The ‘Curse’ of Walter still Lingers
Sebestian Hassett sees time as the solution to Moyes's woes

16 February 2004

There’s a bitter taste that’s sitting with Evertonians right now.

The questions are painfully obvious, yet the answers are nowhere to be seen.  Especially so when one considers how well the boys from Goodison Park performed last season.

Why have we suffered such a deplorable season in the midst of so much optimism?  Why is there again talk of avoiding relegation rather than European qualification?  Where has the magic from the “People’s Club” suddenly gone?

David Moyes made 2002-03 a memorable season for Everton fans; however, less than twelve months later, the momentum has come to a shuddering halt.  But this is not the fault of the man at the helm; it is the fault of Walter Smith.

To be fair, it’s not just Walter.  It’s also every Everton director who ever gave the aging Scot a license to run wild in the transfer market.  Is this a cheap way to avoid the inevitable probes into David Moyes’s suitability as Everton manager?  Hardly.  The squad currently at the disposal of the fiery redhead is fairly poor by Premiership standards, and that is directly reflected in the performances of Everton in this campaign.

A blow-by-blow summation of the Toffees' squad confirms what the fans refuse to admit to themselves when the first whistle blows at Goodison on a Saturday afternoon, and then, what they inevitably come to realise hours later.  In defence, there’s both good and bad to be found.  The good work belongs to Moyes.  The bad belongs to Smith.

Nigel Martyn is at the peak of his game, Joseph Yobo is a class act and Tony Hibbert is, despite a disappointing season, going to emerge a key figure at right-back in years to come.  Richard Wright will be an outstanding goalkeeper once the challenges of form, injuries and Martyn are inevitably cast aside.  They are all the fruits of Moyes's transfer exploits, and have cost £8.5M, with Yobo and Wright – who will be worth potentially twice that amount in years to come – forming the bulk of that figure.

While it is wrong to suggest that David Unsworth, Alessandro Pistone, Alan Stubbs and David Weir have been ineffective this season — quite the opposite — one must ultimately accept that they are not players who will directly contribute to the future success of Everton Football Club.  Collectively, they have poured heart and soul into stabilising the defence, but they will not be part of any Royal Blue glory.  All but Pistone have no value on the market, as their ages prohibit them from commanding any meaningful transfer fees.

Quite simply, Moyes is resigned to paying out their contracts and letting them perform to their mid-table standards.  This is something that is still holding back the ambitious man in the dugout.

He is forced to shell out high wages for meagrely talented players; in order to survive relegation, he is forced to rely on this group of old stagers for stability.  The wages paid to Alan Stubbs could surely secure the talents of Michael Dawson, Nottingham Forest’s prodigiously talented young centre back.  Loyalties to the local boy aside, it must be acknowledged that Stubbs is ultimately just of the Scottish league standard, sapping valuable wages out of this English club.

The midfield is no different.  If anything, it’s diabolically worse.  Thomas Gravesen, Tobias Linderoth, Alex Nyarko, Lee Carsley, Niclas Alexandersson, and Scott Gemmill – the curse of Walter Smith saw Everton accumulate these liabilities for figures totalling nearly £14M.  Let’s not forget that ‘bargain’ Stephen Hughes.  And what would Moyes do for a player of Don Hutchinson’s work ethic or Gavin McCann’s grit?

If anything, Smith amassed a raft of overrated players, and kept them tied to long-term deals for Moyes to deal with — and then made his successor’s task even harder by selling some of his more valuable midfielders for paltry figures.

We haven’t even reached the main culprits yet, and already one can see how the young manager has a gun held to his head.  Indeed, Gravesen was probably the pick of Walter’s midfield signings.  He’s certainly no dud, as evidenced by his brilliant displays for Denmark.  However, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that Mad Dog’s ten best displays while under contract at Everton have taken place while he’s occupied a red shirt.  And that can’t be a good thing.

As for the likes of Niclas and Nyarko, it’s downright frightening to think Kevin Kilbane and James McFadden cost David Moyes about a fifth of what Smith spent on those aforementioned bastions of shrewd work with the chequebook.  Li Tie is Moyes’s third midfield signing, and while he hasn’t impressed this year in the same manner as 2002-03, at least he’s sold plenty of merchandise in Asia to erase his transfer fee.  Everton is gaining exposure in China — a billion people — on a weekly basis.  Quite a sound investment when you think about it.

