Nick,

One of the greatest managers of all time spent £28 million on Juan Sebastian Veron.

Over the park, the 'King,' spent over £30 million on Andy Carroll.

Maybe Moyes should hire Mystic Meg to accurately predict the success or failure rate of his next inbound transfer.

(Nice, 'light-hearted,' DM hit-piece).

Taking off selling on fees how much money has been wasted here? Barely any. Hardly any of them have a fee. People like Castillo Wessels and Jo were actually not the worst ever loan deals. They filled in for a ocuple of games then got shipped back out like loan players should. Bily and Kroldrup are his two bad ones, although both were sold for fees afterwards, perhaps we lost 7 mill on them. Bily was clearly gifted but never properly utilised whilst kroldrup hasn't made it anywhere. Not bad for 10 years.

Kevin,

Although it does annoy me when some people here Moyes bash on here for the sake of it or inaccurate information, I think this post was actually just a bit of fun and light hearted, as he said.

I don't think Toffeeweb has an agenda to criticise Moyes, does it?

Ah, Kevin. Its international break. Slim pickings all round. You gotta make you're own fun I guess.
There's a few memories that go with many of that team, the what could have been with Rodrigo and the... well, maybe just the one then.

...and even in his darkest days I've always stuck up for Moyes. I think you've missed the point as well. You knew exactly what Fergie was thinking with Veron. Tell me what Moyes was thinking with McFadden MkII and I'll buy you a beer.

For a start, Jacobsen looked the best right back we've had in the Moyes era, just look at him when he came on at Wembley, and I'll tell you what he was thinking with McFadden Mk 2: a talented footballer who, on his day, scored goals no one else at our club could possibly emulate.

We received £5m for him and then, after a long injury, he was brought back as a temporary squad member for free, to boost numbers and if you see what he done as a sub at Old Trafford in the 4-4, the game turned in our favour when he come on, and he was involved in 2 of the goals.

Nick - make it a Peroni...

I concede Kroldrup & McFadden, but I don't believe Moyes particularly expected any of the other signings to set the world alight.

After all, they're all either loans, freebies, trialists, or brought in as cover.

At least he didn't sign Ali Dia...(Take a bow, Souness).

I imagine Fergie convinced himself that Veron would take the Premier League by storm, but in hindsight, one can only guess what he thought of Massimo Taibi, (The Blind Venetian) when he drew gales of laughter with his 'performances.'

Westerveld been mentioned?

Think Gravesen and Jacobsen are a little harsh. Good players on their day.

In financial terms I guess Yakubu and Beattie must have been two of Moyes's biggest loss makers...

Mick Davies.

When exactly did he score these "goals, no-one else at the club could score" ?

The man was fucking useless and my overiding memory of him is having a 1-1 with the keeper from the halfway line against Boro and totally fucking it up.

He was a waste of space.

Nick - I reckon you're just trying to take the piss out of us all.
What was he thinking? Surely, this was going to be the precurser to "when Gibson went off - bring on Hibbert and move Pip to mid-field?" Now, there would be some great discussion topic.

Gibbo is a bit of a mid-field general. Reckon he's doing quite a good job. When he went off, Osman, who was firing and in just about every constructive move, went to shades of grey.

So "what was he thinking? - Pip is such a creative midfielder, isn't he? What was M thinking? - by bringing on Hibbo he was really making 2 changes. Pip to mid, Hibbo to RB. Why didn't he bring on Heitinga as a straight replacement? Brainwaves? keeps Jonny happy and keeps some creativity in the def midfield. Only one change. Or, was he thinking Hibbo would score ?the winning goal?
Had he suddenly given up the thought of actually "winning" again?

No news on this Ofoe guy.
We were told Monday or Tuesday then Thursday
Still nothing by Friday
Everton totally silent on matter
What is going on. Sound dead to me and they are hoping we forget about him.

Dave, I assume it was the late volley against Charlton plus one for Scotland against France (?) that fall into this category.

