Fans Comment
Gary Willock

Screwged
24 November 2005

‘Take time to calm down’, I thought to myself as I wrote my first post on the internet boards with the West Brom match just 2 minutes dead. After all, you’ll just rant and rant and rant, and in the end you’ll feel no better for the burst blood vessel. Well 2 hours later and miraculously I am now calm (and the cat is still in one piece)! Not calm in the true sense of the word; more a simmering ‘I am too angry to be mad’ self imposed numbness. I’ve taken all those bitter, angry feelings and rammed them deep inside my sub-conscience; to the delight of Freudians everywhere I’m sure.

However, a famous Buddha* once said “If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him." Personally, I hope this guy’s right and what follows is an honest assessment of the current state of affairs rather than a knee-jerk psychotic reaction to the weekend's horror show.

So where do we start? Well, with Christmas just five weeks away, let's take the example of Mr Dickens and start with the Ghost of Moyes Past (although, be warned: for the purposes here, this has nothing festive about it!).

The Ghost of Moyes Past

Arsenal, City, Bucharest, Fernabahçe, Portsmouth, Wigan, Fulham, City, Spurs and now the mighty West Bromwich Albion! They’re the obvious ones that spring to mind. How about the lowest points tally in our history, anyone? How about the worst scoring record I can remember? What was it, one match from equalling a 50-year-old record? Out of four competitions by October (yes, I am counting the league) is that a record? Well one thing’s for sure, Mr Moyes’s tenure is certainly going someway to eclipsing our past's most forgettable records. (Conveniently forgetting the 4th place and 7th place finishes I know; but I’ll return to that later)

The Ghost of Moyes Present

We are in the bottom three. We have FOUR league goals; yes, FOUR in 12 games!! Sunderland have scored 3 times as many goals as us!!!! Yes, Sunderland. We have the Second worst goal difference in the premiership. We have a harsh run of games coming up (according to the manager himself in the Echo the other night). We are playing different players in different positions every week (aka Smith anyone?); we are lacking a decent striker, proper central midfielders (no offence to Mikky, but that was two right wingers playing in the centre at WBA) and continually play Bent, Kila, and McFadden... oh, and a back line that has never looked anything but shady. Eh, is that a £5M defender on the bench there - that’s a bit strange innit… OK, I’ll stop there, as those locked away feelings are flooding back in.

The Ghost of Moyes Future

Well, this is where it all hinges, I suppose. Personally, I think the above ghosts have taught me enough for me to be convinced that things must change. However, what does the Ghost of Moyes Future have in-store? Well the way Mr Dickens tells it says this is a ghost most horrifying to all men! A future of being dead and buried! Unloved and Unwanted! Cold in the ground, and wrapped in eternal chains simply because we refused to see the light.

The analogy here is quite frightening! With our debt, and the competitiveness of the lower leagues now, this is a future that at the moment is not as far-fetched as it seems. The simple fact is if we go down, we are likely to stay down.

However, the ‘two-time’ Manager of the Year supporters truly believe that ‘The Future’ is what we are all holding out for. We’ve had glimpses of the manager’s brilliance in the past, and no-one can deny that we have seen the evidence of ‘greatness’ in Moyes's future. We’ve seen his ability to turn it round, and evidence of transitional phases in the past that were followed by wonderful reward. One concern is that, even if that’s right, these ‘transitional’ phases are getting more and more scary. The yo-yo is gathering too much speed and is going to shoot off its string. Unfortunately, gravity dictates that is likely to happen on the downward cycle.

I hope they are wrong, and I hope the ghosts are wrong. If they are, the 40-lb goose is happily on me!

* Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 BC

Gary  Willock

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