Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Everton?s Battle for Hearts over Minds

By Barry   Jones  ::  15/03/2012   52 Comments (»Last) For quite a few Evertonians, the recent level of media adulation of David Moyes, at times verging on beatification, has been baffling. There?s little doubt that, in an era when a manager?s life-expectancy is increasingly measured not in years but in months, it?s a considerable achievement for Moyes to mark a decade at the helm with Everton. But what is perhaps a little more surprising is that Moyes has survived at a club of Everton?s stature without actually winning anything.

Moyes appears uncomfortable with the PR-driven media campaign; he told the Guardian, ?I am quite embarrassed about the whole 10 years thing? and has had to endure The Telegraph?s Henry Winter salivating, ?Everton manager David Moyes is the MOST coveted man in the Premier League after SUCCEEDING on a shoe-string?. If you try really hard, you can kind of understand what Henry means, but, like me, you probably fall well short of agreeing on the eager usage of the verbs 'coveted' and 'succeeding'.

What Henry probably means is that clubs in a similar position to Everton ? and by that I mean 'skint' ? will now look for a manager who can maintain their Premier League status on a shoestring budget and without making the club bankrupt. They?ll also want a manager who can at least give their fans the impression that they?re competing, on most occasions, particularly now that Uefa?s new financial regulations are being applied to those clubs wanting European competition. Not attempting to comply would be like not applying for a European licence before the season, a sure indication of no ambition.

Last week, just about every media outlet in the country carried stories on how successful Moyes has been over the last 10 years, and, with all the predictability of Punxsutawney Phil emerging from a tough winter hibernation in Gobblers Knob, Bill Kenwright, after months of silence, suddenly attaches himself to a good news story and shows up in all the usual places.

This exposure has been driven by Everton?s PR department. They are the source of all the press releases to the media over the past week ? and not just on Moyes; we?ve had Nike, Tim Howard signing a new contract, the Inner Circle link-up and Bill telling the world of nine interested parties.

After a lifetime of cynically following Everton?s PR stunts (I won?t name them as I haven?t the time), a few reasons readily spring to mind as to why Everton have a real need to appeal to the fans' hearts instead of their minds at this moment in time.

Firstly we have to shift a load of season tickets before the end of the financial year, a fact reinforced by the timely arrival yesterday morning of my early bird pack. How good a mood I would have been in if we had drilled one of the worst Liverpool teams in recent history and how readily I would have signed up.

Secondly, the fans have become restless since the summer and Bill Kenwright needs to be attached to a story which deflects from his own truly appalling performance as chairman.

Finally, and probably most genuinely of all, David Moyes has been a loyal servant of the club who, despite Bill Kenwright, not because of him, despite him has brought stability to the club, even if it is in the form of mediocrity. The saddest thing of all is that this list is probably accurate in terms of priority set by Everton?s PR department.

If I?m honest I can take or leave David Moyes and I think a lot of Evertonians feel the same way. I?m neither a fan of certain aspects of his game nor a critic of certain results he manages to obtain from clubs with more money than the Greek economy and debt to match.

He is what he is: functional, hardworking, practical but ultimately conservative by nature... which leads to the inevitable roller-coaster ride of results. For every Chelsea, Spurs or Man City there?s a Sporting CP, Dinamo Bucharest or Liverpool, there?s an inexplicable inability to perform at the start of the season and an equally baffling inability to execute games against allegedly inferior clubs.

Functional, hardworking, practical and conservative ? these are the same qualities that have become a trademark of his teams over the past decade and they?re the same qualities that tell me he?ll never get offered a job at Spurs, Chelsea or United because, with the money they have to spend, they have no need for a safe pair of hands, someone who will grind out a draw or a narrow victory, or someone who simply accepts what he?s given from his chairman ? who in Keenwright's case regards Moyes?s ability to deliver something from nothing, and his own inability to deliver anything, as a match made in heaven.

Looking at football's proven winners, such as Ferguson, Mourinho or even Benitez (who actually won four trophies at LFC during his six-year tenure), do you think any of them would accept the sale of almost £40m of assets in the form of Pienaar, Gosling, Jutkiewicz, Ruddy, Akpan, Vaughan, Dobie, Agard, Beckford, Arteta, Yakubu, Bilyaletdinov, Saha, various loan fees, the proceeds from the sale of Bellefield and let?s not forget almost £20m savings in wages, with just £2m returned to the manager to fund the purchase of Gibson and Jelavic?