A light hearted piece, granted, but I'd say Moyes' transfers generally have been decent. I'm not his biggest fan but I reckon the good outweigh the bad.
For a kick em while they're down laugh...
Aquilani? 20m
Next...

Shane (#165) and Dave (#161), I think the goals that Mick is refering to are the ones against Charlton and Fulham. I remember old man Beattie scoring a good goal in that Fulham game only for it to be surpassed by McFadden's goal in the second half.

If it's not these goals he's talking about then I don't know which ones they are because I can only remember these two being a bit special but I don't think Moyes would ever bring a player back partly because they can score goals that no-one else can, as long as they go in, that's all he's bothered about. He may have brought him back to make up the numbers and he did have a good effect in the Man Utd game but I still think It was done as a favour from Moyes.

Blimey doesn't look great with hindsight. Still ignoring wages it totals less than £20m over 10 years and some of them have been worth their considerable weight in entertainment value. To be fair some of them did flatter to deceive and did look like real players but there are some I don't even remember.

Shane, also his screamer against Fulham after Meatties knock down. That was a pearler too.

To be honest if that's the absolute worse that can be brought up it's really a glowing indictment of Moyes transfer tenure compared with virtually every other manager.

Looks like around £18.2M spent there, let's round it up to £20M with some loan fees (pre-wages of course).

Yet we also recouped a good deal of that back before/after on those same players (£6M Billy, Silva 750K, Krøldrup £5M, McFadden £4.75M, Gravesen £2.5 first time). That's not including how much money Jeffers made the club when flogged to Arsenal under Walter Smith of course (£8M!)

It's also fair to say that the majority of the above are loans or frees (14 out of 19), which is obviously the smart way to try out players (as with Arteta, Pienaar, Gravesen, etc) or bring in squad cover (as most of them were).

Crucially though, I think you could argue a case for most of the players brought in, even the expensive flops.
> Krøldrup and Billy were both very well thought of in their leagues and just couldn't step up, but money was recouped.
> Van der Meyde had talent (and was previously well regarded) but like Drenthe he also had a self destructive attitude and wasted his skill.
> McFadden, Jeffers and Gravesen had all done a good job for the club in their original stints so bringing them back in for a second go on loan/free wasn't stupid.
> Jo was crap but he had a good pedigree again and I believe City were paying most of his wages, plus he scored a few goals
> Jacobsen, Gardner and Senderos were cover defenders and to be honest weren't that bad at all.
> Wei Feng was I believe like Li Tie a part of our sponsorship deal and a not at all stupid move to have players from Asian market.
> The remainder were punts that could have come off but ultimately weren't good enough and were moved on relatively quickly.

Ultimately I think this underlines Moyes prudent and progressive transfer policy rather than debagging it, without this approach we simply wouldn't have unearthed the stars like Pienaar, Yobo, Arteta, Cahill, youth prospects like Coleman, Junior and McAlney and maybe future stars Naismith, Oveido and Odjidja-Ofoe.

Of course this is emphatically pushed home by deals such as:
Lescott £4M in > £24M out
Rooney £Youth in > c.£25M out
Arteta £2M in £10M out
He even made a profit on Bent, McFadden, Neill and Johnson

It's also worth looking at what our current stars actually cost vs value.
Baines £6M (£15M+)
Felliani £12M (£20M+)
Gibson £2M (£5M+)
Jelavic £5.5M (£10M+), Naismith £Free (£5M+), Jagielka £4M (£12M+)

Of course there are some errors, particularly in the forward areas I'd say the departures of Yakubu and Beckford could have been handled better, but overall Moyes transfer record has to be respected as one of the best in the league, if not the best, especially when viewed under constraints of the club's financials (arguably Wenger has done better in terms of financial balance and challenging at a higher level but they do have CL and much higher wages to offer and it's hard to say that Arsenal have improved over the last few years and right now it looks like the wheels are coming off that project).

