Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Strikers' Graveyard?

By Dave   Wilson  ::  23/02/2012   121 Comments (»Last) Louis Saha`s transfer to Spurs came as something of a surprise, his form for most of the season had been poor, he appeared not to care. David Moyes no longer seemed able to coax a performance out of him. Many Evertonians were quite simply glad to see the back of him.

The Spurs fans were mystified too; they were chasing the title, why on earth would they want him? But they were delighted when he bagged a brace on his home debut, he looked a class act.

Seeing Saha play so well was difficult for Evertonians to take. Yakubu had been scoring for fun since he'd left and now the player who had looked for all the world as if he had retired ? mentally at least ? had found his shooting boots and was really looking the part.

"Goodison has become a graveyard for strikers" ... "Moyes ruins every striker he gets his hands on" ? How many times have you heard that? So has it?? ... Does he???

Strikers have always been the golden boys, the crowd favourites ? and rightly so; they do the hardest job of all, they are often the difference between success and failure.

Today's Premier League striker has it made, though. He is treated like a God and will pocket anything up to £200k a week. When he's scoring, he really does live the dream; everybody loves him... but what happens when the goals dry up? ... Well, he still gets his £200k and (in his world) everybody still loves him. If there is a price to pay for a striker performing badly, it's usually paid by his manager.

Can you imagine the tension Kenny Dalgliesh feels every time the guy he paid £35M for fails to make an impact? How Mancini feels when he see`s images of Carlos Tevez playing golf on SSN? What goes through Fergies mind when the guy who shared the golden boot with Tevez last season, looks completely disinterested? These strikers can break a manager.

Andre Villas-Boas is under intense pressure to get results, but the guy who not long ago was rated by many as the world's top marksman, is now playing like the arse end of a pantomime horse.

Buying a top striker is probably the biggest risk a leading manager will take; if it backfires, his judgement will be questioned, but letting a striker go can often be just as much of a gamble. Yakubu has made a habit of leaving clubs after a dip in form only to find the change of scenery was enough to re-align his stars. Sir Alex Ferguson must turn the telly off every time he sees Diego Forlan lining up...

A striker's form is only one of the problems, the relationship they have with managers is often fiery and short-lived, Even the best managers have trouble dealing with these modern-day prima donnas. SAF has had some very public bust-ups with his forwards: Van Nistelroy, Ronaldo and Tevez have all left under less than amicable terms. Rooney has stayed so far, but only after humiliating Ferguson and forcing a staggering pay rise. Mancini has so far been unable to control Baloteli or Tevez. Wenger is feeling the heat too, When Robin van Persie follows through with his threat to leave the club at the end of this season, the Arsenal manager will be left with Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott and Gervinho and although Wenger paid about £30M for these three, I don't think they have reached double figures between them this season.

Then we have Harry Redknapp. We all saw the way he reacted to pressure when Darren Bent failed to hit the target for him ? he simply hung him out to dry. Redknapp's relationship with his strikers was so fractured, Crouch and Pavlyuchenko were shown the door and Defoe often left out in the cold. Having lost faith in his £40M strikeforce, Old 'Arry will now try to win the title with a loanee and a free transfer he picked up on a six-month contract.

Strikers eh? Who'd have 'em? Most of them seem to fall into one of two categories: money-grabbing gobshites who care more about money than the game... or neurotic basket cases. Maybe Pep Guardiola has the right idea, he doesn't bother with them.

Anyway, getting back to the original question: Is Goodison under Davey Moyes a graveyard for Strikers? Well, Bent, Radzinski, Beattie, Johnson, Yakubu and Beckford have all enjoyed their best seasons under Moyes. But there is little doubt that he could have handled one or two of them a little differently.

Anichebe, after some terrible injuries, is showing signs of repaying the faith his manager has shown in him, Vellios has told us how much he loves it here. And very few of us would swap the Argentine nobody wanted, for the misfiring Geordie across the park or the desperate Spaniard at The Bridge.

Sure, Moyes has made mistakes with his forwards ... but show me a manager who hasn't.

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