Keep Your Nerve
Mike Iddon believes David Moyes remains the key to Everton's future

6 May 2004

It's been interesting in the last few days reading the fans' response to a season of under-achievement — notice I do not say another season;last season we achieved something towards what EFC should do. This is the key point here. Following Moyes' introduction to the club where he galvanised the team and players like Unsworth (remember the Fulham & Derby games?), he carried this on into last season where up until March/April we were in dreamland!

"And yet, here we are with the manager still not ruling out winning the Premiership outright — while nice to hear, he surely can't believe we'll finish higher than either Arsenal or United — and the fans dreaming of maybe sneaking into the Champions League instead of the Uefa Cup. There are no more ways left to describe the transformation Everton have undergone under Moyes with next to no budget and essentially the same squad he inherited from Smith" — Lyndon Lloyd, 24th February, 2003.

The facts are these:

1. We have one of the brightest and previously sought-after young managers in the game at our club who in the previous season and a quarter transformed the atmosphere and performance of the club.
   
2. Our style of play this season has been sussed out by the opposition (read Birmingham this year) and Moyes must prove more flexible in his formations/tactics — he is still learning.
   
3. As has been extensively chronicled, a percentage of the squad are not good enough but some of the young players (Osman etc) are and will, I'm sure, be given a chance.
   
4. The board MUST cough up some money to strengthen in the summer or we will be in the s**t next spring and Moyes will leave of his own accord. Some members of the board (Gregg) have NO interest in EFC and were only in it for the King's Dock project so don't expect them to cough up.

Let's not throw away what we started last year. This year has been crap and some of the players have not performed as they should and some must go, but let's not get it out of the perspective of a 3-5 year project. If the strikers had done their job in the first half on Saturday against Wolves we would have gone in at least 3-0 up with the game in the bag — a regular failing this year.

To lose Moyes now would be A DISASTER. Not least because who else could we attract? What other young manager with Moyes credentials and market desirability would come? Remember Man U wanted him as assistant to Fergie. If we attract new players and they all perform then we will not be in the position we are this year; if we are then — and only then — should we consider Moyes' position.

Mike Iddon

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