On the Rise

David Moyes: The revolution continues apace

You could be forgiven for feeling nervous and disorientated.  We all could.  After all, we are no longer dealing with the Everton to which we have become accustomed during the lifetime of the Premier League.

The Everton we know and love, despite all logic pointing to the contrary, does not beat teams like Arsenal, take Manchester United to task on their own turf for 85 minutes or win at Elland Road.  Their youth stars don't score spectacular or regular goals, they don't win two away games on the trot and they don't follow up handsome wins (like the one over Arsene Wenger's hitherto invincible outfit) with more wins.  It just simply isn't Everton, and the battle-hardened, thick-skinned Evertonians that we are are merely steeling ourselves for this latest false dawn to slip back into black despair.

But what if we are bearing witness to the long-awaited re-emergence of the real Everton, the proud, all-conquering Everton epitomised by Dixie Dean and Tommy Lawton in the 1920s and 30s, by Young, Ball, Harvey and Kendall in the 1960s, and by the heroic team of the mid-1980s?  Are we about to see our faith this fantastic old club repaid after a decade of under-achievement, narrow escapes from relegation and a succession of false dawns?

While the mixed start to this season had some people harking back to Moyes's first nine games in charge at the end of the last campaign and wondering if he was all his hype suggested, there can be little doubt that Everton are going from strength to strength under the new manager.  And while three successive victories doesn't really mean anything — after all, the dreadful team that avoided the drop on the last day in 1998 won three straight under Howard Kendall and Walter Smith guided the Blues to three consecutive league successes two seasons ago — it is the manner in which Everton are playing and the calibre of the opposition they are brushing aside that appears to be sign of better times ahead.

What is more, Everton haven't been as high as 6th in the Premiership at any meaningful stage of the season (they've been higher in the table both this season and last, but that was after three matches) since finishing 6th and missing out on European qualification by a hair's breadth in May 1996.  And yet 6th is the position they now occupy following their first win at Leeds United in the league in 52 years.

If anyone had any doubt over the wisdom of the decision to get rid of Walter Smith when Bill Kenwright did before now, there surely can be no disagreement that the acquisition of David Moyes is the single most important thing to have happened to this club in 15 years — more important than the FA Cup triumph in 1995 and the consequent return to European competition and, although Moyes might not even be in the Goodison hotseat were it not for Blue Bill, probably more important than Kenwright's takeover two years ago.  Without the progress that Moyes has made on the pitch, Everton would still be merely a sleeping, debt-ridden giant looking for a new home in the eyes of the media.

What Moyes has achieved in just six months in charge — with pretty much the same squad he inherited from Smith — is simply phenomenal, particularly when put into the context of all his predecessors going back as far as Kendall's second spell in charge a decade ago.

While Joe Royle made a similarly speedy and inspiring impact, you never had the feeling that his dogs of war were ever going to amount to much, even after that Wembley triumph in 1995 or the successful 1995-96 campaign when Andrei Kanchelskis brought the Blues to within 6 minutes of UEFA Cup qualification.

Similarly, Walter Smith assumed charge of a miserable collection of players who were one goal away from the Nationwide League just three months previously and guided them to mid-table respectability, without ever achieving much more progress than that.

Everton under Moyes are a wholly different proposition; determined, committed, confident, organised, unified and taking definite strides forward as opposed to the "two steps forward, two steps back" trend under Smith.  March 2002, when the club was once again on its knees following a string of miserable performances, seems like a long time ago.

Wayne Rooney: His goalscoring exploits would mean far less without Moyes's success with the team in general

Since then, a world of opportunity appears to have opened up.  Kevin Campbell is a player reborn; Tomasz Radzinski is fulfilling the promise of his days with Anderlecht; Tony Hibbert is maturing quickly into the answer to a position that has been a problem at Goodison for years; Joseph Yobo is an absolute revelation at the back; Thomas Gravesen has found consistency, likewise David Unsworth; Li Tie (regarded as little more than the fulfilment of a commercial obligation when he arrived in August) has been virtually ever-present; Richard Wright looks to have overcome his stage-fright; and, on top of all that, the likes of Juliano Rodrigo, Nick Chadwick, Duncan Ferguson and Allessandro Pistone have barely figured at all.

Then, with all that fabulous groundwork in place, there is Wayne Rooney as the icing on a multi-layered cake: a teenage bundle of dynamite who, by rights, should still be knocking on the door of reserve-team football given his tender age but has emerged not only as the guiding light of Everton's future but that of English football as a whole.  Because of his own magnificent work with the rest of the team, David Moyes can afford to play Rooney as sparingly as his common sense allows and still be confident that, on the evidence of this season so far, Everton will be challenging in the right half of the table this time around.

Yes, there may be rough patches ahead with injuries and some bad results but that is to be expected of any team and manager, let alone a partnership that has only been in existence since mid-March.  But, finally, Everton fans can experience genuine hope and optimism for the future, not simply because of league position alone — after all, under Royle, the Blues were 7th in mid-December 1996 and level points with eventual champions Manchester United, only to end up struggling for their Premiership lives that season — but because Moyes is building a team that is more faithful to the School of Science, one founded on attractive, attacking football and triumph on the pitch.

In other words, on the rise, the Everton Way.

Lyndon Lloyd

©2002 ToffeeWeb, 4 November 2002