Fans Comment
Derek Wadeson

Did we win or lose?
6 February 2006

After the Chelsea game in the FA Cup, the favourite comments centered on David Moyes substitutions and tactics: Why play Big Dunc up-front alone? Why bring on Naysmith? Why did we let Chelsea overrun us? Like Barry Horne, I laughed at most of these and tried to bring some sense (well to me anyhow) into the proceedings. Barry at least talked to the people concerned — I had to make to do with the dashboard of my car.

Chelsea at this moment in time are the best team in England by a country mile, and with our 11 most fit players available on the park, we kept them at bay for 75 minutes. They payed us the utmost compliment of when having equalised, Jose reverted to four at the back by taking off an attacking midfield player (Joe Cole) and replacing him with a defender (Robert Huth). The turning point came not with the introduction of Gary Naysmith but with the injury to James McFadden. The alternative spouted by many of giving young Victor a go does not hold water and the whys could have been turned into what-ifs.

What if Victor froze? What if Chelsea went two or three up? Surely then the walk home and radio phone-in comments would of put Moyes in a far worse light. “1-0 up and we threw it away”, “we should have held onto what we had”, “and he had Naysmith on the bench, why didn’t he use his experience for 30 minutes”. Hindsight and football go hand in glove at times.

The Man City game held similar comments with Davey’s transfer policy coming to the fore again. They now call him Dithering Dave, but more of that later.

Did we not beat City 1-0 and for the first 30 minutes play some of our best football of the season? The turning point in this game came when we did not get a second and we fell into the trap of doing what we do best, holding on to a single-goal lead. Also, some of our best displays came from players who earlier this season were being told in the phone-ins to clear off and sharpish: Kilbane, Valente and Weir spring directly to mind — the latter who must of found the chanting of his name in the Chelsea tie sickeningly sweet. Players' form will come and go, but one thing you will find with Moyes is that you can get away with playing poorly, but playing poorly and not giving 100% is a no-go area. Hence the transfers of Bent and Krøldrup.

Last season's 4-5-1 and the willingness of Marcus Bent to run himself into the ground were a breath of fresh air into Goodison Park. Bent’s throwing away the dummy after the purchase of James Beattie was his death warrant in Moysie's plans. Krøldrup was hailed as our new Kevin Ratcliffe, class at the back, but for whatever reason he refused to toe the line and Moyes was reluctant to play him except in emergencies.

What happened next was their exits, and here’s were Moyes needs praising: a total of £6 million paid and a total of £6 million received. For a club in our financial position, that can only be described as good accounting business.

Which brings me to Davey’s transfer dealings in full. He has made his mistakes: Richard Wright... but once again he has balanced the books in a way. Would any Evertonian complain if he had paid the amount he paid for Wright on Nigel Martyn? As we got Nigel on a free, you cannot complain at the total for the two combined.

The accusation of Moyes being a ditherer in the transfer market and the accusations of his poor judgement policy just does not hold water. This is the man who has bought us Yobo, Arteta, Cahill, Neville, Martyn and recently the purchase of James Beattie is starting to look like a snip. Add to this the current form and scoring record of an early purchase, James McFadden, who for one thing cannot be accused of not being brave. David Moyes has got them wrong in the past and will get them wrong in the future, but we have to admit that he does not just spend the readies in hope rather than expectation.

Maybe all these people who moan and jam the phone-ins would be happier if a certain Freddy Sheppard told Moyes to come and join him and gave him money he could only dream of down Goodison way. Here’s £30 million, Davey (a saving of some £20 million on Souness’s outlay) who do you fancy? “How about Yobo, Cahill, Arteta & Co, a lot of Evertonians said I only bought crap, so we could get them on the cheap”.

Think about it; Evertonians have a lot to be thankful to David Moyes for. He has made mistakes in the past; he will make them in the future, but he gave us back our pride and our expectation levels have grown again, disappointment will be in not qualifying for Europe and how often in the last 20 years can we have said that?
Derek Wadeson


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