The Nick Armitage Column
Columnist: Nick Armitage

Defence
27 January 2006

David Moyes: indecisive

We may have a defensive conundrum on Saturday: if Ferrari isn’t fit, who will partner the slowest centre half in the Premiership who isn’t cup-tied?  It’s a decision that I’m glad that I don’t have to make, but I suppose that’s what football managers get paid handsomely to do.

In the league, Stubbs coming back may get us out of a short-term hole but I don’t think he should ever have been let back near Goodison, never mind get on the pitch in a blue shirt.  He did a sterling job last season with our batten-down-the-hatches-style of defending.  Stubbs was Everton’s immovable object, the opposition couldn’t move him and he couldn’t really move much himself, but the accusations he aimed at the club when they were acting in good faith left a very bitter taste in the mouth.  He may have apologised but, I’m sorry, I think he’s cooked his goose.

The man who Stubbs replaces was Per Krøldrup.  What went on there we will probably never know, but whatever happened it cost Everton a fair few quid.  I admire the honesty of Moyes in saying he wasn’t the right type of player for the Premiership but I wonder why he hasn’t arrived at a similar conclusion regarding James McFadden.

There are plenty of managers who wouldn’t admit to such a mistake and would have hidden Krøldrup away in the reserves then quietly shipped him out – I remember a certain Mr Houllier doing that on more than one occasion. 

If Krøldrup wasn’t going to adjust to English football then it wasn’t worth him hanging around earning good poke and contributing nothing.  All club managers make bad signings (look at how many sour-face Sir Alex has made) but how Moyes and his scouts could have made such a fundamental error on Krøldrup is quite perplexing.  There aren’t many defenders who move from Serie A to another league and don’t cut the mustard – I can think of only two, but Walter signed both of them.

So now we are left with four centre halves. Two are young and very fast and two are old and very very slow.

This season, apart from a couple of cock-ups Yobo has been immense; I really do think he can become one of the top centre halves in world football – he’s far superior to a nineteen million pound, forgetful, overrated pimp look-a-like at Old Trafford.  Yobo has everything that a centre half needs: scorching pace, the strength of an ox and the ability to jump higher than Mick Fosby ever could.  I would love to see Yobo captain his country to glory at the African Cup of Nations... My arse, I hope Nigeria get tonked and he’s on the next plane back to Speke.

I like this Matteo Ferrari as well.  His reading of the game is excellent and he always makes the right decision.  He’s given me a few heart in the mouth moments because you think there’s no way he’s going reach some balls that he goes for and the opposition will be in.  But it never happens.  If he goes for a ball, he gets to it, his decision making means that he just doesn’t miss and it has been a few years since I’ve seen an Everton centre half with that ability.

If we have Yobo and a well-tuned Ferrari in the squad then we also have a couple of clapped-out Austin Allegros.  Stubbs and Weir have both had their day.  Weir was an astute buy by Walter Smith (yes, he did make a couple) but his career is most definitely winding down, he’s too slow and his distribution from both head and foot is too erratic for the Premiership.  Stubbs is even slower and the heart of a lion isn’t enough if your man is three yards quicker than you.  I reckon Stubbs and Weir have a year left in them, if that.  They are stopgaps, nothing more.

The future lies with Yobo and Ferrari but that’s where I am very worried.  There is obviously the option to buy Ferrari at the end of this season, if he impresses – and I believe he will, but Matteo has got to want to stay here and an Italian defender as composed as he is will have his pick of clubs across the continent.  I hope I’m wrong.

Perhaps more worryingly Yobo said a couple of seasons back that he loved playing at Everton and he intended to stay until the end of his contract and then move.  His contract ends next year.  If there is one player at the club who I needs nailing down to another contract, it’s him.  He’s got to be worth more than we paid for him and the club won’t allow him to sit tight and walk away on a Bosman – he’s too much of a valuable asset for that.

We might be snookered on Saturday but next season this situation could be the norm.  Unless Archie’s baseball bat comes out of the cupboard during contract negotiations, I think we may well be in the shit.

Nick Armitage

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