FAN ARTICLES

A Rock and a Hard place

By Christine Foster :  16/03/2011 :  Comments (32) :

The reasoning would be clear in that, should David Moyes walk, then primarily the club would probably get a compensation figure from another club and not have to pay out the remaining period of his contract; either way, combined, probably several millions. That all helps with the banks.

Moyes himself must have recognised this for what it was ? a manipulation designed to offload him by Kenwright. The team hasn?t performed well, the troops are restless, and there is no money in the pot to rebuild the squad. Unless, of course, you sell the stars we have, clear the club debt, and pray that another, cheaper, manager can come in and work the magic with fresh (but largely unknown) faces for at least a year or two whilst the search to 'sell' (debatable word) the club continues.

Kenwright is looking for a way out of the dilemma he and the club is facing: how to ringfence his own return on selling up; and how to keep the club going ? the two are not necessarily mutually compatible. To achieve those aims may mean that alliances and friendships are sacrificed at the altar of wealth. We have seen it before; we will see it again.

Moyes has had a difficult road in the past 9 years: some highs and some lows... overall, no one can deny that he has been an improvement over what we had before and he has done well with the limited resources at his disposal. His ability to almost negate any transfer expenditure with player sales has been impressive and he has done his job commercially for the club with almost a net zero spend overall.

Tactically he is naturally conservative in his line-ups and has the tendency to revert to type (defensive) during a game, which leads to constant frustration of the fans and I suspect the players too. He has his shortcomings, as every manager does. He can be almost irrational in some of his tactical substitutions, but that?s another issue...

He has shown immense loyalty to the club and in particular to Bill Kenwright, steadfastly refusing to blame anyone but himself for the situation on the pitch but there comes a time when he must feel he is banging his head against a brick wall. He sees no transfer kitty, he sees the club in debt to its eyeballs, no movement on any new ownership, and players about to be sold from underneath him. He has a squad that needs selling and rebuilding once more but now, more importantly I suspect, he sees the chairman as giving the rug under his feet a gentle, but perceptible tug.

For the first time, we are seeing a different rhetoric from Moyes, implied confrontational statements in response. Privately, Moyes must be furious that Kenwright made the comments he did; if they were made without prior discussions, then it was certainly a signal to other clubs by Kenwright that Moyes's time at Everton is coming to an end.

If Moyes and Kenwright had already discussed this in private before any such statement, then it?s clear that the very act of discussion would mean that its likelihood has increased significantly. Once open, it?s very hard to repair the rift in a friendship or in a business relationship.

Both men are in difficult situations. Moyes has significant pride and the backing of supporters in general; there is no groundswell to remove him, despite the grumblings of many who believe the time is right for him to go. He wants Everton to succeed and in doing so it naturally improves his standing and worth in the game. That pride is I think the only thing keeping him at the club... but even that is being dented by the actions and words of BK.

His standing in the game is being damaged not only by having to manage with a threadbare squad, putting square pegs into round holes, but also the inability to put a squad together that?s not going to sell the best players every couple of years. No continuity is the result: inconsistency and frustration for all concerned. The circle has to be broken and Moyes cannot carry on without the resources to keep Everton in the Premier League. We are no longer improving but sliding, slowly, downwards. He knows it; we know it.

Kenwright has a similar dilemma in that he needs Everton to stay in the Premier League if he is to find a suitable investor / buyer. Otherwise it will be a fire sale, so Kenwright has to protect his interests and ensure the club is seen in a positive light. He needs Moyes to ensure that the club stays out of the relegation fight and is able to sell off one or two of its senior players to rake in some much needed cash.

But Moyes has heard the story before and the promises. It?s likely that Kenwright knows that he can?t fund Moyes's expectations, realistic as they may be, but Everton FC need to struggle on regardless.

That we find ourselves in this position is not a direct result of how well the team has played; the law of averages will always favour those with greater resources to call upon, it will always dictate that those who sail close to the wind will fall at some point.

The fact is, we have done extremely well so far with so little. But the cuts made to playing staff can no longer be ignored. With the entire midfield injured the results are plain to see. No-one on the bench to do a job; it has all the feel of a Sunday League side looking to make up the numbers. Now we hear the club is likely to sell the very stars we need to build the team around in order to survive.

The seeds for this situation were planted all around Goodison in the past decade and before. The club has been slow to grasp the opportunities of the Premier League and even slower to improve its standing, image and bricks and mortar. We are now playing catch-up when there is no money to be had. For this, the board and previous management must take full responsibility. We have plodded on from season to season, building up debt and hoping that someone, somewhere will eventually pay it. The banks now want their pound-and-a-half of flesh. Time is up.

Both men are between a rock and a hard place. Neither one has any easy decisions to make: the likelihood is that both will leave the club sooner rather than later, at least for one it will probably be much sooner than the other. If Moyes does depart at the end of the season, one hopes it?s with dignity and his held high, as it should be. He deserves that... but we deserve better from a club that created the situation in the first place.

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