ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Moyes's bad buys

With Man City injecting millions in a team supported by a loyal fan base and a great stadium, West Ham spending free and fast, Blackburn being well organised and hard to beat, Portsmouth although inconsistent on the rise, Aston Villa showing good form under O?Neil and Newcastle slowly turning the corner with Allardyce, where do we stand in line with the other Premier League pretenders hoping for a top 6 finish?.

We have invested heavily this year (Baines, Wessels, Yakubu, Jagielka with Pienaar/Gravesen on loan) ? Is it money well spent? Only Wessels and Baines look like being good acquisitions. Couple that with Cahill's injury and Arteta blowing hot and cold and its plain to see we haven?t really kicked on so far this season.

Moyes's signings have been quite frankly poor. Sure the new lads need more time but then again look at all the players Man City have signed and they look the business right off the bat with no Prem experience. The likes of Yak and Jagielka should be doing better, no excuses, and Pienaar is simply not good enough, he?s a South African Leon Osman: good ball skills but so little physical presence a stiff fart will blow him over.

Our defence looks very very fragile which for me is very strange as Everton's trademark under Moyes's management has always been first and foremost Be Hard to Beat!

So far my gut says we haven?t progressed this season; Moyes's signings for one reason or another haven?t gelled and other teams like Villa, City, Blackburn and probably even West Ham and Newcastle now have the edge on us. With a Tottenham comeback on the cards, if we lose the Merseyside derby a season of mid-table struggle could well be ahead.
Dan Johnson, Newcastle Posted 09/10/2007 at 14:21:41

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Comments

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Michael Kenrick

Although I do agree with much of your assessment, the upper-middle portion of the table is still very tight, demonstrated by how we fell from 5th to 10th based on one loss, and that seems to be shading your judgement. We are only 25% iinto the season, and there is a long way to go. I'm not convinced anyone has the Tarot cards to predict how we are really going to do...

Stuart Mitchell
1 Posted 09/10/2007 at 14:39:15

We will have Cahill, Gravesen and Vaughen all back soon.

The midfield has struggled due to the lack of quality cover in the middle, playing a RB and a CB in the 2 cm roles is never going to work. The return of Cahill and Gravesend will make us more dynamic, more creative and more importantly, create more chances for the likes of Yakubu.

I am still remaining positive that although we have had a mediocre start to the season, we will be in the fight for the top 6 positions at the end of the season.

Stuart Mitchell
2 Posted 09/10/2007 at 14:43:53

Regarding the purchases this season.

Wessels looks like very good cover for Howard.

Baines looks like a great buy for me, offering a strong defence and the ability to move up the wing putting in some telling crosses.

With Jags, I think it is unfair to judge him. yes he has been truely awful so far this season, but he has been played out of position, I believe he played RB for a game and looked very assured in that role. he is simply not a midfielder.

Gravesend/Pienaar, they both are loans so not are not going to impinge us spending in Jan, they add to the squad and Gravesen showed already how good he is at threading those through balls, Pienaar has showed glimpses of how good he is, just needs more time.

Yakubu does worry me, looks lazy, slow and sometimes like he really cannot be asked. but he does have a proven scoring recored in the prem, and he also needs to settle, so we should get off his back and give him time to show his true ability.

Seamus Murphy
3 Posted 09/10/2007 at 14:58:39

Harsh - Pienaar is a much better player than Osman, although i think both should not be in the same team together.

Anyway the reality is - all of those teams you mention, perhaps with the exception of City - are equally as frustrating as Everton, no better really.

John Lloyd
4 Posted 09/10/2007 at 15:14:44

Fact is, we have a better team than all the teams you mentioned. We probably have a better squad than them too!!

The wheels will come off with city, I honestly believe that. Too many foreigners around Xmas, weather turns & games coming thick and fast. They wont relish it!

Newcastle have always been & still are perennial underachievers which they will remain this year.

Villa and Pompey are improving but both still have too many off days.

Leaving blackburn, who I rate very highly, very similar to ourselves, hardworking with some very talented players (Pederson, Sante cruz, mcCarthy etc) I think it will be a good contest between us, black burn & one of pompey or villa for 5th place.

Just an opinion mind!

patty
5 Posted 09/10/2007 at 16:16:04

John Lloyd -Shouldn’t you stick to tennis and what’s Chris doing nowadays?? Sorry a weak joke. Think you are basically right but we will see

Dan johnson
6 Posted 09/10/2007 at 16:35:06

John Lloyd, with regrads to the wheels will come off city comment.

Popel said that about us for 95% of the season and we still got in the champions league.

The fact is agood start can set you up for greater things. With teams being tightly matched a good start and a 3 game winning streak and beating the likes of Man U can make all the difference.

The fcat is if we lose too mucg ground it just becomes too much to make up.

T Knowles
7 Posted 09/10/2007 at 17:11:09

John Lloyd
So foreigners don’t like the cold and therefore City will go into decline!
Think that’s called Specious reasoning.
I can’t remember our weather having too much effect on the ’Johnny Foreigners’ at Arsenal, Man Utd or Chelski. Didn’t Ron Noades the chairman at Crystal Palace make a similar stupid statement about black players once?

Peter Singer
8 Posted 09/10/2007 at 17:34:43

Man City’s success will also be the source of their demise. They can perform now, because the players are absolute strangers to the Premier League. And that’s why they are going to fail: not only because injuries and exhaustion is likely to come around January but because by then every opponent will know what to expect of them. They are no more than the everyday wonder of newly promoted teams. Come June, and the better players will be tempted away and they’ll be back to square one.

Steve Lyth
9 Posted 09/10/2007 at 18:04:04

Pete, class players like Elano and Petrov wont fail because they are new to the Prem, they are simply class mate and that will always prevail in any football league.

Peter Singer
10 Posted 09/10/2007 at 19:27:59

When I said their best players will be tempted away, I was thinking about them.

Not to mention that even class players can get injured and the more strain and weariness, the bigger the risk.

Brian Waring
11 Posted 09/10/2007 at 21:31:31

Peter couldn’t the same be said about our best players?Even though Arteta and Cahill signed long term contracts,we all know now ,contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on.We only need to have an average season this year and I reckon it would be adios Arteta.And you couldn’t blame him,because a player of his quality should be gracing the champions league.

Brian Waring
12 Posted 09/10/2007 at 21:31:31