ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Keegan is right and Moyes is the man

Kevin Keegan was absolutely right yesterday when he told us what we all know ie that the Premier League is boring and that the Big 4 are miles ahead of the rest. Visit any sports shop and it is quite clear that the overwhelming amount of stock carried is that of the Big 4.

It is almost impossible to break into the Big 4; people continually having a go at David Moyes seem to miss the point; if he finishes 5th, that is the best he can do. The fact that we have taken only one point out of 8 matches against the Big 4 is not relevant,. It merely proves how good he is at garnering points from the rest.

Get used to it as it isn't going to change. I haven't always been a Moyes fan but he has done the absolute best that he can for a non Big 4 club and for that he ought to be congratulated and not criticised.
Jonathan Tasker, London Posted 06/05/2008 at 08:25:40

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Joel Pansky
1 Posted 06/05/2008 at 13:51:14

I disagree that Keegan?s comments are right, we?ve proven we can break into the top four ourselves and we?ve pushed Liverpool this season.

Infact we?ve secured more points this season than we did when we finished 4th, so we?re moving in the right direction.

I am certainly a big Moyes fan.

Richard Murray
2 Posted 06/05/2008 at 14:04:24

King Kev’s an idiot.

Dan Johnson
3 Posted 06/05/2008 at 14:01:54

I think we should call it the top 3.

Liverpool have NEVER challenged for a Premier League title and of the top 4 teams its Liverpool who are there for the taking.

We nearly took them this year for fooks sake.

Paul O'Hanlon
4 Posted 06/05/2008 at 14:05:15

Moyes does deserve to be congratulated on the whole, but weren?t you frustrated on Sunday yet again at how long he took to make a decisive substitution to help us win the game? Arsenal were seriously understrength, off the boil and 3pts were there for the taking. If we?d of been more bold in the 2nd half of games this season, as opposed to just the last 10mins, we could and should still be in 4th now.

Jimmy Last
5 Posted 06/05/2008 at 14:15:44

I am not sure I agree with that, we gave the so called top 4 a good run for their money in most of our games against them, and would have taken more points referees and inexperience in the final minutes notwithstanding....4th was ours to throw away and we did, and Moyes has to take some, if not all, of the blame for that

Alan McWatters
6 Posted 06/05/2008 at 15:04:35

I think if Moyes had the cash avaiable to previous managers of Newcastle , Spurs and more recently Man City we would have crashed the Sky Four party on more than one occasion

Seamus Murphy
7 Posted 06/05/2008 at 15:46:53

I couldnt believe what i was hearing from Keegan. The man is obviously lacking something. To say there is nothing he can do to catch Chelsea next season was unbelievable!
Imagine Moyes had said there was nothing he could do to catch the RS next season!! Christ!!
The man is a fool!

Glen Anderson
8 Posted 06/05/2008 at 15:45:56

Is 5th Place the best any of the non-big four can hope for? Disagree

Is Moyes doing an outstanding job just to keep us in 5th place with one game to go? Agree

Despite this, does Moyes still manage to frustrate, infuriate and alienate a large selection of the Goodison faithful with his dithering and defensive outlook? Agree

Overall, am I pleased with the direction he is taking us? Got to say I agree, as KK is almost right, it really is bloody hard to get up near to that top 4 but 4th is there for the taking next year if we increase the quality in the squad.

Mike Oates
9 Posted 06/05/2008 at 15:45:26

We keep talking of targeting for a top 4 place and whilst this is admirable it also then comes with a huge price tag . I’m sure there are/will be the odd occasions when a current non-top 4 team can get to 4th BUT to stay there consistently and compete at the highest level in Europe week in week out against the Top 32 then you need a huge capital investment in buying quality players and a huge revenue in paying the wages.

At the moment I can only see Spurs and maybe Newcastle having that financial clout to stay there , but they need to get a decent team together to get there!- we havent got the financial clout with ageing Goodison and Kenwright not finding or doesnt want to find the right investor.

Moyes is doing a bloody good job on the tightest of budgets - but it is based on sound defensive qualities not gung ho all out attack. Spurs and Newcastle both go for the latter approach and they are currently 11 and 12th in the league. I just cant see Aston Villa, Pompey, and Blackburn having the financial clout either but I do admire Oneill’s and Hughes’s attempts at trying to put together positive footballing teams.

