Column

The Rot Sets In...

Ed Bottomley 18/10/2007 18comments  |  Jump to last
Yakubu, so far, in my mind at least, has been a royal waste of money. Two flat-track bully goals, and the general contribution of a slug on ketamine, coupled with better, harder-working youngsters breathing down his very large neck, like Anichebe and Vaughan.

And why oh why did we spend so much on him? We should have just doubled our bid for Lucho Gonzales rather than buying this mope from Middlesbrough. The consensus amongst most of the 'Boro fans I spoke to during our usual Scrooge-esque dealings with them was that they should take the money and run, and good for them. What rankles even more is the fact that Beattie is now top scorer in the Championship charts having played dismally for us. Faced with all of this, doubts start to creep into my mind about David Moyes ? McFadden isn't setting the world alight at Everton (unlike at International level) , AJ is in the mother of all slumps, and Beattie .... well, see above! Add to that Moyes's handling of Yakubu and I begin to think that we will forever be aimlessly searching for our "20 goal a season" man.

I'm starting to disagree with Tim Sherwood in his assessment that with Yakubu sometimes you get Thierry Henry, and sometimes you get Lenny Henry. So far, all we have had is a comedian upfront. Yakubu spends most of his footballing life lying relaxed submersed in semi-consciousness, occasionally drifting to the surface about twice a game. Someone needs to investigate Yakubu's internal wiring and change the "relaxing slow jams" CD that is playing on loop in his head with something heavier ? some Slayer would probably wake him up from his Rip van Winkle slumber!

Yakubu's signing was a huge risk for Moyes; the Nigerian is as synonymous with an abysmal work-rate as Everton used to be associated with fluid passing in the 60s and Moyes will have known that ? so either he had to abandon the work ethic and let Yakubu sit on his backside and score, OR he had to to try and transform Yakubu into a hard-working goalscorer... but do you pay over £11 million for someone you want to transform? No, there is a much simpler answer to this mess...

Moyes is still intoxicated with the barnstorming goal that Yakubu scored for Portsmouth against us... Collecting the ball from a header he charged through several Everton defenders with such strength it was as if Jonah Lomu had switched footballing codes and then slapped the ball through the back of the goal... If only he could come up with something like that on Saturday, then all will be forgiven!

Reader Comments

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Michael Dillon
1   Posted 19/10/2007 at 06:56:10

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I like that last part. Yes Indeed all will be forgiven if he tears apart the RedS this Saturday.
adz
2   Posted 19/10/2007 at 08:38:18

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moan moan wheez whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Jay Campbell
3   Posted 19/10/2007 at 09:06:07

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Why the f*ck did we but him in the 1st place??? It woz a midfielder we needed Moyes. We should have used that 11 million plus the money we were gonna use for Fernandes to buy a real star in the middle ov the park!!! Another F*ckin masterstroke from Moyes. Kn*bhead.
A.Codd
4   Posted 19/10/2007 at 09:47:16

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Why cant people get it in their heads that Yakubu is never,has never and never will be a player that runs round chasing lost causes etc.
If Moyes has done his homework then he will be acutely aware of this and if he didnt like it then he should never have forked out 11 million + for him.
Given a decent chance by his midfield "Playmakers ha " Yakubu will eventually get his goals.
But with Neville and Carsley in the engine room and the hoof ball tactics employed by moyes, the greatest striker in the world would struggle to make an impact.
Al Creevy
5   Posted 19/10/2007 at 09:55:37

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Sorry, sounds a bit like getting the excuses in early to me. A day before we meet the sh*te and you are starting to have a go at the manager, the players, the tactics...when none of us know what the starting 11 will be, what the tactics will be and more importantly...what the result will be!
Leave the moaning, back biting and slagging off til after the game. I am looking forward to watching the rugby final whilst in a drunken happy blue haze!

Jane Guest
6   Posted 19/10/2007 at 10:25:38

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Yakubu more often than not stumbles around the goodsion pitch looking like a boxer whos had 25 fights and been knocked out 30 times. i have to admit i was quite pleased and had a certain level of expectation when he was purchased from Cleveland. Subsequent showings have been a major let down, and yes even johnson looks at times like he wishes he was somewhere else. 20 million pounds sterling for the two of them, i dont know. Thats almost as much as we got for rooney. Moyes business acumen is questionable but his motivation and leadership cannot be faulted. I feel he is the right man to move us forward but each passing year without a sniff of glory becomes progressively frustrating. We are the school of science, not the kindergarten of under achievers. lets hope yakubu can reinstate himself as a fans favourite and justify his price tag starting tomorrow. Dont hold your breath though.
Tony Marsh
7   Posted 19/10/2007 at 12:42:37

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Bent,Ferguson,Beattie,Johnson,Yakubu have all played as a striker for Moyes at Everton and all have struggled to score gaols .WHY????.Tactics that belong in the 1980s dont help and a manager who is defence minded makes thing even worse.
Asking players to play a game they are not used to or playing them out of position
is crazy.Johnson has been a right winger since he came to this club and now Yakubu is being asked to play his game 15 yards outside the box with his back to goal with the ball pinging off his head.The blame for the shambolic way in which we play the game rest,s on the shoulders of Moyes and Irvine and those little bits of paper they rely on.If you buy a sports car and then put Diesel in the tank by accident
do you blame the makers if the engine blows up?No you dont.Stop blaming the players for carrying out the managers gormless style of play.
A.Codd
8   Posted 19/10/2007 at 13:05:52

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Well said Tony Marsh
its no use slagging the players when the manager is so negative and employs ale house tactics.
John Lloyd
9   Posted 19/10/2007 at 13:44:05

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he’s scored 2 goals before he has settled in you pricks??

