When called upon to think of the greatest managers residing in today’s Premier League the obvious names that first spring to mind are Sir Alex Ferguson, followed by that of Arsene Wenger. Both have obviously won a bucket-load of trophies between them and have been at their respected clubs long enough to have formed a lasting legacy in their names. Another fixture on that list would have to be Everton’s David Moyes. The Scot took a team that quite had quite often flirted with relegation and moulded them into a unit that consistently finished in the top six and were the next club outside the traditional ‘big four’. He went one step better when even managing to break into that quartet, which is no mean feat. It was an achievement that also brought along with it Champions League football, even if it was to be over before it started. After Ferguson and Wenger, Moyes is the third longest serving manager at a club in the top tier of English football, having been in operation at Everton for what will soon be coming up to a ten-year anniversary in March. Like messrs Ferguson and Wenger he has served at his club long enough to create his own dynasty, something which is becoming rarer and rarer in modern day football. It is no surprise then that he has often been linked as Ferguson’s long-term successor when the great man finally steps down.
Moyes’s Everton of today however certainly seem an age away from the side that finished fourth back in 2005. A lot can change in football, especially if given enough time to bloom, or in this case wither, and the fortunes of Everton and Moyes certainly have in recent times. Finishes of eighth in 2010 and seventh in 2011, as well their current standing of eleventh place this season, have been footnoted by a woeful array of financial problems at board level. It seems that in times of late Everton may have hit a brick wall and even stagnated. Through no fault of his own, Moyes is in danger of undoing all of his good work, with people only remembering Everton, unfairly, as the unambitious mid-table team they have unfortunately become, rather than as the next team who could realistically break into the top four.
It was announced at the beginning of the season that Barclays bank had cut the club’s overdraft facility after calling in debts totalling £45million. This basically meant Moyes had no transfer kitty to work with whatsoever, and even if funds were raised from outgoing players, that money would be used first and foremost to help pay off the club’s debts. For this reason Moyes’s only transfer acquisitions last summer were the three loan deals for Royston Drenthe. Denis Stracqualursi and Eric Dier. How can Moyes be expected to build a team with players that will be gone the following season? At the same time his hand was forced to sell strikers Jermaine Beckford and Yakubu as well as star man Mikel Arteta. How is Moyes supposed to build on last seasons seventh placed finish when his hands are tied, whilst every other club around him is spending the money needed to compete in today’s ruthless Premier League?
It’s not just this season that he has had to prepare for in such difficult circumstances. The past few campaigns have seen him having to bring in free transfers, loan deals, and players on minimal transfer fees. You have to go back to September 2009 for the last time Everton really spent fairly big on a player and that was with the £6-7million paid for John Heitinga. But even then Moyes had to sell first in order to buy – the £22million raised a few days earlier with the sale of another key player, Joleon Lescott, to Manchester City no doubt helped fund Heitinga’s arrival. You can throw in the likes of James Vaughan and Steven Pienaar to that ever-growing ‘players out’ list as well for good measure. The days when Moyes had the luxury of breaking the club’s transfer record not once, nor twice, but three times, with the signings of Andy Johnson, Yakubu and Marouane Fellaini respectively, which incidentally went hand in hand with the top six finishes, are clearly a thing of the past.
In such circumstances Moyes continues to do a great job. Drenthe has proven to be an astute signing – but one who has surely attracted many suitors and will no doubt be at one of these come next season. The manager still has to be applauded for the signing even if the reality is it will not help build a team in the long run. That is something that he has probably ruled out worrying about for now, knowing that at any time a Phil Jagielka or Leighton Baines could be the next needed to be wheeled out in order to raise funds and pay off debts. It is a foregone conclusion that Jack Rodwell will be on his way out of the club soon, especially if he features in Euro 2012. The recent acquisition of Darren Gibson for around £500,000 however is a great signing for Everton. Sure, there are better players in his position but given the budget Moyes has available these are the kind of deals that he is restricted to these days. The sum could prove to be a snip if Gibson can settle into the team.
The current transfer window has also seen the return to Goodison Park of Landon Donovan, who again like two years ago, joins the club on a short-term loan deal. That it is a repeat of an old trick, that he is now two years older and debatably not as effective as two years ago, and that he will be gone in two months time all suggest that the deal smacks of desperation, much like the resigning of James McFadden, who has struggled to make an impact since his arrival. But obviously these are desperate times and given the context the Donovan deal is a positive move. If he can help improve the team for two months then the deal will be a success for Moyes. It may be a short-term philosophy, but that is the state of affairs he is dealing with.
You just feel however that there is only so long he can take of ‘doing a great job under the circumstances,’ becoming an almost charity-like case, and that if the board don’t sort out something soon or a miracle happens, i.e. some major foreign investment, then he may want out soon. And you wouldn’t blame him. As it stands there isn’t really much to gain for Moyes. It is almost like a lose-lose situation in the sense that Everton have hit a brick wall and Moyes has taken them as far as they can go – their record under Moyes can only recline. Mid-table mediocrity awaits, something that Moyes himself acknowledges: ”It will be really difficult to finish in the top ten. I think we are going to have a big struggle. Look at the spending of Stoke, Sunderland, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion.” He is realistic and knows that they will struggle to compete when Newcastle are the only team in the league with a lower net spend than themselves over the past two and a half seasons, which even then is only down to their whopping £35million sale of Andy Carroll. The days of qualifying for the Champions League must seems like an age away and it is pretty obvious Moyes is probably not enjoying himself as much as he did back then.
If things were to stay as they were for the next few years Moyes would be in real danger of undoing his good work. While still doing a great job, he will be less remembered for building a team that cracked the top four and more just a manager who has worked well on a tight budget. He is better than that. Given the current context he has clearly taken the club as far as they can go and unless a billionaire sheik is soon to arrive from halfway around the world, as hard as it sounds, he would to do well to part with his club of nearly ten years in search of a new, fresh challenge. Somewhere that is not in danger of turning sterile and somewhere that he will be able to shine once again. His superb managerial skills deserve to be remembered for winning things and breaking new ground with teams, something that now seems no longer possible at Goodison Park. This is also the criteria that the suits high up at Manchester United will be looking for when searching, whenever that may be, for Ferguson’s successor.
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