Jacobson got a huge amount of game time in the euros in a Danish team that was decent enough if not amazing. The guy must have something as he is gone from us for a good three or four seasons I think.

Thanks for clearing that up, Shane.

I forgot about the Charlton goal and I only remember him for all the times he cocked an easy pass up, tried to dribble his way through the whole of the opposition, only to lose the ball and go missing in all of the big games he played for us.

In fact I can't remember him having a great game for us to be honest.

Scottish Rooney – my left arse cheek!

Castillo wasn't that bad and I can't believe Tommy Gravesen 2nd time is on the bench, I thought he was alright. The one that slipped away was that pudding Beattie and speaks volumes only a few seasons later that he's without a club.

And how anyone can defend McFadden is beyond me... fuckin useless and couldn't trap a mouse with a ton of cheese. Still, having said that, look over the park and see what's been in and out of that hovel... OMG! They make Moyes look like Rinus Michels... Then again, they have won it five timezzz...

Can't blame DM for bringing Gravesen back. He'd
become pretty much the best player in the league in his position and was the main reason we reached the top four. Unfortunately just after becoming a superhero he lefft. We hung in there and qualified for the CL but there's no doubt in my mind had he stayed with us he'd have become a blues legend.

Fair do's re most of the list but DM has an impressive transfer record overall

Great post Chris James 194. No mention of Bily in it though.... In the list commercially he's got to be the biggest flop. Cest la vie.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. There were many of these players who seemed very reasonable signings.

"Per Kroldrup hasn't made it anywhere."
Apart from Champions League football with Fiorentina, so he's not done too bad, James.. Overall, Moyes transfer dealings rates with the best in the Prem, especially if you take into account the money recouped from some of his transfers "out".

I think the article is a bit harsh, Nick.
As has been stated by others, this happens pretty much at every club.

The one that stands out for me is Kroldrup as I seem to recall DM had not seen him play, hardly played him and sold him on at a loss.
Bily was also a bit of a disaster but at least we recouped some cash and invested it wisely in the deal of last season (Jelavic).

Personally I think DM has far more business savvy in transfer dealings than most and has juggled limited resources brilliantly.
At least Moysey doesn't have to hang his head in shame as he may have done if he'd paid what "king k" paid for Henderson, Downing, Carrol and some diving Uruguayan over-sized rodent. And let's not forget Aquilani, Joe Cole...(snigger).

I know Moyes didn't sign him but Alex Nyarko has to be in there.

Vadis... oh no! They completely fucked up this one and the kid will now end up at Spurs or Arsenal and we won't get a sniff. Then sold on to Man Utd for a squillion. Ha! Dithering Davey, the royal blue clown.

Why this deal wasn't done in time is typical of the management that permeates through the club. Let's hope the young kids can step up and do a job. All the good feeling is draining away; normal sevice is resumed.

Cheers Chris James for reminding us of the excellent deals Moyes has done in selling on players, personally I think you can add Rodwell to that list.

Give it 2 years he'll be back on loan / for £3-5mil!

Ah Andy Van Der Meyde, that boy could put a cross on a nine pence, just a shame he couldn't/wouldn't do anything else!

A bit harsh Anto#371, It is common knowledge that Moyes was after Essian who in the last minute changed his mind and went to Real Madrid, and Vadis was the back up. Can't help thinking that if it would have been one of the glamour clubs FIFA would've been more accommodating.

Only light hearted I know but keeping billy for 2.5 years after it was clear early doors that he wasn't rated, still gets on my nerves.

Also most of the posts above that go into the numbers seem to say 'excluding wages', or to that effect, as if these don't count somehow. Most (if not all) of those players listed would have been earning multiple millions a year from us so not sure how this can be dismissed and ignored. E.g. can add another 5m in wages for billy, on top of the 9m spent on a transfer fee...

Anyway, no manager is going to have a perfect record and all have their cock ups. The OP was meant in jest and I'll take it that way.

