FANS COMMENT

Transfers: Heaven and Hell

After reading Luq Yussef’s letter (28/12/06. Re: David Ike, more like!), it struck me that he may well have a very good point. For the record, I’m not anti-Moyes, but wouldn’t go as far as to say I was pro-Moyes, either. David Moyes just happens to be the current manager of the club I’ve supported for over 20 years and will continue to support — no matter where we move to, what division we’re in, or who’s in charge.

After reading Luq’s letter, I decided to do a little research into Moyes’s transfer dealings since becoming manager of Everton. Of course, this is just my opinion of those transfers and some of you will no doubt disagree. I have not included Da Silva in this list, as I’ve not seen hide nor hair of him yet. (Does anyone out there know whether or not he really exists?) For the purposes of this research, I have excluded loan players (unless they eventually signed permanently) and Stubbs and Pistone’s return to the club.

I’ve split all transfers into two categories — success or failure — with no in-between. I’m not going to give you any of that ‘Yet to prove himself’ codswallop (young players excepted). This is, of course, only my opinion — you might very well think otherwise.

All transfer fees/appearances/goals etc. quoted, are taken from ToffeeWeb Website.

Successes:

Joseph Yobo (£4.5M) — Apps: 145 Gls: 5 Has proved to be well worth the transfer fee, putting in solid performances most of the time. Prone to the odd error and lapse in concentration — but who isn’t? — but has proved to be one of Moyes’ better signings.

Nigel Martyn (£500k) — Apps: 100 Gls: 0 Might have been getting on — was 37 when he signed! - but has to rank as the best £500k Moyes has ever spent. By far our best 'keeper since Neville Southall.

Tim Cahill (£2M) — Apps: 92 Gls: 27 I thought it was a big risk at the time to pay £2M for a player who’d never played in the Premier League. Thankfully, I’ve been proved wrong. Excels at getting forward and scoring goals. One of our biggest weapons at corners and set-pieces. Hard working rather than skilful, but chips in with more than his fair share of goals.

Mikel Arteta (£2M) — Apps: 72 Gls: 8 Another player I was unsure of at first. Started slowly... and seemed to get slower! — but again, I’m more than happy to have been proved wrong. Has come into his own of late and his performances over the past year or so make him a success for me. Now he just needs to keep it up.

Phil Neville (£3.5M) — Apps: 62 Gls: 0 I was delighted when Moyes managed to secure his signature. Even at United, I always rated Neville, and his versatility has been invaluable for a squad our size. Defender or midfielder, take your pick, he’ll never let us down.

Andy Johnson (£8.6M) — Apps: 20 Gls: 7 At last — a proven goalscorer! Proved with Palace that he could score at the highest level and, despite his recent blip, I’m sure he’ll score many more for Everton. Fee made my eyes bulge a bit, though! Hopefully he can pay it back with trophies… okay, getting ahead of myself!

Joleon Lescott (£2.5M) - App: 23 Gls: 0 I must admit, I knew very little about him before he signed. However, from what I’ve seen so far, has adapted well to the Premier League and will hopefully be a rock at the back for years to come.

That, unfortunately, is it for the successes. Out of the 21 permanent signings Moyes has made, only seven, in my opinion, have made the grade.

Total Cost of Successes: £23.6M

And the failures:

Li Tie (£1M) — Apps: 40 Gls: 0 Had one very good season and then... nothing! Apparently injured a lot of the time, but, as the site points out, still managed to turn out for China…

Richard Wright (£3.5M) — Apps: 69 Gls: 0 Showed real promise as a youngster and was rewarded with a move to Arsenal. Failed to make the grade there and joined Everton — he’s been going downhill faster than an Olympic skier ever since. £3.5M down the shitter.

James McFadden (£1.25M) — Apps: 107 Gls: 12 Winger or striker? No one seems to know - not even David Moyes! The Scottish Wayne Rooney? I think not. One half-decent game in 10 (if that) isn’t good enough.

Kevin Kilbane (£1M) — Apps: 121 Gls: 5 Have never been a fan and his stay on Merseyside did nothing to alter my opinion. Would have helped if he’d used his right foot for more than just standing on! And come to think of it, his left wasn’t much better.

Marcus Bent (£450k) — Apps: 65 Gls: 8 Yes, yes, I know — he tried hard and ran himself into the ground. But he was supposed to be a striker and 8 goals in 65 games tells its own story. Tried hard (give him his due, very hard) but failed. On the plus side, he cost less than a tenth of what James Beattie cost!

James Beattie (£6.5M) — Apps: 70 Gls:15 One good season with Southampton and suddenly he’s the new Alan Shearer. Alan Titchmarsh, more like! The £6.5M fee appears to be joining the £3.5M spent on Wright — down the toilet.

