very site, of course) based mainly on the perception that his side faltered at the key moments in the season: they were humiliated in the FA Cup, allowed the chance of a domestic cup final to slip away and stumbled just when fourth place in the Premier League seemed to be within their grasp.

The FA Cup disaster is best forgotten about. In the middle of a punishing schedule, Moyes elected to rest some key players and those who did take the field against Oldham let him down badly. Criticism of the decision failed to take into account the fact that even a below-strength Everton line-up should have been able to take care of a team from League One.

In the case of the Carling Cup defeat to Chelsea there were, to these eyes, mitigating circumstances. Steven Pienaar was, controversially, called up to join South Africa for pre-tournament training on the eve of the first leg ? a game which Arteta and Osman also missed through suspension and injury respectively ? and all three of Everton's AFCON players were absent for the second.

Had Joleon Lescott not inadvertantly headed into his own goal in stoppage time at Stamford Bridge, things may have been different in the return leg at Goodison but, as it was, Everton proved singularly unable to penetrate a resolute Chelsea rearguard all game and had to watch as Tottenham Hotspur turned Avram Grant's side over at Wembley the following month.

Moyes's comments following the Goodison leg as he attempted to explain the difference between the two teams were telling. The words "maybe it's money" may have been delivered as an off-the-cuff aside but for me they articulated the manager's frustrations at having come up against a team financed with Roman Abramovich's millions and had his team's short-comings made starkly clear before his eyes.

Plenty of people disagreed with me at the time ? not least my colleague, Mr Kenrick ? but for me it was resources ? or the lack thereof ? that were the key differentiator. At the end of the day, the powers of motivation are finite and a team can "punch above its weight" for a while ? and then only when it's firing on all cylinders ? but if you come up against one of the top four on the top of their game (or close to it), you are going to come off second best. Granted, there were opportunities to be more aggressive in the first leg and perhaps Moyes played safe with a strategy of containment knowing that he was missing some key personnel but, in the end, quality overcame grit.

The collapse in Premier League form after the Uefa Cup exit and, perhaps more appropriately, the manner of it, was the real catalyst for a backlash against the tactics employed by Moyes and the brand of football his team employed during what was, in the final recknoning, the worst run of form of the season.

For having propelled themselves into fourth position and become the media's favourites to clinch fourth place for the second time in three years, the wheels came off the Blues' challenge in the most infuriating fashion. Gone were the silky passing moves, the swagger, and the impressive scorelines, replaced instead by a horrific lack of ideas, imagination and penetration and a return of the reliance on kick-and-hope hoofball which had the predicted result.

Between the Uefa Cup exit and a welcome return to style and incision on the last day against Newcastle, Moyes's Everton won just one of eight games, surrendering all hope of pushing Liverpool for the final Champions League qualifying place in the process. Awful performances at Fulham and Anfield and at home against the likes of West Ham and Derby were indicative of a team that really had lost its way.

Ultimately, of course, the buck stops with Moyes and there some who felt that he had hit his own glass ceiling and that it was time to replace him. I've been critical of our Davey in the past but I was not among them and still regard him as both the club's best asset off the field and the best manager that Everton, in our current situation, could hope to attract.

That is to take nothing away from Moyes who has done an impressive job at Goodison since taking over from Walter Smith six years ago. For me, the "look where we've come from, don't your remember the dark days under Walter" refrain hasn't held much water since Moyes steered us to fourth in 2005 as that should be his personal yardstick [Yes, it owed as much to Liverpool's failings that year as it did to a terrific team and work ethic and a spectacular run of form before Christmas by the Blues, but a team that was clearly inferior to the current crop remains the only side to have cracked the Sky 4 so far this century.] but his achievements and longevity tell their own story.

The key, as brief pretenders like Reading (in their first season up), West Ham, Blackburn and even Tottenham have found, is consistency, and with three top-six finishes in four years Moyes looks to finally have found some ? at least when looking at successive seasons as a whole ? at Everton.

