ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Moyes and his pearls

Wether you love him or hate him, you have to give David Moyes credit for his extrordinary ability to unearth a potential star from obscurity.

Arteta, Cahill, Lescott are the first names you think of but very very quickly the names Jagielka and Pienaar have joined the list. All are players that joined the club without much fanfare at bargain basement prices who have multiplied their worth and become top-class premier league players.

Moyes has a keen eye for a player with potential and more importantly has the ability to extract the very best from these guys and turn them into PEARLS. Who will be the next player to add to the ever growing list???
Peter Bourke, Sydney, Australia Posted 14/02/2008 at 09:46:35

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marcus dawson
1 Posted 14/02/2008 at 16:08:13

I think Moyes has made some great moves, but we have had our share of bum deals as well. However, on balance I think he’s ahead of the game, all the close season signings are improving, I would add Baines to your list because I think he’s going to be top class.

The interesting point is that all Moyes best signings seem to take time to settle in, Arteta looked distinctly average for quite a while (I remember missing Grav), Jags looked well off the pace (as did Yak) and Piennar was also a relatively slow starter. It’s not something I’ve ever noticed before, although new players rarely scream straight in, all our best players seem to develop slowly. I hope the same is true of Manny, maybe we need to give him much more time before judging.

George Mapp
2 Posted 14/02/2008 at 17:43:13

Funny how easy it is to forget the dross Moyes has signed whilst revelling in his few successes. AvdM, Krøldrup, Wright, Beattie, da Silva, Wessels have all been total crap ? and he certainly hasn?t lost the knack by bringing Gravesen back.
But pass the rose-tinted specs then my swine can be pearls as well!

Keith Glazzard
3 Posted 14/02/2008 at 18:20:03

Daft as it sounds, I think we might eventually add our record signing to Moyes’ hit list. Yakubu, to quote superpundit Shearer, is an out and out goal scorer, he won’t hold the ball up or do anything else for you.

So who was the bloke who played against Brann last night? A very good footballer, winning the ball ( !!! ), holding it, passing to bring others into attacks - the lot. Was he playing in midfield? Not quite, but deep very much like a Rooney.

Of course, they say that MUFK taught him all he knows (all together now - bollox). In young Wayne they bought more or less the finished article, the best player in an England shirt. So if Shearer & co thought that we’d bought a Yakubu who was never going to improve, they were wrong. Moyes saw something else in this player, and we are being to see it now. Hope it goes well.

Steve Pugh
4 Posted 14/02/2008 at 20:23:27

George, nice to see that you are positive about the way everton are moving forward. I think if you ask Sheffield United fans right now they will tell you that BT isn’t crap. He just didn’t fit into the Everton way, same as Da Silva, Barnsley fans love him. What DM has done is nothing short of brilliant, with a very minimal budget he has to go out and find players with more potential than they are showing at their current club, pick them up cheap and then try and bring out that potential. For him to have as many successes as failures is fantastic. If he had that level of success with the sort of money on offer at Manure, Chelski and the shite, then yes I would be agreeing with you. But we don’t have that sort of money, so Moysey is reduced to looking in the bargain bin, and he still finds diamonds. I’d like to see any other manager to better. (with the exception of Wenger who is officially the best and unearthing new talent - but then look at the amount of crap he has bought in the past. Jeffers anyone?)

Terence Soh
5 Posted 16/02/2008 at 02:58:18

I agree with Steve that DM has done a hell of a job. Remember not too long ago when DM said barcodes under Bobby Robson was our model of how Everton was to develop. Fast forward 5 years and we are almost there and see how the barcodes had slide