Guillaume Plessis (Free) — Apps: 0 Gls: 0 Please, somebody, shoot me in the head! No wonder he was free…

Simon Davies (£3.5M) — Apps: 49 Gls: 1 What’s that famous heckle? Oh yes: he couldn’t cross a pools coupon! He should be allowed to wear a Wales shirt when playing for Everton — he might do something useful then. Certainly nothing to right home about.

Per Krøldrup (£5M!!) — Apps: 2 Gls: 0 What were you thinking, Mr Moyes? Nuff said.

Nuno Valente (£1.5M) — Apps: 40 Gls:0 Has done very little to convince me he deserves a first-team place - or a squad number, for that matter.

Andy van der Meyde (£1.8M) — Apps: 16 Gls:0 Looked fantastic when playing in Holland. Looked decent when in Italy. The less said about his time in England the better. Spends more time down the cop-shop reporting burglaries than on the pitch.

In my opinion, 11 failures. Total Cost: £25.5m

And of course the youngsters:

Iain Turner (£50k) — Apps: 5 Gls: 0 Has done well in the games he’s played — the Blackburn debacle excepted!

John Ruddy (£250k) — Apps: 1 Gls: 0 Looked comfortable when he came on against Blackburn. Only one (or most of a game), I know. Time will tell.

Steve Spencer (£250k) - Apps: 0 Gls: 0 I know absolutely nothing about him — apart from his name!

So, it seems David Moyes has spent almost as much on successes as he has on failures - although there were only seven successes compared to eleven failures. As for the three youngsters, only time will tell.

Transfer dealings involving Mr Moyes certainly seem to be a hit and miss affair. I’m assuming that he does have his transfer targets scouted and assessed. So why does he appear to buy, for want of a better word, garbage? Maybe his judgement isn’t all that good, or maybe he just goes by reputations rather than performances on the pitch.

One thing is for certain — if he carries on in this vain, he’ll waste more money on average-at-best players who turn to complete shite the moment the ink’s dry on their Everton contracts!

It appears, to me at least, that either David Moyes is hopeless at assessing players, or he’s been very unlucky. A few more Yobos, Johnsons and Nevilles would go a long way to changing my opinion of his transfer dealings. Will this happen? Again, only time will tell.

Responses:

I'm not entirely sure I agree with Rob Sachro's article on David Moyes's transfer successes and failures. Mainly I think he has a number well wide of the mark in the failures.

1) Lie Tie,  £1M — how short your memory is. Granted, he wouldn't get in our team now, but in the season we finished 7th he played a massive part in a small in depth and quality squad. His energy and work rate was great. Honestly, I can recall games like West Ham away that year when he was magnificent. Sure, he was lightweight, but he was decent on the ball, ran like mad and could tackle. For £1M and the job he did he was a good buy for me. Lie Tie, I think of him fondly.

2) James McFadden,  £1.25M — Okay, you pull your hair out. But he was £1.25M, a snip, and is a young player we could  sell for at least double now.  Also, it's easy to forget just how young he is; he is improving all the time.  I would buy him twice despite his faults. His potential is great, he has a lot of ability, good buy.

3) Kevin Kilbane,  £1M.  Don't get me wrong, he's shite. But, good buy. Remember, we had Mark Pembridge in that position.  Moyes sold Pembo for £500k and paid £750k, not £1M if I am correct for KK — a £250k upgrade.  Killer was defiantly better then Pembridge, d with the money problems we had it was a very good upgrade considering what was available at the price. We had a lot of solid games from Kilbane, if he was lacking quality at times you can't say he didn't do us a job.  He worked hard when we had no one else. Moyes new how good he wasn't, hence he got a lot of games out of him, then sold him for DOUBLE.  Good buy, good sell. How is selling him for double a bad buy???

4) Marcus Bent,  $450k.  Marcus was poor from the January onwards and yeah, he's not a good player. However, those 7 goals before Christmas 2004 and his performances got us to the Champions League. Lest you not forget, it was our pre-Christmas form that got us there.  Who else did we have stikerwise? We sold Rooney with no time to spend the money before the transfer window closed, we had Duncan injured and er?? who?? At $450k, Marcus Bent was a fantastic fantastic buy.  He did the lone man job BRILLIANTLY.  Then Moyes sold him for £2M. Did Curbishly actually watch him play?! What good business!

Guillaume Plessis,  Free — cost nothing, how's that a 'bad buy'.  Wages would have been minimal, you have to bring players in to look at them.  If I remember rightly he has no more than a 5-month contract. If you don't speculate on young players you will not accumulate.

