Fans Comment
Chris Williams

Attacking the real Problem
10/5/06

Moyes has changed, there is no doubt, from the breath of fresh air that he was in his first incarnation. Why? Well firstly he doubled his salary from the initial £750k in 2003, so he has more to lose and is perhaps more inclined to toe the party line, or maybe he's just sold out.

Then there was that awful summer of 2004, with a Boardroom battle (can midgets have a battle?), Birch smelled the coffee and Rooney's engineered move (someone engineered it!), along with Radzinski... Maybe Moyes realised what sort of club we were, despite what he'd been told, and started to lower his sights accordingly, consciously or unconsciously.

Don't forget also the end of 2003-04 season, when the players downed tools in protest at his methods. I suspect at this stage he modified his approach to a less demanding, in-your-face style, showing more support to the players. All of this must affect the way you look at your job.

After this we finished 4th, maybe luckily, in a crap Premiership season, but fell apart after Christmas. The team was fitter and stronger, better organised and literally out-lasted opponents to win 1-0 in the last 15 minutes. I'd wager good money that Moyes, one of the new breed of Prozone clones, reckoned that with fitness, tactics and organisation, you could achieve most of what was required to succeed as long as you didn't set your sights too high. Hence the style of play and the type of player (with some exceptions). The template is fit, hardworking, working to a fixed pattern, with the ability to do several jobs, and close the opposition down. Lovely, but with this philosophy there's no room for skill or flair.

One word to describe this is "pragmatic" — fitting the team to the circumstances, cutting your coat according to your cloth.

We don't have much cloth and the bit we have is threadbare, so we re-sign geriatric players and sell what quality we have to buy more to fit the template. This doesn't cost much in financial terms so we do it. The fitness, organisation etc should be a "given" — the basis that is not negotiable, that gives you the foundation to compete, but unfortunately you need the "fairy dust' — class players to take you on to success. These we cannot afford.

The real trouble with fitness, organisation etc as your only tool is that anyone can do that, and I suspect that other teams caught us up and bypassed us this season. In a lousy season for goalscoring, only a third of our goals were scored in the second half. Only one factor I know but it's not to be ignored. We also conceded a lot in the second half too.

None of this is to defend Moyes who has had a lousy season by any standards, but he's no fool. He'll realise all of this and will recognise that this is not a situation he can prosper in long term. He is also young and ambitious, first and foremost and he knows the longer he stays the more he wil be worn down by events, lower his standards and the more his reputation will be tarnished. He will leave sooner rather than later because his position will be untenable professionally, not to mention with the fans. So what's the problem? No surprises — step forward our illustrious board of non-directors, our own gentleman's club.

Benitez recently said about Chelsea that it was Abramowitch and not Mourinho who was "special". Now allowing for the spite in the remark, can you honestly challenge this view? What would Moyes and Mourinho have achieved had the positions been reversed? (impossible I know)? Chelsea might still have won the Championship, and Everton might have finished 6th? Not sure the football would have been better either. Good enough for us? No way!. Good enough for Luvvy Bill? You bet! He could dine out with his cronies on that "achievement" for ages.

Moyes has clear limitations and has cocked up good style this season. But he's managing in a strait-jacket and he knows it. Frankly, you could put pretty well anybody there and the improvement would be marginal at best. We won't go forward without new money and new faces and that's not going to happen anytime soon. So we're fucked and have little

So we're fucked and have little to look forward to in the forseeable future, regardless of who is the manager. I take my hat off to those who have renewed their season ticets, they're stronger and more patient than me!!!
Chris Williams


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