ToffeeWeb Viewpoint

Walter Smith: The Case for the Defence
by Lyndon Lloyd

With another dismal season hastily confined to the annals of history, reports of an empty transfer kitty combined with the club's estimated £25m debt, and revelations by Alex Nyarko of dressing-room disharmony and physical confrontations between management and players, there is little to cheer for Evertonians at the moment. Except perhaps the knowledge that for the 48th season in a row, we'll be playing in the top flight in 2001/02.

The main target of the supporters' ire is, somewhat predictably, manager Walter Smith. For the team's involvement in the relegation dogfight and failure to improve upon last season's 13th-place finish, the buck stops with the manager. He and his assistant, Archie Knox, have also been criticised for their training methods of late as people look for a scapegoat for the bizarrely extensive and prolonged injury crisis at Goodison this season.

And it is Everton's injury nightmare that is the real reason behind the team's struggle at the wrong end of the Premiership this season. Losing the heart of a midfield that was Everton's attacking inspiration during the better moment of 1999/2000 certainly didn't help, and neither did their disappointing replacements.

Following the departure of Nick Barmby, Don Hutchison and John Collins last summer, Alex Nyarko, Thomas Gravesen, Paul Gascoigne and Niclas Alexandersson were all, on paper, good signings for Everton. However, their failure to settle quickly enough, combined with injury and the consequential downturn in Everton's league performances meant that the Blues' crucial midsection remained a problem area all season long. It is clear that you can't be successful without a functioning midfield.

It may be easy to blame Smith for these signings in hindsight, but they were very good players on paper who all displayed what they were capable of in glimpses during the season. Nyarko was a target for Arsene Wenger when it looked as though Patrick Vieira might move on, Alexandersson was the best thing (behind Benito Carbone) about Sheffield Wednesday when they got relegated in 2000, and Gravesen is a Danish international.

Nyarko, Alexandersson and, of course, Gascoigne all suffered injury problems during their first season at Goodison Park, and they weren't alone. The past 9 months has witnessed an injury catastrophe the like of which Everton has probably never known, with the squad sometimes stripped to the bare bones. Ironically - and this is perhaps a damning indictment of the club's higher profile players - the team tended to do better when Smith had to make use of his reserves and plunder from the youth team.

The injury situation affected every area of the team, none more so than in attack where Kevin Campbell's close season surgery kept him out of contention for the first third of the campaign - to be honest, he hasn't been the same since his operation, Duncan Ferguson was in and out the sider after being injured on his second appearance, and Francis Jeffers was again sidelined for a lengthy spell with an ankle injury.

Smith was hardly able to field the same team twice and was often forced to employ midfielders up front or to play a lone striker, although critics say that he should have given more opportunities reserve top scorer Phil Jevons.

The midfield was further robbed by the absence of solid performer Mark Pembridge and in defence, new signings Gary Naysmith and Allessandro Pistone joined veteran Richard Gough on the treatment tables for long periods of the season.

In addition to the casualty list, certain positions caused problems, particularly that of goalkeeper. Both Paul Gerrard and Thomas Myhre have declined spectacularly over the past two years, to the point where you wouldn't want either in your side. Myhre, it is expected, will leave the club this summer, as might Steve Simonsen who has shown to be unpredictable and shaky on the few occasions he has been called upon.

Given the cash crisis at Everton, Smith was in no position to solve any problem positions, or ease his selection headaches brought about by injuries to key players. He had to live with what he had, make the most of it, and his net outlay on players - despite signing 10 players in the summer - was less than all three of the teams that eventually went down, Manchester City, Coventry and Bradford. The fact that the club avoided relegation with games to spare is testimony to the fact that he succeeded in juggling the slim resources at his disposal. It wasn't pretty, it certainly wasn't School of Sciene fare, and it was sometimes baffling in the extreme but it got the job done.

Working in Smith's favour, however, is the marked improvement in the team's style of play during the 1999/2000 season, a campaign during which we were treated to the 5-0 hammering of Sunderland and the classic 4-0 demolition of West Ham on their own patch. These illustrated the leaps and bounds Everton had taken since the third Howard Kendall reign but much of that progress was undone with the loss of players like Hutchison and Barmby.

If Smith could produce that sort of team once playing with style and confidence, surely he could manage it again given favourable conditions?

Clearly, Smith deserves the chance to work free of cash constraints or, at least, free of injury so that he can employ the players he has signed together and in the manner he intended. With luck, he may get the latter but it looks as though season 2001/02 will be make or break for the Scot even if he doesn't get the funding he would like. Certainly the squad he has is talented enough to finish in or around the top 10, especially when you consider that Charlton, Ipswich and Southampton have all just managed that feat.

On that basis (that we actually have a reasonable squad when injury free), Smith should rightly be judged on the team's performance next season. 2000/01 is a nightmare best forgotten.

©2001 ToffeeWeb, 25 May 2001