Fans Comment
Glasgow Blue

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30 December 2005

I am writing, partly in response to Patrick Marks's ‘Get a Grip’ article, but also through my general fear with the direction in which our great club is heading.

I don’t wish to sound patronising because I do genuinely admire him for his words of support for David Moyes, but David is a big boy and he is paid handsomely to be a target for the flack as well as the praise. I’m sure the seats in his top-of-the-range Bentley aren’t feeling any less comfortable, so any flack that is being dished out to him at the moment in my opinion is completely correct.

It seems to be a unique thing within football circles alone that groups of apologists seem to always try to defend individuals based on their previous performance, yet from the same industry we also coined the phrase of being only as ‘good as your last game’. In this situation I would substitute the word ‘game’ with ‘year’.

You see, 2005 has been a year that unfortunately will be remembered for all of the wrong reasons at Everton now — bizarrely, seeing that during this year we came close to qualifying for the major European tournament during this time and also posted what we were told were some of the (ahem) best financial results in the club's history. So why will we be forever blighted by the remembrance of things such as:

• equalling the worst run of results in the club's history,
• being the only side during the life of the Premiership to end up so high in the League with a negative goal difference,
• posting one of the worst scorelines in the history of not only the Premiership but also the club,
• posting the worst European result in the club's history

I’m honestly at odds to even attempt to comprehend how on earth we reached this ridiculous situation based on the upward direction that the club seemed to be heading this time last year. Sure, the loss of key players both through sales and injuries is rightly pointed to, but it goes much further than that in my opinion.

David Moyes was rightly applauded (including by myself) for his outstanding achievement in taking the club to fourth position last year. I assume that the award of Manager of the Year, two years out of three, is not an award that is afforded to any old mug. These awards were based on a sound performance from his team in reaching lofty positions in the league during the preceding domestic campaigns. This was also achieved with so-called limited resources available to him. Accolades were therefore rightly given to the man at the helm for such major achievements.

Now Patrick, in his submission, states that ‘As well as attempting to change the way Everton play ON the field, he is also trying to change just about everything OFF the field too’. This somewhat surprises me as I assume that by talking about OFF the field he is talking about things like the club's scouting system etc — because the likes of the merchandising etc is surely the forte of Mr Wyness and Co? It is therefore in the likes of the scouting that I would say that David Moyes has failed miserably; if anything, we seem to have taken a major backward step during his tenure.

Moyes himself has been quoted as saying that his contacts throughout the continent are not as good as some (ALL?!?) of his contemporaries within the Premiership, so it is via the British leagues that you would have thought that he would have attempted to come into his own and at least try to dig out a bit of niche for himself. I look beyond the first team and I find it appalling that we do not have a single player currently playing for our second string who seems able (or allowed!!!) to get within a sniff of the first team squad sheet each week. What a pathetic indictment to his stewardship that here is a manager who has learnt his trade in the lower leagues of British football and who should have built up a mass of contacts during this time, yet he cannot seem able to find a single player from the lower leagues who he can nurture into his own player? Pure bad luck in missing out on the likes of Ryan Taylor, Aaron Lennon, Darren Bent? Or just plainly down to an ineffective transfer policy at the club?

Could the £25M or so that has so far been wasted on Beattie, Davies, Krøldrup and Wright been better invested in some raw talent from the lower leagues in the UK? We already had a number of ‘experienced’ players at the club; would it have been such a risk with so many old heads around to bring in a number of younger ones? I don’t claim to be any sort of expert in this area, but I’m sure there are people within football who Moyes should be consulting instead of taking gambles on players such as Valente, Ferrari and Van der Meyde. I found it interesting that, in Patrick’s article, he pointed out Moyes inherited ‘mediocre and shit’ players. It is worth pointing out that three out of the seven names he mentioned are still at the club, two being offered long and lucrative contracts during the summer?!?!

Overall, DM’s squad development strategy seems to be a right disaster to me. What exactly is it? His dealings in the transfer market thus far leave a hell of a lot to be desired. He has not exactly presented us with what could be described as a gem. I exclude Cahill from that because as with Moyes’s abilities, you are only as good as your last year. People may read this and think that I am being unfair to Moyes and the likes of Cahill, as you can’t always be at the top of your game. This again seems to be something that people are quick to accept within footballing circles. What other industry would you be allowed to make such a statement?!?

‘Oh yeah boss, the reason my works been poor this last year is because I can’t always be at the top of my game, so I’ll let you know when I’m starting to feel motivated again……right?’

Again I don’t have the answers, but people within the coaching staff are paid to analyse the situation and present a solution. If that solution does not rectify the problem, alternative strategies should be sought — something that does not seem to be happening at the moment. It is quite scary when you hear DM coming out with statements such as “I'm not sure what the answers are to our current form. We just don't seem to know what sort of team is going to turn up.” Err... pardon my ignorance, Davey, but is it not your job to make sure that the strategy (there is one isn’t there?) you put in place WITH the players during the week is carried out on the pitch and that you have a number of alternative strategies to suit your opposition because I expect that you have studied each of your opponents and spotted any flaws and weaknesses…..right? The same way that teams analysed our performances last season and have quickly snuffed us out.

It isn’t knee-jerk, it isn’t fickle when I say that every fan who is currently rounding on Moyes has every right to pillory him for the current position that ‘his’ team now finds itself in. He is the one who succeeds and also fails with his strategy for the club. It is no good apologising for him and saying things like ‘how can you possibly even consider sacking a bloke who has done what he has done for the club’. I say exactly right!!! Call it a victim of his own success, call it what you like, but high standards were set two out of the previous three seasons and they are not currently being met and fans are bang on the money to be asking strong questions about our current predicament.

The sickening thing of this all is that no other club seems capable of having such a huge fall from grace with the resources that are available to a manager such as Moyes. Sure Ipswich did what they did a few years back….but let’s not get carried away….are we really as poorly equipped as a club to be compared with the likes of Ipswich?!?! I appreciate that we are no longer one of the top 6 (10…12…..?!?!) clubs in the land but surely not?!?! No other club would have put itself in such a strong position and had such an embarrassing fall from grace like this club can only do!!!

For the first time in years I sat at Goodison in Spring of this year and honestly thought (like most Blues) that we were finally starting to see a chink of light along this long a dirty tunnel that we’ve been travelling along these last 20 years. I now feel that we have gone right back to the beginning of that tunnel and really cannot see any end to our current plight while the current management team remain in charge.

Who to replace them with? Not my job... although I certainly would not be mentioning names such as Newell and Jewell as replacements…..we’ve been along that road before of ‘up and coming young manager’. We need an influx of solid European experience into the club… not one of your Perrin’s (not Reggie!!!) but a coach, Director of Football (I don’t care what title they go under!!!) who will already know what is required to build a strong and everlasting footballing force — not only within the domestic game but also abroad. With that experience would also come a vast amount of contacts throughout Europe to provide the basis for a squad to be built regardless of the nationality of the player.

Ah yes, but these coaches don’t come without wanting a large cheque book to be made available to them right? Possibly, but that again is something that would have to be decided within the Everton Board. It all depends on where the Board wanted us to be… if they were happy for us to muddle along with the likes of Charlton one year after another or challenge regularly at the top end of the table then funds would have to be made available from renewed investment, but that needs to be covered elsewhere.

I really do fear for where this will all end and cannot seem to see any way out at the moment without major changes being made…..I only hope that I am proved wrong.

Glasgow  Blue

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