Moyes knows we have to get the attacking element sorted and I do believe he will push to get some playmakers in this summer and also get our full backs to support with pace , Baines and Gosling (Neville)

Adam Carey
10 Posted 06/05/2008 at 16:41:50

I made a similar point on another thread but as much as I hate to admit it, Keegan is correct. The facts don’t lie, and our gatecrashing of the top four table only proves a point.
The four teams, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have bigger resources, and larger squads. In fairness to Moyes, we haven’t thrown 4th away any more than Man Utd have lost their points lead against Chelsea. We have a small squad, with key players injured and the rest of the team running on empty. The teams finishing 1-4 have better replacements and of the chasing pack only Villa are making a run, due to playing less games.
This is the modern game, and money talks. There is an article in the Daily Mail today regarding the 3 tiers of the Premier League, and we’re on course to finish top of the second tier. With the team we have, and the budgets it works to you can’t complain without rueing the whole state of football as well.

Trudy Boston
11 Posted 06/05/2008 at 17:08:53

Where I live, it’s nigh on impossible to get hold of an Everton replica shirt. The usual reply when enquiring was something like "Oh, we don’t stock them, although we do have Manchester United and Chelsea".

I had to travel forty miles last Autumn in order to purchase one, mind you, It was worth the effort as once I had managed to obtain one I was genuinely pleased.

The point being, merchandisers as a whole have no problem selling big four products but when it comes to lesser teams, or what I mean by that is teams like us, in the second bracket of the league then you’re going to encounter difficulties getting what you want, although of course that is dependent of where you live in the country.

As for Mister Moyes himself, he is the marmite of the managers. You either love him or hate him, and I stand towards the former. People cannot ignore what he has done since taking over from the dour Walter Smith. In recent times we have finished sixth, fourth (and with it a shot at the Champions league) and now, while it is not a certainty, in fifth place. Better than last day relegation battles any day of the week.

The best manager at Goodison Park since Howard first time around, and although Joe Royle did the unthinkable and saved us from almost certain relegation and an FA cup victory to boot, he was never given enough time to show the supporters what could have been after the dismal 1996/97 season, which ended with Dave Watson taking over as caretaker manager.

Although it’s not going to happen any time soon, I hope the club does not show Moyes the door, or, if he decides to go elsewhere. It will be a case of two steps back rather than one forward.

Peter Fearon
12 Posted 06/05/2008 at 18:04:37

This idea that it?s impossible to break into the top four is way off. It?s difficult, not impossible. The fact is that Everton?s failure to qualify for the Champions League is enitrely attributable to recent poor performances against teams we were expected to and should have beaten, none of them in the top four. We dropped 9 points against Fulham, Birmingham, West Ham, and Aston Villa, for example.

Ben Brown
13 Posted 06/05/2008 at 18:05:41

The whole notion of teams being uncatchable and having cemented ’tiers’ goes against everything I know about sport. Players can perform better or worse on a day and can improve their skills over time. There are also enough sufficiently talented players in the world to stretch beyond the squads of what, 12 or so teams. The difference between being a good player and a great player isn’t big enough to be insurmountable.

Brian Waring
14 Posted 06/05/2008 at 18:41:05

A negative post, to go along with our negative manager’s attitude, toward’s the so called top 4, when we play them.

Michael Hunt
15 Posted 06/05/2008 at 18:57:08

When all our players were fit for a long spell we were on form to finish 1st- 3rd in the league. We neede to add more quality coz teams above and below will do too. We also need more depth in numbers.
Then, with less biased officiating too, we’d be comfortably challenging at the top already! BMAB! (BACK MOYES AND BELEIVE!)

Dave Whitwell
16 Posted 06/05/2008 at 20:21:17

A bit like saying championship clubs will never make the cup final, try telling that to Millwall & Cardiff.

"It’s a funny old game"

Joe McMahon
17 Posted 06/05/2008 at 20:57:57

Keegan is a prick - the funny thing is look how much money he can spend in the summer, he will have million’s at his dispsal. Spurs & Newcastle outspend Arsenal every season, it’s proof that it’s not just the spending, but how you spend it.

Tony Williams
18 Posted 07/05/2008 at 00:10:52

Joe he may be and is, in fact, a prick but on this occassion is most of the way correct.

Look at the top 4 in the premiership since 2003, it has been the same ones, apart from our one year in there, if you go back further Newcastle and Leeds replaced Chelsea but it was still 3 out of the now top 4, ManUre, Arsenil and The Shite always there.

Since football sold its soul to Murdoch the top 4 have pretty much been consistent, now it’s not negativity Brian, it is fact.

The top 4 are very rarely different, the only ones that have gatecrashed have been Leeds, look where they are now and Newcastle, the same, look where they are now and how much money they have spent to be in 11/12th place.

Eric Myles
19 Posted 07/05/2008 at 06:35:46

But last season didn’t we get more points from the ’top 3’ than our neighbours did?
So it can be done.