Everton

The Moyes the Merrier – Everton’s Meteoric Rise

Rewind back to Sunday 10th March 2002. It’s a 1:00pm kick off at the Riverside Stadium for a FA Cup Sixth Round game, live on Sky Sports 1, between Middlesbrough and Everton.

Middlesbrough run out comfortable 3-0 winners with a seven-minute onslaught which destroys any Evertonians hopes that anything can be salvaged from a ghastly season. It turns out to be Walter Smith’s final game in charge of the Blues, as Bill Kenwright against all odds tries to locate a manager to save the club from the all too regular relegation fodder which they find themselves in.

The team that day for the blues is as follows:

Simonsen;
Pistone, Stubbs, Weir, Clarke, Unsworth;
Gascoigne, Gemmill, Linderoth;
Radzinski, Moore

Players not in the starting XI: Alexandersson, Blomqvist, Chadwick, Ferguson, Campbell, Ginola and Mark Pembridge. The squad is ageing, injury prone, devoid of any quality, dense and oblivious of how to win a football game. Since mid October, 21 games to be precise, the team had won only three league matches, against Southampton, Sunderland and Derby. The club was once again staring down the relegation barrel, hoping for a last minute miracle to save their skins, usually on the final day of the season. Infact, the fans did not have to wait until the final day of the season, instead they had only five days to wait for their prayers to be answered.  

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Fast forward to Monday 25th February 2008, and Everton sit fourth in the Premier League, after defeating a competitor for the final champions league place, Manchester City, so convincingly that few would argue that Everton fully justify their placing in the table. The team that defeated Sven’s men was as follows:

Howard;
Hibbert, Yobo, Jagielka, Lescott;
Osman , Carsley, Neville, Pienaar;
Cahill, Yakubu

Players not included in the starting XI that night include Gravesen, Under 21 England left back Baines, future England forward Vaughan, Manuel Fernandes, Nuno Valente, Anichebe, England striker Andy Johnson and the skilful Goodison gem that is Mikel Arteta.  What David Moyes has achieved at Everton since his arrival is nothing short of astonishing. 

His first full season at Everton was like a breath of fresh air, with the club spending an extended period in the top three. During the season the club became the 1-0 specialists, including winning five games in a row by that score line. Everton eventually slipped to seventh, failing on the last day (at home to Manchester United) and allowing Blackburn to steal the coveted UEFA Cup slot. The 2003-2004 season was a ghastly disappointing season overshadowed by the development of wonder kid Wayne Rooney. His controversial departure at the close of the following summer transfer window led the majority of pundits, experts, and a large proportion of the clubs fans, including myself, to tip Everton for the drop.  

Underestimate Moyes at your peril. In the 2004-2005 season Everton once again (similar to his first season in charge) spent the majority of the season in the top three. And whilst there was a decrease in form in the second half of the season, partly due to the sale of influential (who had finally displayed some consistency) midfielder Thomas Gravesen, the club had clearly matured, and whilst the red half of Merseyside were celebrating an unlikely memorable Champions League success, Everton looked down on Liverpool from fourth place in the final placing.  

Once again however, mistakes were made. In the transfer market, the club failed to take the opportunity to move the club forward, and a money driven naive pre-season competition in Thailand set Everton up for what would be a disastrous beginning to the season, which saw them bow out of both Champions League and UEFA Cup qualifiers at the first hurdle, and sink in the league. A New Year renaissance liberates Everton from their poor form and the club climbs into a 11th-place finish. 

2006-2007 sees the good times return to Everton, without dropping out of the top half all season long, Moyes’s boys secure UEFA Cup qualification with a sixth-placed finish. Whilst the results go Everton’s way, the style of football is open to criticism. The club take on the Bolton mantra of hard workers and physical opponents.

Lessons are learnt, and Moyes openly admits at the beginning of the 2007-2008 season, that he wants to improve the quality of football on show at Goodison Park, with more attractive performances. That this has occurred is in no doubt, despite what some lazy outdated journalists still proclaim, and the fans now not only have progressively consistent results from the team, but also an improved style of football on show, with fast flowing and creative attacking patterns of play which has seen the club forward their claims for a fourth place finish, whilst also competing, refreshingly, on the cup front.

Despite missing out on a trip to Wembley, Everton can be proud of their performance in the League Cup, narrowly missing out against Chelsea. And the progress made in the UEFA Cup has been a breath of fresh air for the Goodison Park faithful, which has seen endless club European records being broken, including seven consecutive victories. Whilst Fiorentina are a different quality of opposition, Everton should have nothing to fear.

Moyes has made mistakes. Every manager makes mistakes. The key to developing as a manager is that they learn from them. Managers are often judged by their performances in the transfer market, and whilst Moyes has made mistakes, with the likes of James Beattie, Andy Van Der Meyde and Simon Davies all disappointing, and the peculiar Per Kroldrup saga (who reportedly lacked the ability of heading the ball), his record in the transfer market must make the majority of managers envious.

Domestically he will gamble on championship-based players such as Joleon Lescott and Tim Cahill, who can both now boast to being two of the leagues most consistent top performers. Internationally he will take risks on journeymen and relatively unknown quantities such as Yobo, Arteta and Pienaar. I could go on. The squad appears to have the perfect mix of quality and work rate, experience and young developing stars. Combine this, along with a much improved tactical style of football, with the much discussed spirit inside the dressing room, and Moyes has compiled an outstanding squad which appears to go from strength to strength and has helped transform the club from the state it was in when he took charge.

Whilst Everton’s defeat of Manchester City was only one game, the general standing of the club now compared to when the manager took over, can only illustrate what a manager David Moyes has become, and has seen him progressing at a rate which has seen him compared in many quarters to a certain Sir Alex Ferguson.

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Has Moyes received the credit he deservesd?
Share your views by leaving a comment below.

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