Back him or Back him!!!
Gareth Prytherch reinforces the argument that it is all the players' fault

21 June 2004

Back? or Sack? is an interesting title for an article that only puts one side of the argument, even though both sides of the argument are actually conjecture.  Yes, it’s true that many Evertonians are fearful of our current position and unfortunately when people are scared, scapegoats are required.

"All we can go on are the Chinese whispers, of which there are far too many to ignore, in my humble opinion — and that's why I pulled this piece together."

I believe that we have another option, one that I try to put into practice, and that is not to believe in anything that is rumour, speculation, gossip, scapegoating or bollocks!  If it can't be substantiated then it is not fact and should not be sold as such.  The fact that you may have been right about Walter Smith does not mean that you are necessarily right about David Moyes.

If you really feel the need to comment on the "...too many to ignore" rumours then please either have hard evidence to back it up with or don't be quite so selective with the rumours you choose.  All of the rumours selected by you were, in my humble opinion, anti David Moyes.  There's nothing wrong with that if you, yourself are against our Manager, but please don't dress it up as an article that merely puts the other side.

“I tried to steer more of a middle course, taking "What if it is true..." as my basic premise.  I don't know if any of it is true, but there are those 'in the know' who are convinced that much of what went into that article is true.  They are Evertonians too.”

Who are these people ‘in the know’?  Did you stop to think about why rumours are leaking from Goodison?  In my experience leaked rumours are made by people who want to make themselves more important than they are and are then spread by people who would like to believe that they know more than they do or worse still, journalists who can’t get tickets to Portugal who need to justify their existence.

Are those ‘in the know’ people that have now decided it’s all David Moyes’ fault the same people ‘in the know’ that blamed the overpaid, lazy players at the end of the season?

I do not know anyone ‘in the know’.  FACT!  I love Everton Football Club.  FACT! I have more faith in David Moyes than Ferguson, Campbell, Unsworth, Jeffers??? and even Wayne Rooney if he has fallen out with the manager.  FACT!

Is this David Moyes who is not prepared to listen to his players – particularly the quality senior players (Ferguson, Campbell, Unsworth, Jeffers et al) – the same David Moyes that has publicly said, at least three times this season that he has made mistakes and having had honest discussions with the said players made changes and apologized? – sorry for the sarcasm!

I totally agree that we shouldn't attack each other for our opinions.  However, I would also like to put another opinion forward.

Back him! Back him! Back him!

To look more closely at Michael Kenrick’s ‘worrying trend’ I would like to offer the following:

• Rooney and Sven – Isn’t international football very different to club football and does Wayne play with the best England has to offer on international duty? Couldn’t this be a reason why Wayne performs better?
   
• Clarke & Simonsen – Is there any evidence to suggest that David Moyes should offer these fringe players longer contracts?
   
• Tommy Gravesen – The only comment I have seen along those lines came from Tommy’s agent (person in the know) and not from Tommy himself and I believe that Moyes’ response was along the line of ‘I do not listen to people I don’t know, if Tommy tells me he no longer wants to play for the club then that is a different matter’ or something to that effect.
   
• Inability to sign players – How many of those players went to clubs with European football? Or got injured and were unable to sign because of a lack of insurance?
   
• Senior Players Contracts – How many senior players who have left or are leaving the club who were given long term contracts would we genuinely want to keep?  For all I love Unsworth’s passion and loyalty to the club, he’s no Watson or Gough!  For all Ferguson’s talk about loving Everton, I don’t believe a word of it.  Gerrard, Alexandersson, Nyarko, Carsley, Simonsen, Gemmill and Campbell are all players I will personally be glad to see the back of.
   
• Chadwick, Clarke, Schumacher, Osman – Is it possible that these players were farmed out on loan because of the players named above?  It is much easier to send a young player with potential and a low wage out on loan than the dross, overpaid senior players named above surely?  Turner and Osman have without doubt come back better players for the experience and are possibly being lined up for a great future. Clarke has decided he wants a better contract offer, and good luck to him! Genuinely
   
• And finally the Bust Ups!!! – Hasn’t Jeffers done this before? He hasn’t impressed Smith, Wenger or Moyes with his attitude — quite a CV he’s building for himself — and wasn’t the decision to start with McFadden a good one? 

And as for Ferguson, my opinion is that as captain of Everton Football Club he is an absolute disgrace!  Could we have won more games towards the end of this season if he hadn’t decided to decapitate Freund?  And to nearly quote Monty Python “What has Ferguson ever done for us?” since he came back from Newcastle?  I wouldn’t even wish him on the pinkies!  Actually that’s a lie there’s only the pinkies I would wish him on! Oh and Fulham!

If they don’t respect David Moyes then Good Riddance!!!!!

And before I bore you all to tears, the reason for supporting David Moyes is the players he has fallen out with and the players who he has brought into the club.

In my opinion better players than in the squad he inherited are:

• Joseph Yobo
• Richard Wright
• Nigel Martyn
• James McFadden
• Iain Turner
• Juliano Rodrigo (unfortunate injury)
• Kevin Kilbane

In my opinion, the jury is still out on:

• Li Tie
• Patricio Pascucci

Not!

• Li Wei Feng
• Francis Jeffers

Is it merely coincidence that the players under Not! are also players who the ‘people in the know’ have suggested were forced upon David Moyes?  And even then Li Wei Feng showed signs of promise.

Despite the current feeling my opinion is “The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Royal Blue” — and I don’t mean Chelsea.

Gareth Prytherch

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