da 888casino： This season has certainly been one devoid of any lasting joy for Everton fans thus far, as the tight constraints placed on the budget by the board are beginning to take itheir toll on David Moyes’ charges. With Moyes currently enduring an uninspiring campaign in charge of the Toffees, will he start to look elsewhere come the end of the season and is his usually fervent belief beginning to waver?
da dobrowin： Nobody can question the credentials of David Moyes. If I were a Manchester United fan, he’d be at the top of my list as Alex Ferguson’s immediate successor. He’s worked tirelessly on a limited budget for 9 seasons now at Goodison Park, unearthing local talent, fantastic bargains and achieving a degree of success along the way.
In theory and on paper, Everton boast a formidable squad, albeit one that lacks the sufficient depth to truly trouble the top four. Yet the club currently languish in 13th place in the league, just 3 points off the relegation zone. Moyes’ time at the club has been characterised by giddy highs and turbulent lows, but with concerns to this campaign, there appears to be a real sense of lethargy hovering dangerously over Goodison Park at the minute, and I’ve never known an Everton side like it since Moyes has been at the club – they are extremely inconsistent.
Moyes conceded after Everton’s turgid 2-0 away defeat to Bolton at the weekend that: “Today’s performance was as bad as I can remember since I have been in charge.” The one thing you can say of Everton under the astute Scot since he’s been in charge, is that at times while they may have lacked a cutting edge, there at least has always been a never-say-die spirit present, but some of that has began to fade somewhat this term.
The lack of urgency to their play against Bolton has been a theme which has run right through their play for the majority of this season. There have been bright sparks of course, notably the excellent team performances against Liverpool and Man City, but these sorts of displays only serve to put their recent lacklustre efforts into some sort of perspective. The side undoubtedly contains some marvellous players (I’ll admit to having a particular soft spot for Mikel Arteta), but their potential on the pitch has clearly been hampered by the lack of investment in the playing staff off the pitch, and their inconsistency has been a by-product of this.
Everton are perhaps the most frustrating club in the Premier League. They boast a fantastic history, they have one of the best managers in the top flight in charge and a clutch of fine players, enough at least to challenge for a spot in Europe, yet they seem so far away from achieving anything of note.
I argued at the beginning of the season that all Everton needed to validate their progress so far under Moyes was a trophy, whether it be the FA or League Cup, it didn’t matter, it would simply reinforce the idea that bright days had arrived again for the blue half of Merseyside. I really didn’t foresee the club struggling as poorly as they have done this term.
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Which brings me back to my original point – is Moyes struggling to find the necessary motivation to keep going at Everton? No one could deny his loyalty to the club, but perhaps a degree of staleness has set in.
The route cause of the blame rests solely on the lack of investment though. Apologies to keep harping on about it, but it really does seem that as soon as the club take one step forward, they are dealt a blow and have to take two steps back and this is no way to run a successful football club. Chairman Bill Kenwright, for all his good intentions, is simply not rich enough to offer the club anything other than stability and the club‘s global search for investors continues unabated.
The rug is constantly being pulled out from under Moyes’ feet and he must be extremely frustrated at constantly having his wings clipped in the pursuit of new players – something which surely must rank right up there as one of Harry Redknapp’s worst nightmares?
In his post-match press conferences now, Moyes cuts an increasingly crestfallen figure and to an extent, he looks out of ideas on how to arrest the club’s slide without any backing from the money men at Everton. A manager can only do so much. Everton’s squad hardly boasts great strength in depth and any injuries that the club befall hit them hard. It hasn’t helped that key players such as Arteta and Fellaini have unperformed this season either, after coming back from their respective long injury lay-offs.
The spine of the team simply hasn’t been up to scratch so far. The tone was set for the season by Tim Howard’s howler on the opening day of the season against Blackburn and has continued right through to the present day. Jagielka has been outshone by Distin. Arteta looks half the player he used to be. And most importantly, up front, Everton have lacked the required composure to finish off their chances. They boast an injury-prone attack at the best of times, characterised best by none other than Louis Saha.
Saha epitomises Everton’s season so far. At times he can be unplayable, like he showed against Blackpool earlier this month when he struck four goals. At times he can go seriously off the boil, boasting a frankly appalling first touch. Other times, he’s simply too injured to play at all. This is Everton’s season so far in a nutshell. If Everton are to salvage anything from this season, Saha’s dodgy hamstrings will have to be in full working order.
These are worrying times for Everton, make no bones about that. They are caught in an everlasting cycle that limits any potential that they may otherwise have and rather understandably, the players, the fans and most crucially, the manager, all look anxious. Without a new stadium or new investment, the club will always reach a glass ceiling in terms of their development and fulfilling their potential.
Moyes has done an excellent job over the years, there’s no doubt about that, but will he want to continue to work on a shoestring budget with seemingly no end in sight? While the answer to that at the beginning of the campaign would have been an unequivocal yes, there are a few doubts surrounding Moyes future now.