Great Expectations or False Hope?

I assume that those of you who suggested McCarthy did so as a joke. I wouldnt leave them in charge of the reserves. We are too good for those clowns, there is literally no point in appointing them. We may as well stick with Moyes, for better or worse.

I give credit to Mr Moyes for his foresight in taking his coaching qualifications, studying coaches and teams around the world, training methods, etc. What worries me is he may now think he has the answer and it is the players letting the system down that has left him relatively unsuccessful in his career.

He never appears flexible in the way he sets his team up and the way he wants them to play. The Cahill role at West Ham with Arteta supporting was something I was looking forward to seeing ? Arteta closer to the attacking end of the pitch, driving into the box, having shots... but it didn't pan out like that. Arteta looked just as lost and ineffective, which is where Mr Moyes should have made a change, bringing on possibly Bily to play in the support striker role. But no, he persisted with the set-up, thus nullifying our leading scorer.

I find the whole experience of following Everton now almost too painful to bear; the matchday at Goodison ? boring in the extreme, apart from the odd game; watching on TV consisting of screaming at the TV for 90 mins, generally shouting "I don't fuckin believe it" like a foul mouthed Victor Meldrew...

People on this site have mentioned potential replacements for Mr Moyes: Coyle, Hughes etc, but the guy who intrigues me is Villas Boas of FC Porto. This is a guy who has never played professional football, is only 33, took his coaching badges illegally at 17 and worked on Mourinho's staff; Porto now sit top of the Portuguese league with 38 points from 42, breaking all sorts of records along the way. When Porto appointed him he had only managed in 20 odd games.

Would he be interested in the Everton job? Wel,l he speaks fluent English and his grandmother was born in England...

Ideally, I would like Mr Moyes to be successful at Everton, by playing adventurous, attacking football. Change the dour style, we would win more than we lose (or draw!). If not, and we don't change, then Mr Moyes will seal his own fate; he will resign possibly, maybe citing lack of ambition by the club, lack of support by the board, any number of reasons.

He has it in his own power to change the way he sets his team up, to be more aggressive in his team selections and substitutions, because, if he does not, I can see gates of 20-25,000 next season, when the cuts start to bite and money is scarce.

If he left, would this board make an appointment like Villas Boas? I don't think they would... so come on Mr Moyes, don't be a John Malkovich, be a Scottish Villa Boas!

So, on the one hand, Moyes is a criminal.. and on the other he's a master coach? Reading the articles on here lately makes me think we are getting like the redshite, always looking for a scapegoat or someone or something to blame.

Our current crop of strikers were never going to score 20 goals each even on top form, but we at least could've expected about 10 - 15 from each of them. However, this season they haven't produced; that could be Moyes's fault but I don't believe it is.

Those of you who go to the games will know that the rest of the team get the ball into the danger area on enough occasions to expect our strike force to put at least a couple of them away, they have been totally shit this season and deserve to be on the bench... but what happens when Moyes puts them there? Everyone thinks he's lost the plot.

My only criticism of Moyes v West Ham was that he played Arteta, who has been fucking woeful this season, and, in my opinion, should only be making the bench.

If we are looking for someone/thing to blame, we should start with the players on the park: if I see them giving 100% effort for 90 minutes then I'll start looking elsewhere. At the moment, I can only see four or five players who are giving us that effort.

Although the occasional reader of these columns might get the impression that `the end is nigh`, the truth is that our club is in a healthy mid-table position and that a goalscorer ? from within or without ? would transform our team into a leading force.

Certainly we have suffered some disappointment this season but the first half of it has been catastrophic only from the point of view that we have missed so many opportunities to capitalise on the dominance that has been a feature of so many of our games, both home and away.

David Moyes has rarely had big money to spend but he has been seen at his best when this is the case. So don`t sink into the despond which has long been the ToffeeWeb malaise! Just because we wont be competing with the Mancs during the nonsense of the next month does not, in any way, mean we shall not be competing for a Europa place at the end of the season. You just see!

Look at the valuation WHU put on the Yak and the valuation of Moyes... I know which I think is right.

We haven't played too badly at times this year but it doesn't say much when we go to places with three forwards on the bench and wait till late on to put one on. As people have written before, we have to play people in their right places.

"The truth is that our club is in a healthy mid-table position."

FFS Richard, how is 3 points above a relegation spot, a healthy position?

And please, none of the "Moyes will turn it round, and we'll start climbing the table again" ? This crap was being spouted 10 games ago.