Fans Comment
Anthony Edwards

Bigger Picture
29/09/05

Moyes out? Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but are people missing the point of why the support for Moyes as a manager has gone? Is it as simple as the media makes out: poor start of the season but things will improve? It's fair to say that some football fans who know very little about football take one glace at the League table on a Saturday afternoon, and it then dictates their attitude, positive or negative, towards the Manger and the Players until they next happened to stumble across the full-time scores. It’s easy to shout Moyes out, silly little fans do and them come stuck when asked why, but its harder to come up with the reasons why even the most die hard Evertonians have to take a second look at our Moyesiah.

Let's look at the facts, Everton are bottom of the league, performances are poor, goals are sparse and confidence low. Tell any silly supporter that and they call for the manager’s head, its not there fault, as Big Bungle said at the weekend “their Stupid”.. but can you blame them? When a new manager comes to a club, results improve, due in part to the soulless players who put more effort in to impress the new manager — and it’s this reaction that the “Stupid” Fans are after. So they get on the phone and bark about wanting Moyes out, this then gets in the Press until some overpaid Ex-Redshite Footballer defends Moyes to the hills.

But to me, both the “Stupid” Fans and the Media are missing the Bigger Picture. You keep reading the Media’s response to Everton’s start of the season but you never hear about that start coupled with the second half of last season, or the huge amount of money Moyes has spent, or even the lack of progress the club has made compared to last season. Poor starts to a season mean nothing but these basic points separate an average manager from a great one.

Looking at the basic facts again, this season we have played 10 matches in all competitions, lost 8, won 2, scored 5, conceded 16. On this form it looks bad, but I agree with the Media when they say that this form does not condone sacking our Manager after what he has achieved. Things can only get better after all, lets stick with him, okay?

Maybe not, add this start to results from January last year… Played 27, lost 16, won 8, drawn 3, scored 26, conceded 45. It’s there for all to see, plain and simple, no supporter or Media pundit know-it-all could ever twist these numbers into something that supported what Moyes is trying to achieve at our club.

But Results could and probably will improve; to sack a manager over those last lot of numbers at this early part of the season is still a little harsh, so let's take a look at another side of Moyes as a manager: the transfer Market.

Moyes has spent £25M since January this year. This includes tubby Beattie but his contribution to the end of last season was so little that he might as well have been bought in the summer. £25M is a huge amount; imagine the smile on Moyes’s face when Blue Bill told him that one! So you hope he spends it wisely, improves the squad, adds depth and all that other stuff... but has he?

Of course not. No one can argue with the fact that even though it's been only 9 months, if Moyes sold all of the same players on the transfer market, we would be lucky if we made half that much back. That is the definition of success in any transfer market: buy low, sell high... and if you don’t sell, you get the rewards from your purchase. I was never a great fan of Walter Smith but that’s exactly what he did. In fact, it could be well argued that Moyes has been better backed financially then the last 3 Everton Managers. I always got the impression Smith had to sell a lot more then he wanted too and it’s not as if he had huge amounts of money to spent.

I think being very picky has cost Moyes the most this summer. I agree with Moyes only choosing the right players to come into the club but only if there is a huge amount of choice to choose from. In a very slow transfer market, Moyes was very picky; a number of transfers where left to the last minute when deals where rushed in desperation. On top of this, the new players had very little time to bed in to the squad despite Moyes ranting on at the end of the last season about how important getting players in early was.

Consider the layers that he let go — Stubbs for example. Like for like on ability with David Weir, maybe... but it's his greatest asset that we miss so much on the pitch now: his captaincy. What about Steve Watson? He looked a far better left-back then Pistone last season in the few matches he played there, always gives 100% on the pitch... but what does that count for, in the end? Nothing.

So okay, he’s poor in the transfer market... but so what? If you where Blue Bill and you had another £25M to give Moyes, would you trust him with it? I know I wouldn’t — and this is a huge issue for Blue Bill to look at in the future.

Marching on to the last area every Evertonians needs to look at before making a decision where they stand on the topic of our Manager, Progression. Look at it like this: if Everton had just scrapped through to avoid relegation last season, then being bottom of the League now wouldn't be so awful, if not expected. Now for all the Evertonians who thought Progression from last season meant finishing above 4th, get your heads examined! Progression for most of us would have been a constant top-half finish in the league, more often then not in Europe, the key there being consistency.

Consistency in the league is key to any great club and so far it’s a sticky point for Moyes. Having failed once before to maintain results after a good season 2 years ago, why should we trust him anymore now after the start to this season? The failure this season to shoot out of the starting blocks leads to me believe Moyes has trouble convincing the team and himself that we are a top-6 team; without that confidence and financial stability of consistent top-6 finishes, Everton can never progress beyond being a yo-yo team.

I, like many Evertians, believe that firing Moyes based solely on the this season's performance is stupid. But, opening up the Bigger Picture, I hope you can make your own decision on whether or not Moyes is really the man for the job in the Long Term. I am sure many of us would even claim that Moyes is not under as much pressure as he should be because of the complete lack of decent available mangers. I would like to think that Moyes can learn from his mistakes but at what point do we say enough is enough because as we all know, no one man is bigger then the club?

Anthony  Edwards

What a load of dross!  I got so bored reading the same old crap I just scanned the last couple of paragraphs.

As I write this comment I am trying to drown out the din that is coming from the ever-increasing bandwagon that just rolled by... full of moaning people. Everyone knows what the problem is at Everton, and it isn't any of the following:

• Lack of ability
• Lack of heart
• Lack of charisma
• Lack of experience

Its pure and simply lack of confidence. Players put up on a pedestal due to their meteoric rise to 4th place last season.

May we remind Anthony Edwards that David Moyes spent £25M on players — the same amount that Jose Mourinho spent on Drogba!  For that we get Krøldrup, Van der Meyde, Arteta, Davies, Ruddy, Valente, Ferrari and Phil Neville.  The previous season, Moyes spent practically nothing on Cahill and Bent.  So to say that Moyes has failed in the transfer market is an absolute pathetic comment.

Last night I saw something I haven't seen for a while and that is balls into the box; unfortunately it only came from the right side because Kilbane can't cross a gypsies palm with silver, but that's another debate.  At least Moyes saw he was doing badly and brought him off.  When AvdM comes in I'm sure Kilbane will be nothing more than a squad player.

One last thing on the transfer-market issue.  If a striker had signed then it would be totally different.  But Moyes strengthened in all areas apart from upfront, and that was due to Spurs holding back and Preston demanding a king's ransom.  Personally I think he did the right thing; we don't want another Bakayoko... Do we Anthony?

Nick Toye, Chester (30/9/05)

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