Fans Comment
Dutch Schaeffer

Same old, Same old
27 October 2005

Cast your mind back to Sunday 10 March 2002; you should be able to remember that date because that's when Walter Smith sent out his last Everton side.

Smith and Archie 'Bully-boy' Knox had spent 4 years trying to make a decent side but their goal-shy pensioners had only managed to struggle against relegation every season.

And on Sunday 10 March 2002 Smith's side failed for the last time. They were 15th in the Premiership, staring at relegation and on that day were dumped out of the FA Cup with a 3-0 thrashing against Middlesboro. Even Bill 'Nice-Guy' Kenwright had seen enough.

6 days later Everton took to the field against Fulham with David Moyes now in charge and just 27 seconds into that match Unsworth scored. Big Dunc (who in a Moyes masterstroke was wearing the Captain's armband that day) secured the 3 points. A 4-3 win over Derby a week later more or less ended our relegation fears and an exciting new era had begun for the 'Peoples Club'.

Or so we thought...

3 years later, Wednesday October 26 2005, David Moyes sends out a goal-starved Everton side who lose 0-1 to Middlesboro condeming them to their 11th deafeat in 14 games.

Out of the Champions League, humilated in the Uefa Cup, out of the League Cup and bottom of the Premiership with just 2 goals (one of them a penalty), facing our most serious threat of relegation that I can remember. Has any team in history started a season this badly???

Questions need to be asked!!!

Has Moyes improved the side since the Smith era?

On paper the Moyes side are far superior and much younger; believe it or not, Moyes actually has some quality players in his squad.

If Gerrard and Simonsen were allowed to keep goal together they would still struggle to displace Martyn.

Yobo and hopefully Krøldrup are quality defenders. Hibbert also continues to grow towards England quality.

Our midfield consists on England International Philip Neville, free-scoring Tim Cahill, Welsh wizard Simon Davies, the always classy Mikel Arteta and don't forget Andy van der Meyde. A far cry from Smith's midfield of Gazza, Ginola, Alexandersson, Nyarko and Pembridge.

Moyes's main problem is the strikers but Ferguson or Bent and Beattie has to be a more potent partnership then Smith's Ferguson/Campbell. Beattie's cost £7 million, he's played for England, he's good for some goals, right??

So why is this improved side doing so badly???

In my opinion its one of three things...

1. Maybe Moyes has lost the dressing room? It's a cliché but you have to wonder if maybe the Everton players are sick of their manager's tough training and attention to every detail. Could they be trying to get him the sack? Surely not.
    
2. Maybe our squad has improved but the rest of the Premiership teams have improved their squads to even higher standards? But I still maintain on paper we have a good team — certainly better then the likes of some other teams I won't name.
    
3. Moyes missed out on all of his main transfer targets (Scott Parker, Emre, etc..) but maybe he set the bar to high? Should he not have known players of that quality would choose the money of bigger clubs? Should he instead have looked to set his standards a bit lower and gone after the likes of Darren Bent instead?
    
4. Maybe its just bad luck and poor form? Certainly we have had a tough time lately and every defeat must add to the general downbeat feelings of the squad. Its a vicious circle: you lose games, you lose confidence which make you lose games, which makes you lose confidence, etc....
    
5. 5) So how long does Bill Kenwright give David Moyes to turn this around?

Moyes may deny a crises and claim we are not fighting relegation but the fact is our next fixtures consist of Birmingham (A), Middlesboro (H), West Brom (A) and Newcastle (H), if we don't manage to win at least two of those games we face being bottom of the league going into December. How scary is that???

I personally don't see any point sacking in Moyes; what are we gonna do? — draft in Bobby Robson? Could a new manager get better results with the same players?

I think the most depressing part is that I really thought, after last season, the days of Everton fighting relegation were gone. I assumed that under Moyes we would at the very least be a mid-table side with one eye looking at Europe or a domestic Cup run.

This losing streak is testing the very foundations of my Everton support. It wouldn't be so bad if we were losing 2-1 or 3-2 but we don't even get consolation goals.

I guess all we can do is continue to wait for the change of form, have faith in Moyes and pray it's not the Everton fans' destiny to continually be disappointed.

Who knows, an away win against Birmingham this weekend and things may seem brighter. At least we don't have Peter Crouch in our side!!!

Dutch Schaeffer

"Fans Comment" articles are submitted by outside contributors to ToffeeWeb. The views contained therein may not correspond with those of the site owners. Editorial policy

©2005 ToffeeWeb