The only justifiable argument is that people seem to thnk he is gonna runaround (mike reid rip) like a johnson type!! he’s not hes a lazy goalscorer. Like I say he has scored 2, only a great save (boro) and a non-given foul/red card (man u) an he would of had 4!! He’ll score goals, lets see the posts then.

You are a fickle shower, sometimes.....
Jay Campbell
10   Posted 19/10/2007 at 14:20:02

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John Lloyd that was a bad summary that lad. What do ye mean he could of had 4?? Has he?? No!!!



When it come’s to tactic’s and being able to change your gameplan and vary your play, Moyes is way out of his f*ckin depth. He only play’s ONE way and with the same personel and that personel with the exception of a few are clones ov each other. Limited, Hardworking Footballers nothing else. Utter Sh*te.
Louis Tully
11   Posted 19/10/2007 at 15:19:54

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moyes has done a cushion job with a array of sprinklers and talents. if tomorrows derby goes the way of pigeons after 5pm then we could be in trouble. if on the other hand we can have a bright july evening performance with some seed then we can have bragging rights on merseyside. the secret of a good team is to have earlies without smackdown so the likes of arteta and johnson can be as content as a weekend rigger.
Al Creevy
12   Posted 19/10/2007 at 15:34:29

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Louis, are you related to Eric Cantona by any chance. Good surrealist summary though, looking forward to a bright early July evening with lashings of Pim Poms and some jolly decent canopes...what!
Louis Tully
13   Posted 19/10/2007 at 16:11:36

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What i meant was if the likes of arteta and julian can turn it on tomorrow then at the very least we can be spared the feared sloths. Moyes is doing a scrumpy with what he has to offer but kenwright is as helpful as an unwanted fridge. The eggs and marshmallows at goodison can be helped however once johnson finds form and osman and vaughan find the keys. If yakubu is 100 feet and closing then i would say put mcfadden in from the start. i was there in 1984 quite literally and although the cup final win over watford was a great day out further invasions and tall buildings was an unnerving experience. I hope tomorrow there will be no milk and we can comprehensively beat our horrible neighbours. That is all.
Tommy Farrell
14   Posted 19/10/2007 at 16:58:33

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louis are you on acid?
Connor Rohrer
15   Posted 19/10/2007 at 21:59:15

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Tony Marsh has just summed up what I have been thinking for ages. Fans are quickly to jump on a players back if he is not playing well but fail to realize he is playing far from his normal game.

I have seen Yakubu playing as a second striker coming far too deep for the ball as well as being deployed on the left flank. I’m sorry but he is a good player and you don’t score as many goals as he has without being an average Joe.

What Yakubu needs is service and until he gets that he will flatter to deceive. And when I talk about service I don’t mean 40 yard lumps and hoofs upfield I mean through balls, crosses from
out wide and balls into feet around the box.

Our team at this moment can accommodate a goalkeeper and a defense but other than Arteta and to a lesser extent Pienaar the strikers are fed scraps.

If it Moyes’s fault? Maybe it is as at the end off the day this is his team. The team needs to improve dramatically and fans need to stop using Yak as the scapegoat. Yes he needs to improve his work rate I’ll agree with that but everyone knew what we where getting when we bought him so whats everyone moaning about. Yes we needed a midfielder and we almost got a class one but I remember a lot of fans going on about needing a new striker and Moyes went out and bought a proven one.
Dick Fearon
16   Posted 19/10/2007 at 22:26:31

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A measure of a man is his preparedness to admit mistakes. On this thread some of our players plus David Moyes have come in for criticsm. Should we deservedly win todays game how will the same critics measure up.
Any pronouncements made by one track Tony has long been irrelevant to debate about the merits or otherwise of Moyes.
chris brad
17   Posted 19/10/2007 at 22:48:46

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the yak has been a flop and its not just the fans saying it,ex players from everton and football pundits on tv are saying hes been a waste of money,but the main person who knows it and has showed it by dropping the donkey,is our one and only david moyes.lets all stop sticking up for the yak and making excuses for his laziness and his lack of effort or desire and show him with our voices how we feel if he doesnt start to earn his wages and reward us the fans with hard working performances.this team isnt known for carrying baggage.off load.
Peter Singer
18   Posted 19/10/2007 at 23:53:33

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Bent had the best half-season of his career with us. Ferguson, can you remember him being a prolific goalscorer ever? And Johnson struggled so much that he managed to bag twelve last season without taking penalties (Mind you, what he’s really struggling with nowadays are mostly injuries.)

Beattie has finally found the level of football that suits him and Yakubu still hasn’t settled in.

Although some of your points are valid and worth listening to, you always tend to ruin them with ridiculous over the top or outright false examples.
John Andrews
19   Posted 20/10/2007 at 00:38:11

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How the hell do you expect anybody to score when the ball is played up to them at all angles and speeds.
Yakubu is a lazy player but, used to at least, has the knack of finding the net. As soon as we play to his stengths he will start scoring. End of.


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