Still jut hoping neville does not become a penghty fixture in CM, a real backward step that would be.

Jesus, Mary & Joseph! (As my old grandma used to say.) What is it with the "Boo-hoo, It's Not Fair" mentality on here. There was a problem with the paperwork. It would still have been a problem if Real Madrid or the Jupiter All Stars had wanted to sign him. Repeat after me: the whole world is not against us, there is no conspiracy, we are not victims, we are not (all) 15 years old. It's beyond me how people can moan about LFC fans when this type of special pleading goes on all the time on our site. Yours slightly disgusted, An Everton fan

Dave White posts #409 "Ah Andy Van Der Meyde, that boy could put a cross on a nine pence, just a shame he couldn't/wouldn't do anything else! " (on a nine pence??) In fact he could put that nine pence together with other requisite coins of the realm within 6 inches of a barmaid with stunning consistency.
I think transfers are a lottery and has already been pointed out all managers have their share of duds, and some of them are inexplicable.

Take David Bentley; getting rave reviews for Blackburn and tipped to take over the right mid spot from Beckham in the England, then this London boy gets a dream move to Spurs that play open attacking football, and he sinks without a trace.

And look on the bright side Moyes could’ve spent £17mill on Jordan Henderson rather than Fellani

Kev 414# if reports are to be believed, Spurs were given extra time to complete the Modric deal

"If reports are to be believed"? Well, precisely. In any case, that deal was on the cards for months so maybe there was a small detail that was holding it up before the deadline and Spurs/Madrid gave FIFA plenty of warning of it, allowing them to come to an agreement in advance. As opposed to our situation, which was clearly very last minute. I don't know, but they sound like different situations to me, so why jump to conclusions?

Sorry to snap at you, David. I just don't think the world and his wife (bit sexist that, but there you go!) is out to thwart us. If you look at other teams' fan forums, they're the same, with half the people on them claiming there's a conspiracy against their club. There isn't, though. Media bias is another thing altogether, in my opinion. Anyway, apologies for going a bit over the top. COYB!

You should know better that posting something like this Nick! You should have realised you would have all the Moyes's followers tails up, and wanting you hung drawn and quarted in the streets.

I know Brian, but the funny thing is I've always supported him when all ToffeeWeb break loose on the guy.

My unabashed Bring 'Em All On articles from last season still make me smile, (1) because I posted when the shit was hitting the fans (fnar fnar) and (2), all my predictions about a great second half season came true! And yet for some we were heading towards the Championship.

Kev, have you read this? Explains the transfer timings.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/04/tottenham-hotspur-joao-moutinho?newsfeed=true

You could make a list like that for any manager good or bad. Moyes gets a fair amount of stick and here and a lot of it deserved in my opinion but one thing you can't say is he hasn't bought well. Name a manager with a better record in the transfer market? I don't think there are many.

I can count on one hand the signings he has made that have made me think god please no. Thats not a bad record for over a decade. They were:
• Senderos
• Neville
• Barry Ferguson (thankfully just a bid).
• Giving Anichebe a new contract.

If its just a numbers game then the Lescott profit covers all of the losses. Every club has had some shockers in the transfer market, big signings from the top clubs have proved most costly but even some clubs well below us have had some stinkers - Afonso Alves (Boro) over 12m and Steve Marlet from Fulham was almost 11m.

City - Robinho, Jo, Bridge, Adebayor, K Toure.
Utd - Hargreaves, De Gea, Veron, Berbatov.
Chelsea - Torres, Ferreria, Zhirkov and of course Shevchenko.
Arsenal - Reyes, Wright, Cygan plus soon you can add Giroud to that.
Spurs - Gomes, Postiga, Rebrov, Bentley
Redshite - pretty much every recent signing except Torres and Reina.

In contrast Moyes dealings look great and you would say that him and wenger have done the best but with the amount of players that wenger signs he is bound to uncover some decent ones.

IMWT!