Do you think those winners would put up with that miserly amount and scraping around in the loan market? Come to think of it, do you think that the FANS of Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool would put up with all that money coming in, nothing going out, and performances like Tuesday night?

My honest opinion is that Moyes could do better and we could also probably do much worse considering what the club has to offer a manager. I suppose it?s a nice enough balance for a club with no money, but ultimately it?s a recipe for mediocrity which, after years of winning nothing, a lot of our fans now readily accept in place of real success: mid-table is where we are and apparently we should be thankful.

Success of course is always relative. Manchester Utd are successful when they win the league but, when they come second, they see this as failure... whilst for some, David Moyes winning nothing and an average finishing position of 8th is seen as successful because we?re no longer expected to win.

It?s easy just to point at the trophy cabinet and say that?s the only real measure of a manager?s success but ask any number of neutral fans up and down the country to name the Premier League's most successful clubs and Everton are unlikely to spring to mind. As a fan of the fourth most successful club in the country, it?s hard for me to accept that and accept that Everton are about to surpass their previous record barren spell in the top division without winning a major trophy and yet I?m being told by our PR department that our manager is a success?

I know Moyes has won the League Manager of the Year award on three occasions, but let?s be honest, when you look at some of the other recipients, excluding Fergie and Wenger, it?s a list of losers. It?s the Premier League trophy winners, predominantly Fergie, Wenger and The Special One, who appear to have been awarded the LMA honour on merit rather than on any other criteria, and of course Moyes has never won that trophy.

Where Moyes has been successful is in steadying the ship. When he arrived a decade ago, we were perennial relegation fodder on the pitch and in a mess off it. Within just two seasons, he discovered just how much of a mess we were in: a massive £30m loan against the stadium to consolidate debt, war in the boardroom, EGMs, further desperate loans from Singer & Friedlander and the sale of arguably the greatest talent ever to emerge from the academy, which was done to save the club, according to Moyes in the Irish Independent.

All this and more had to be endured by Moyes as he changed the team and the whole work ethos of the playing staff... but ? while there?s no denying he?s moved us further up the table, away from relegation and tantalisingly close to success ? off the pitch, we?re not only still in a mess, it?s fair to say we?re in an even greater mess now than we were then; so what really grates is this love-in between Moyes and Kenwright, it?s a real mutual admiration society.

Despite what Moyes says about the support from the chairman, it?s almost non-existent; his achievements have been delivered on a spend of less than £2.5 million a year ? in an era of record turnover and having to sell all those players, not just to balance the books but stave off disaster. Are we really expected to believe that every time the wolf is at the door, Moyes goes to Kenwright and tells him that he can sell a load of players to keep the creditors happy? Or would it be more believable the other way around?

Of course our CEO will tell you otherwise, but ToffeeWeb is a great source of information because it has people writing for it who don?t just offer an opinion, they back it up with facts. While our CEO talks of a net spend of £35m over the past 5 years, I learnt that this figure included £11m spent on players last year when we didn?t buy a soul, I?ve also learned that this figure represents phased payments for players already on the staff, which the CEO conveniently forgot to say.

I also learned on Saturday that whilst Bellefield and Netherton cost £8,000 a day to run, same as the running cost of Liverpool?s academy, Finch Farm costs £38,000 a day to run ? according to our CEO, when he says 85p in the pound is spent on Finch Farm. £38k a day? ? you?ve got to be joking.

No wonder we have no money and have to sell off players... but a question I have is regarding this extra money from players and the sale of Bellefield: it isn?t included in the turnover, so where does it go? And where does all that money supposedly spent on Finch Farm go?

It?s a huge sum and I?m not saying the directors are syphoning it off but it?s not being used to reduce the debt ? the debt is exactly the same as the year before ? and it?s not being used on the pitch. I?m honestly beginning to think that the taxman, like at Utd and Chelsea, has demanded a huge sum of money from us, I can?t think of any other legitimate answer.

One thing I do believe is that, whilst the love-in between Moyes and Kenwright continues, we?re in for another 10 years of nothing, so I hope Bill isn?t conning the fans with bringing in these specialists from America to sell the club and these nine interested parties. When it?s written down and you read it, do you feel the same as me? My heart?s wishing that it?s true but my mind is telling me that it?s just another cheap trick.

Reader Comments (52)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads