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Fans Comment
Steve Flanagan


Who's been our best manager?
11 March 2006

There has been a lot of talk recently about how good David Moyes is as a manager. Naturally, my take on things is going to have a statistical view to it, which aren’t as bad as may be expected.

Looking at the stats first of all, here’s how Moyes relates to the rest of Everton’s 7 Premiership managers (up to and including the West Ham match). I have also included Dave Watson and Jimmy Gabriel’s stints as caretaker managers:

  • Matches played: Moyes has managed the most with 151 matches.
  • Points won: Moyes is again on top with 210 points.
  • Avge points per game: Moyes is second with 1.38 points per game. The best is Joe Royle with 1.43 per game, whilst the club’s average in the Premiership is 1.24 points per game.
  • % of games won: Moyes has won 39.1% of his Premiership matches, which is the best record, with the club averaging 32.6% in its Premiership history.
  • % of games unbeaten (i.e. either a win or a draw): Moyes has been undefeated in 60.3% of his matches in charge which puts him second behind Royle who managed 69.1%. Overall the club has been unbeaten in 59.2% of it’s Premiership matches.
  • Goals scored per match: 1.17 for Moyes puts him in second place again behind Joe Royle (1.40 per match), with the club averaging 1.19 overall.
  • Goals conceded per match: 1.39 for Moyes which puts him in fourth place behind Royle (1.20 per match), Smith (1.33) and Kendall (1.37), with the club average being 1.36
Basically, what we can see from these stats is that Royle has been Everton’s best Premiership manager with Moyes in second place.

There has also been mention of Moyes’s two Manager of the Season awards, from the League Managers Association. Personally, I think it is worth remembering that winning the award is no mean feat considering that it goes to the manager, who can be from any division, "deemed to have achieved the most taking into consideration the resources available to him", and is selected by the other managers (a sort of Managers Manager of the Year) — so it is quite prestigious (similar in that the Players Player of the Year award is generally considered more prestigious than the Football Writers Player of the Year).

From a personal perspective, I think Moyes is doing an OK job at present. Not outstanding, but then again not as bad as some managers we’ve had in the past. His “open letter” on the official site regarding his non-purchase of a striker was a breath of fresh air – someone from the club actually telling us why a certain decision was or was not made. Whilst some may argue that it was just spin, it was still nice to hear the reasons behind such decisions.

Also, talking of strikers, whilst Moyes has been castigated, for want of a better word, for his failure to purchase a striker; I would prefer he waited until he got the right man, rather than just buying to appease the fans. Doesn’t anyone remember the likes of Brett Angell, Mo Johnston, Ibrahim Bakayoko and Mick Madar anymore?

Basically, signing players is another area where Moyes has been criticised, but looking at who he has signed, I have placed them into three categories:

  • Good – Yobo, Turner (long term), McBride (loan), Martyn, Cahill, Beattie, Arteta, Ruddy (long term), Neville, Ferrari (loan), Valente
  • So, so – McFadden, Kilbane, Bent
  • Bad – Li Tie, Wright, Jeffers (loan), Davies, Van der Meyde (only in here due to his injury), Krøldrup
So far he has spent about £33M net (not including the Rooney money either), which averages at about £8.25m per season. If you include the money we got for Rooney then Moyes has spent £13M net, or £3.25M per season.

Another criticism of Moyes has been the start of this season. True we were knocked out of the Champions League, by a team who are now in the quarter finals. Yes, the Uefa Cup exit was a major blow, but, in hindsight, I think getting knocked out of the Champions League the way we did (yes the Collina incident) knocked the stuffing out of us, plus injuries didn’t help us all that much either. Now that we have players returning from injuries we can see what the team can do, with the recent run of games.

The problem at the moment, from what I can see, is that Everton’s Board are trying to run the club as a business rather than as a football club. I mean, what other team says that the money the manager has got for signings includes wages!

After the finish last season, I would be happy with a couple of seasons of competing for a Uefa Cup spot, and, at present, we are not that far behind. How many of us were expecting that after the start we had?
Steve Flanagan


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