He has built the core of an impressive squad with some quite brilliant acqusitions and, for a few glorious weeks before Christmas months this past season, got them playing some mouth-watering football. 13 games unbeaten before Christmas had some pundits describing them as the real deal and an unbeaten start to 2008 in the League that stretched into mid-March seemed to confirm that.

The final piece of the puzzle, however, will be consistency across a nine-month season and that requires the kind of stability that only sufficient squad numbers can provide. The loss of Cahill, Arteta, Pienaar and to some extent Vaughan, vital cogs in Everton's attacking machine, were key, as was Fernandes' painfully slow re-acclimatisation to English football; had Moyes been able to bolster the squad as he surely would have liked in January ? the days of "Dithering Davey" appear to be long gone ? then he may have had the resources to weather the storm of disruption that plagued the second half of the campaign and pushed his squad through a crisis of confidence after the Fiorentina heart-break.

As the gaffer found in 2005/06, when quick exits from the Champions League qualifiers and the Uefa Cup, at the hands of Villarreal and Dinamo Bucharest respectively, sent his players reeling into a slump in form that saw them sink to the bottom of the League table like a stone, the sudden evaporation of a dream for which you have worked so hard as a team can have a dangerously and virulently demoralising effect. The impact of that penalty shoot-out defeat to La Viola, coming as it did after an incredible night of heroism, determination, and unity of purpose, is hard to underestimate in the post-mortem of 2007/08.

Again, it was Moyes's failure to pick his players up and regroup them for the unfinished business of the Premier League but by then the disruption of injuries and fatigue ? both mental and physical ? were taking a heavy toll. It shouldn't excuse the perplexing tactics and the mundane football that was passing for entertainment at times towards the end ? especially as they suddenly morphed back into a passing team for the final two games of the campaign against Arsenal and the Toon ? but it should at least be viewed in the context of what was a long season for a squad ill-equipped to cope with the 50-odd games they ended up playing.

Assuming Moyes is still Everton manager at summer's end ? and it would be suicide, in my opinion, if everything isn't done to keep him ? then the way forward is clear. The boss needs to be given the warchest he needs to add more class to a team lacking both a balance in quality and sufficient depth of the standard of players required to make a concerted push to break the "skyopoly" at the top.

Lee Carsley's departure merely increases the urgency with which we need to find his long-term replacement, while a domineering, central midfielder, the like of which we have lacked for too long now, still remains elusive. Just as crucial is the need for an attacking midfielder in the Kanchelskis mould who can terrorise defences, score goals and address the glaring lack of pace in the Blues' mid-section.

And there's the rub... the kind of investment in players required may now be beyond the current Board. Making ends meet from transfer window to transfer window by all means available ? loan deals, the Rooney sale, borrowing against future Sky money ? the Kenwright regime finally reached the point last August where money had to be found from somewhere outside the club or there was no hope of competing on multiple fronts in the 2007/08 season.

That money eventually came from new director Robert Earl ? although the increasingly accepted wisdom is that the money came from a fund in the Planet Hollywood tycoon's name but that the readies actually came from Sir Philip Green, longtime friend of Kenwright and generous loanee to the Everton cause in recent years. Now, with Green's eyes wandering to his native London and in the direction of Tottenham Hotspur and Earl rumoured to be eyeing the exit door himself now that Destination Kirkby is under mounting opposition, Blue Bill could find himself in something of a bind.

The blueblood Kenwright and canny Moyes combination has got us tantalisingly close to the holy grail of the Champions League with a measured and painstaking rebuilding job but looks to be agonisingly short of making the final leap. As new investment continues to flood into rival clubs and transfer fees soar ever higher, the dream could be getting further away with each passing season.

No surprise, then, that talk of a billionaire sugar daddy is back on the agenda among fans for whom the glass ceiling between fourth and fifth became painfully apparent these past few months. The very real danger in getting what you wish for there, of course, is not getting what you expect ? a Randy Lerner versus a Thaksin Shinawatra, for example. The right new emperor could be the catapult to send us back to the big time... or it could spell catastrophe for Everton as we know it.

May you live in interesting times, they say. Well, it's never a dull moment where our beloved Blues are concerned.

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