Collectively, Moyes has spent a tad over £2M on three players who were all bought, in hindsight, very, very cheaply.  Damien Duff couldn’t have given Everton a better season than Kevin Kilbane has, despite the difference in zeroes on the transfer slip.  James McFadden will, in the long run, provide Goodison Park with the finest winger since Andrei Kanchelskis.

Before we move on to the strikers, it’s probably wise at this point to take some perspective on the period in which Walter was immersed.  Remember Bosko Balaban? Sergei Rebrov?  Szilard Nemeth?  How about Kevin Davies?  Or Roy Carroll?  There were too many to mention.  Scary to think that wages were even paid for some of those guys, let alone transfer fees.

Sometimes even Everton managed to sell of a few average players for a pleasant price — names like Bakayoko, Dunne, Branch, Collins, and Oster spring to mind.  Then there were those decent players let go for decent sums — Jeffers, Dacourt, Ferguson, Ball and Barmby.  But it seemed that for every pound brought in, two pounds had to be spent on a player the club really didn’t need.  Alex Nyarko, who will be the eternal yardstick of Smith’s transfer stupidity, consumed £4.5M plus ludicrous wages in the summer of 2000.

With the attacking players, exactly how meritorious the acquisitions of Kevin Campbell, Tomasz Radzinski and the re-signing of Duncan Ferguson were can only measured by the course of history.  Campbell’s goals arguably saved the club from relegation in 1998-99; Ferguson’s 14 goals from 30 starts helped propel Everton to safety from 2000 to 2002, and Radzinski’s pumping legs pushed Everton into seventh in 2002-03.

But here are the facts: they are all over 30 and all draining the club of resources it badly needs.  Collectively, they earn over £100k per week and cost the club nearly £12M in transfers.  No prizes for guessing who shelled out the cash...  All three players are on contract for another season.  By the time July 2005 arrives, another £7M will have lined the pockets of these three men.

All three have scored innumerable magical and memorable goals for Everton and have been most loyal servants to the cause.  But money is something Everton simply doesn’t have right now.  Could that £7million have contributed toward snatching the duo of, say, Sean Davis and Dawson?

If we are allowed to stop — again — and take stock of the figures before us, it becomes even clearer just how little last season’s Manager of the Year has to work with.  No club in England will contemplate taking on either Campbell or Ferguson for those wages, even on a free transfer, while Radzinski’s worth has at least halved since he was brought in from Anderlecht, as evidenced by Graeme Souness’ somewhat miserable bid of £1.5M — £3M less than his original price tag.

But if there is some kind of silver lining to all of this, it is that David Moyes has time.  Perhaps not money, but time.  In the ruthless world of the Premiership, time is more important than money.  David Moyes will still be Everton manager when all of Walter Smith’s signing have departed.  Realistically, Moyes won’t get the manoeuvring in the market he desires until 2006.

Ferguson, Unsworth, Weir, Stubbs and Campbell will have enjoyed their respective testimonials; Steve Watson, Carsley, and Gemmill will be hacking their way through the Nationwide, Nyarko will have been released back to France while Gravesen, Radzinski, Pistone and Linderoth will also find new clubs on the continent.  Perhaps the relatively youthful Gary Naysmith will be the only one to survive.

But don’t be afraid, Toffee fans.  Moyes will have replaced them with a new batch of talent.  And he won’t be content to fork out ridiculous sums of money for players that will deliver Walter-esque results.

McFadden will find his feet on the right; old-man-Kilbane will be marauding on the left; Yobo will be holding the defence together; while members of the 2006 England squad, Hibbert, Wright, Jeffers and you-know-who will do their respective thing.  Presume that at least two of Peter Clarke, Leon Osman, Sean O’Hanlon, Alan Moogan, Brian Moogan, Michael Symes, Patrizio Pascucci, Stephen Schumacher, Anthony Gerrard or Iain Turner kick on to first team football, and, well, the future looks bright.  And that’s just from the present day setup.

Imagine what Moyes will be able to do with a big purse of cash on the transfer market.  Perhaps we might entice the likes of Michael Ball, Jay McElevey, Phil Jagielka or Joey Barton to return to Everton and assist Yobo and Hibbert in the back four?  Who really knows.  And at this stage, Evertonians must take pride in the marvellous array of young talent already assembled at Bellefield.

While Walter’s firm grasp over the blue side of Merseyside still looms large, there’s one thing he can’t meddle with: the long-term future of Everton.  Only one man holds that.  And although he might have red hair, thankfully nobody seems to care.

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