Nuno Valente, £1.5M. Granted, at first I thought we'd signed a worse version than Pistone.  But Nuno is a good full back.  He is good going forward and very comfortable on the ball.  Okay, he is lightweight and sometimes gets caught out of position, but £1.5M??  Well worth it; we need one or two more technical players like him.

Steve Spencer  £250k  — "In know nothing about him, apart from his name". You don't even know that mate, it's Scott Spencer. And we signed him aged 17 after he scored a bomb load of goals for Oldham's academy. I wouldn't say he was someone to consider in first team terms.

I know Moyes has made mistakes: Krøldrup, Wright, Davies.  But then so what?  Other managers make more, he has a great transfer record in my opinion. I am thoroughly  grateful David Moyes is the Everton manager. The negativity he receives online from some Evertonians is astonishing. — Carl Odsall

David Moyes has had a few successes and failures but in my opinion those players classed at failures in most cases weren't failures when you compare what they achieved to what they cost Everton. For example:

Lie Tie: Cost us only £1M and helped Everton to generate sponsorship along with vast support in parts of the world we were never known before. Even then, apart from an awful pass-back I can recall on 90 minutes which led to a draw rather than a win, he was a decent footballer in his first year at and got plenty of first team appearances Everton before the injuries.

Richard Wright: Was a decent up-and-coming youngster and in his first season at Everton went five consecutive hours without conceding a goal which was ended by a superb Alan Shearer strike. He is still a squad player and can be called upon to do a job when Howard is injured.

James McFadden: Again was an up-and-coming youngster in Scotland and highly tipped for success. He can be a bit hit-and-miss sometimes but £1.25M for a squad player of his age who can come in and do a job when others are injured is shrewd business in my opinion.

Kevin Kilbane: He was useless with the ball at his feet but he tried tirelessly on the pitch and for an attacking midfielder with his work ethic, £1M is a baragin especially when a profit was made; any Sunderland supporter will tell you Moyes has done well.

Marcus Bent: Again, he wasn't up to the standard that we should expect but he worked hard, cost us next to nothing and managed to make our football club a profit.

Guillame Plessis: I can honestly say I've never heard of him but for free what do you expect??

Simon Davies: He was a decent player in his time at spurs and did look the part but again has had injuries so it is difficult to tell whether he is past his best, but for 3.5 million in this day an age to get a squad player who is also an international even if it is Wales, isn't bad business.

Nuno Valente: He is a Portugese international who was part of a team that knocked us out in the World Cup. His performances, apart from two exceptions, have been spot on and for £1.5M he is a bargain.

Andy Van der Meyde: He has looked a good talent at every club he has been at until he came to Everton. We have seen flashes of brilliance and to be fair he has had his fair share of injuries and break-ins to contend with. Again, £1.8M on an attacking player who is good with the ball at his feet isn't a lot of money in this day and age; for me with confidence he could be talked about in the same breath as Arteta.

However I think there are 2 clear failures...

James Beattie: I do think he was not value for money. Last season, there was a period where I truly believed Beattie would come good, especially after the Arsenal game, but since the derby I feel he has lost his confidence and is running out of time to prove himself.

Per Krøldrup: May have looked the part in Italy but again it is difficult to judge how players will compare in England and with more time and no injuries he could have been mentioned in the same breath as Lescott. — John Burquest

I would like to suggest that this article shows a lot of bias to show Moyes' transfer dealings as a failure. I am not trying to suggest that all of Moyes's transfers have been unequivocal successes, however coming up with number like 25 odd million pounds spent on "failures" is rather subjective (at least the way this article derives its success / failure ratings).

I would go as far as to suggest that transfers of 3 people in particular — Kevin Kilbane, Marcus Bent and Nuno Valente — have been far more "successful".  Nuno for me has been a good signing and he's our first choice left back. I cant understand how he is a failure ?

Marcus Bent - Brought in as a "stop gap" measure at the time when we only had that kind of money to spend on a striker. In the end sold for a PROFIT. Also he was key in tactics leading to a fourth place finish. If that is not success then what is?

Ditto for Kilbane.

I am not trying to defend Moyes; however, I can't overlook just glaring bias in the article. — Billy Stokey

Billy, he made it clear it was his opinion.  He never claimed it was a balanced and irrefutable analysis.  You have a different opinion... I don't think that is a question of 'bias', to be honest.  If it is, then we are all biased in favour of our own opinions.  — Michael

What utter tosh. James McFadden in no way can be seen as a failure, likewise Marcus Bent - he did a good job and we made a good profit on him. The same goes for Kevin Kilbane. However, this post was always going to lack credibilty with Nuno's name appearing in the failures list. Question: do you watch the same team as I?
Monkeyboy

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