COLUMNIST JOHN HOLMES

Purchasing precision silences City

By John Holmes :  17/01/2010 :  Comments (24) :

Rumours in the Sunday papers suggest Angel Di Maria, Benfica’s Argentine winger and Everton’s tormentor in chief, has rejected a £38m move to Manchester City. The usual explanations will no doubt be offered; City are not in the Champions’ League, they aren’t a big enough club and it’s cold up north. However, one wonders whether Di Maria sat down on Saturday evening to watch his suitors humbled by a team he had twice made a mockery of just three short months ago. If that was the case, then Di Maria will have been firstly puzzled as to why a team whose performance was so stratospherically bad would think they were the club for him and, secondly, “¿que diablos ha pasado a Everton?”

Last week I suggested improved form stemmed from increased stability. I still believe that a consistent line-up with personnel to fit the game plan has been the key factor; however, the metamorphosis of Heitinga and Fellaini has been almost as vital. Before that though, pray silence, for let us savour a moment of divine retribution.

Wise men say we should not crow when our tormentors are cut down to size, that humility is a virtue and that we should take victory and defeat with modesty aflame. However, I’m from Yorkshire so I say bugger that.

The term nouveau riche was used to describe the poor men made good who offended the established upper crust with their lack of taste and decorum. It also reeks of snobbery. However, the upstarts at Eastlands showed an arrogance in their pursuit of Lescott that more than justified the contempt. Flashing his new chequebook with the witless “don’t you know who we are?” attitude of the professional z-lister, Mark Hughes looked down his nose at Everton with his intentionally snide comment about City being “a big club trying to sign one of their players”. With their big-time Charlie posturing, like Real Madrid without the glamour, they treated Everton’s manager as a bug to swatted away in their thirst for talent.

There were, of course, two problems. Firstly, they weren’t signing Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo or Beckham. Instead, for his showpiece signing, Hughes had scoured the world and come to the conclusion that Everton’s second best defender was the £27m man for the moment. Lescott subsequently joined a defence staffed by the best rejects money could buy. Alongside deadweight from Arsenal and Chelsea, Lescott showed his quality, and how we laughed.

The second problem in Hughes’ master plan was that he’d picked a fight with the wrong man. Anyone who witnessed Everton’s players scurrying around haranguing City into mistake after mistake, backpass after backpass, would be forgiven for thinking this was just high spirits from a team regaining its confidence. Not a bit of it. A proud man, Moyes was never going to have someone thumb their nose at him and take it lying down. A glimpse at the program notes suggested the righteous fire of the wronged would be put into his players.

With Lieutenant Neville barking out the orders like he’d never been away, the blues simply over-ran their lighter shaded opposition, leaving a trail of battered egos in their wake. Only Shay Given and, ironically, bête-noire Bellamy emerged with any credit; the latter for his warm-hearted congratulation on Fellaini’s show-boating. As a child, I thought schadenfreude was a drink, rarely has it tasted so sweet.

If City are, as professional Everton fan Phil McNulty observes. a lesson in the perils of an unlimited transfer budget; then David Moyes is the antipathy, a lesson in how to do it on an (admittedly gold-plated) shoe-string. His transfer record remains remarkable. With Hibbert and Osman out injured, Saturday’s starting line-up featured eleven players brought in by Moyes. It is hard to argue that any of them have failed to justify, or look like they will fail to justify, their fee.

Big question marks hung over Fellaini and Heitinga just a few months ago. However, Moyes has tamed their wild streaks, and transformed them into players who few Evertonians would exclude from their favoured line-up. The Belgian’s transformation is truly incredible. Hampered partly by ever-changing duties but also by his own inability to show sufficient discipline, energy and awareness to play defensive midfield, he looked lost as Di Maria tormented Everton through a miserable autumn. The disgust was palpable in the stands as a record signing seemed barely able to complete a three-yard pass, let alone execute a tackle without committing a foul. Bean-pole target man seemed his destiny.

Those who heard Goodison roar as the big Fella whirled past Bellamy would be left in no doubt that things have changed; here was a man who could go on to be a legend of the Gwladys Street. At 22, the world is at his feet and, inevitably, covetous eyes are taking note.

Throughout the team though there were players for whose capture Moyes must be praised. The bold gamble on Saha, the incredible bargain buys of Cahill and Pienaar, the savvy loan of Donavan and solid choice of Distin, the wise investment in Baines and the reasoned acceptance of Howard and Neville as presumed down-payments for Rooney.

A few years ago there was scepticism about the manager’s ability in the transfer market. Krøldrup and Van der Meyde had sullied his record and Beattie was growing lead buckets around his feet. Three and a half years on from Beattie’s sale, it’s hard to point to another dud. Players have come and gone, Jacobsen, Johnson, Castillo, Jo, Fernandes, Valente, McFadden; but it’s hard to suggest any of these names didn’t give Everton a reasonable return on their net outlay. Moyes may not be the best at getting his man, for whatever reason, but once they’re in the shirt, they rarely show him up.

One name is missing from my run-down of Saturday’s team. The Russian, Bilyaletdinov, complained recently of the team’s tendency to bypass the midfield. Whether by default or design, the long-ball ravaged City’s backline and Cahill did his reputation proud as a bouncy, aggressive nuisance, forever out-jumping far taller centre-backs. Bilyaletdinov may not like the tactic, but he can’t have minded the number of opportunities that fell his way as the ball was nodded into his path. On another day he’d have scored a hat-trick.

Bily stands alone now as the one player still to prove his worth amongst Moyes’s major signings. Signs of improvement in attitude and understanding were in evidence. He still needs to show more composure in crossing position, not to mention finding ways to get himself half a yard to increase those opportunities; but with the transformations of several of his team mates from Premier League light weights to dominant performers, his future seems in safe hands.

In Moyes We Trust has become something of a stick to beat the manager’s fans with in recent times; however, on present evidence, players could do worse than listen to that mantra when ‘big clubs’ come a-calling.

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