Anniversary Blues

Next month will see David Moyes celebrate his 11th year at the club. With his contract negotiations on hold and with Everton’s chances of European Football next season probably resting on how we fare in the FA Cup, how do we assess the job he has done at Goodison?

If someone had have told me back in March 2002 that David Moyes would still be here 11 years later, I would have been surprised and even a little bit more than excited. After all, the longevity of a Manager is usually dependent on positive results or trophies won. What a marvellous time it would be in the history of Everton Football Club!!! At the very least, I might have expected a return to our imagined place in the higher echelons of the Premier League.

What I wouldn’t have imagined was a roller-coaster of boom and bust, sometimes from season to season, sometimes from half to half. I also wouldn’t have expected us to be still waiting for a victory at the grounds of the then big four teams — surely even a lucky win would happen at one of those places during David Moyes’s long tenure. Surely a derby game at the other place would result in a win; after all, if there is one game that is a lottery, that is the one.

Okay, even a pessimistic me would consider it pretty good if we were winning cups and being a top ten side, this would be the reason for our new appointment to serve our club for such a long time, would it not?

No my younger self would have been disappointed again — close but no cigar: a measly runners-up and a couple of abject semi-finals v Liverpool in the FA Cup and Chelsea in the League Cup. Not only that but we would have embarrassing defeats against Birmingham, Oldham, Blackburn and Reading at Goodison as well as the nightmare that was Shrewsbury to contend with. Not only that, but the 11 years would also see us succumb to lower league sides in the early rounds of the League Cup.

We surely must have established ourselves as a European contender then, if the domestic front was so barren? But again this was not the case: no marches into top European stadiums in the latter stages of the Uefa Cup or Europa League, but instead a series of hard-working teams falling at the first sign of a more talented and skilful team.

The only thing left must be his attacking brand of football? At last, following Walter Smith’s dour approach, David Moyes would be here so long because the style of football was back to what many Evertonians expect... well, no, wrong again! For the most part, David Moyes has followed the profile of his mentor: first of all, you don’t concede.

But it would take until his final year of his contract before he decided that the Everton Way was indeed the best way: pass and move, take the fight to the opposition... but unfortunately his natural cautiousness would return with a vengeance.

My younger self would have relished the thought of knocking the old enemy out of the FA Cup with a last-minute winner and would have been mighty pleased with a 3 - 0 home victory against the same team. He would also have appreciated victories over the other money laden teams visiting Goodison Park. At the same token, he would have been sad to see losses against teams which Everton were expected to beat.

Obviously in March 2002, nobody could have foreseen what players we would buy and sell, so there is little point of second-guessing what I would have imagined... but, suffice it to say, I would have expected a prolific goalscorer to be in the team at some point and for a darn sight longer than 6-12 months at a time.

I also couldn’t have foreseen how our Chairman would starve the club of its lifeblood, ie, finance and support. The only reason that David Moyes has stayed at the club for so long is because he is a very loyal man; well paid, but loyal. The only reason the club have allowed David Moyes to spend so much time in the hot seat, is because they never had the ambition that my former self had; they didn’t and still don’t see an Everton of the future — only an Everton of the here and now.

David Moyes may well leave in June and another chapter in our long and illustrious history will have been closed and a new one will begin. But the people who really shape the fortunes of the club will still be here and will probably get a cheaper version of David Moyes — if they are very lucky. Or they could of course have the genuine version, looking forward to another 11 years service...

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