ToffeeWeb - Season 2009-10

The Mail Bag

Shakespeare, Duff, and the Everton mobile

I must admit, I'm not like most ToffeeWeb readers who are no doubt avid experts on the game and all the players, but I do know one thing insofar as our squad is tiny and, like a car with a tank half-full, it will eventually run out of gas...

While quality is obviously preferred over quantity, we are never going to compete with the big boys with a squad the size of ours, especially with a run in Europe. When I see household names like Greening and Duff being sold to the lower wasteland of the PL to the likes of Fulham, it makes me wonder why haven't we been building our squad to the same extent.

Saha is hardly of the Moyes build, but he has been taken on, largely I suspect as a desperation measure last summer. If Saha can fit in at Everton, surely any one of the transfers being flung around the PL would fit in?

Is Moyes perhaps too shrewd for himself, suffering from an inability to make a decision about anything, resulting in the dilemma we now regularly find ourselves in, or does something stink on a more sinister level resulting in the lack of transfer activity?

I suspect Kirby has something to do with it, as I recall a recent summer of Johnson, Lescott and Baines were all snapped up in good time before the start of the season... However, that appears to be an exception, rather than the rule.

Just like in all of Shakespeare's main characters, they all suffered from a fatal flaw. Perhaps Moyes's fatal flaw is starting to reveal itself...
Scott Robinson, London Posted 20/08/2009 at 12:02:43

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Anthony Doran
1 Posted 20/08/2009 at 17:45:36

Duff was another obivious but missed buy, ok injury prone and not the young whipper snapper he once was but him on the left with Pienaar on the right... sounded like an improvement to me.

John Brennan
2 Posted 20/08/2009 at 18:12:09

If Moyes doesnt handle the Lescott departure properly, we can always shout at him a quote from the Scottish plat;; "Away from me thou cream faced loon"!!!

Jeremy Benson
3 Posted 20/08/2009 at 18:46:30

I wish it were just that few we had missed out on. Consider all of these players as squad enhancers/added depth. All less than £5 million, and traded in the Premier League in the last 2 months.

Damien Duff
Lee Cattermole
Michael Macienne
Stephen Hunt
Fabian Delph
Barry Ferguson
Joe Hart
Sean Davis
Anthony Vanden Borre
Steve Finnan
Frazier Campbell
Kevin Doyle

There are more, but that was just a quick skim...

Justin Widdop
4 Posted 20/08/2009 at 19:16:07

Jeremy, I have to disagree:

Duff - well past his best
Cattermole - overrated
Macienne - nothing special
Hunt - not a top 6 player
Delph - he was far more than 8 million!
Ferguson - rubbish in Prem
Hart - he wants 1st team football
Davis - simply not good enough
Borre - ????
Finnan - don’t make me laugh!!!
Campbell - no better than the strikers we have
Doyle - see above

We need top 6 players, not run of the mill Premiership players. Better to be patient and get the right men that waste money on players that will do nothing and most of the above will do nothing!

Moyes knows what he is doing! (most of the time...)

Jeremy Benson
5 Posted 20/08/2009 at 19:29:29

Justin, look at our bench tonight. I don't need to say anymore.

Justin Widdop
6 Posted 20/08/2009 at 19:38:27

Yes mate, but look at our bench in two weeks with the three signings we make that are a lot better than all the above (except maybe Delph).

If we rushed in to buy the above then we would not be able to bring in the boys we are about to bring in!

Jeremy Benson
7 Posted 20/08/2009 at 19:50:45

Boys is right, judging by our bench!!!

:)

Justin Widdop
8 Posted 20/08/2009 at 19:55:39

Iain Love
9 Posted 21/08/2009 at 04:53:53

I agree with Justin, thinking back at all the players we have been linked with, who would have improved us?

Arsharvin way more than £5mill
Parker? Where is he now?
Err stuck now! I’ll be honest, never heard of Pienaar, Lescott, or Yobo... liked the look of Arteta, Cahill, Baines, Howard, Jagielka. Moyes has done well in the transfer market, maybe Bruce did better at Wigan but not by mutch.

We can’t do what many clubs do and just buy willy nilly, a la Benitez, I heard he’s bought over 60 players whilst at the Red Shite, maybe Moyes ain't the best but he ain't the worst by a long chalk.

Final thought: "Walk a mile in another mans shoes" — do you really think you could have done better???

Tim Veitch
10 Posted 21/08/2009 at 12:54:40

Agree with Justin too. Money spent on players who don’t improve the team is money we can never get back. I’d rather wait for the right players, at the right price.

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