Moyes constantly turned to Naismith and was slaughted for it instead of giving Oveido a chance. We have gone full circle now, Moyes is slaughted for bringing Oveido on instead of Naismith!

Unbelievable!

I really don't understand the Moyes Kenwright thing. Surely Moyes must feel bitterly let down at what didn't happen in January. He is in a strong position and could do the club a great service if he goes by explaining exactly why. I just think that he and Kenwright have been good for each other and Moyes won't rock the boat.

It's all spineless stuff from Moyes who has an in-built shithouse self-destruct button he always presses under pressure. Those of our fans who think he will leave for a bigger club are mental basket cases who need therapy.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd all want a manager who can guarantee Champions League football, FFS. Also said manager must have a winning pedigree to keep them in the trophy. Moyes couldn't win a raffle if he bought all the tickets.

How can a manager at one of the biggest clubs in England manage his side and treat the fans as though he is still at Preston North End? We raise the white flag too easily and it's part of the Moyes ethos... Rather defend than risk attacking and conceeding. WHY can't our lot see it? He ruins more players than Graham Taylor.

We are Everton and we never beat anyone easy – it's always a struggle. Lately we can't beat anyone – including bottom feeders from League One? Moyes is a spent force now and the apathetic feeling around the club all stems from him. It's about time Mr 41% win rate fucks off to this big-time Job in Germany... As if they would put up with someone so inefficient?

We may well go through to the next round of the cup but that tonite was pathetic and we deserve much better.

I can appreciate fans frustration of the final result but I'm sick to death of this knee-jerking, it's obnoxious.

Is there really no positives at all?

Shall we all give up now, end up in 6th place and sell our two best players along with our 'bereft' coach?

I'll be looking the other way, looking at the positives.

Are we out of the cup? No.
Did we screw up? Yes, but we have another chance on our home turf.

If we win we're in the quarter finals, one game away from Wembley.

I'm disappointed like every Everton fan after the game, that we couldn't keep the ball and kill the game in the last 10 minutes.

But am I pissed off that Moyes tried to put a 6'3 defender in the last two minutes? Maybe, but at least the intention was to try and stop their big galoot of a player from scoring. It didn't work, but guess what, we didn't lose. Imagine if we were 1-1 they scored, the responses on here would of been entertaining!

Oldham, in that position when a goal down will pile on pressure regardless, we dealt with it well until the last kick of the game but when they put every limb and their hapless goalkeeper in the mix, and fouling our goalkeeper, the inevitable will happen, there is so little you can do to challenge someone that tall in the air.

To blame everything on Moyes is just ridiculous, it really is.
Don't get me wrong, he's made tactical mistakes nearly every week but the players didn't do their jobs properly, to close out the game.
What were we doing for the majority of the game? Pushing them back, when the ball was in their defence, trying to nick the ball and create chances.
We didn't do that in the last 10 minutes and Oviedo was one of the worst culprits.

Maybe I'm wrong and it is Moyes's fault that we lost today. But people need to seriously calm down, if we win the replay, everyone's happy.

I am beginning to lose count of goals we have conceded from non complicated moves.

Oldham and Blackburn have shown that progress is not entirely dependent on a dozen pretty passes. I stand to be corrected but I think that is also the case with a number of our recent defeats. To keep a passing movement going needs support from full backs midfielders and forwards. Meanwhile our back line is facing one on ones and vulnerable from long high balls.

Never have I suggested that we abandon the passing game. I am saying that relying solely that style sometimes brings about our own downfall.

I've been saying since 2006 and repeating it each season about Moyes that... (feel free to check):

a) He has never known what his best 11 is nor how to effectively play them.

b) He is a 50% manager and each season we have our 50%s in different ratios from 04-05 good – bad; through all the variable permutations and, as they used to say in cinemas... this is where we came in 12-13. The laughable part is that some have come to 'Expect' a 2nd half season improvement as a right.

But, on the other hand, there is (I hear some say)

c) He has not had the biggest squad to work with (the reasons are for another thread)

But yet again

d) He signed all the players himself...

Q) but which came first? The inbuilt tendency to sign jacks of all trade or the fiscal limitations requiring them?

My A) He can't help himself. Some will point to the last calendar year of decent football, this is true while it was all going well but, once the results (for what ever reason) don't go our way, he starts to doubt and once the doubt sets in.... well see Jelly and Heitinga for a masterclass if required.

Moyes hasn't completely lost it... more like he never completely had it, maybe deep down he knows.

Does he go or stay (yet again, I've said it before) Bill won't sack him; It's his job to walk away from... should he desire.

If He stays, will it be because he wants to or he has nowhere else to go.

June / July should be quiet Interesting...

Dick (#025) It's like the difference between Boxers and Fighters, sometimes one will beat the other or not on any given day. But potential top 3 or 4 teams should be able to do both AND know when to change from one to the other as the circumstances dictate.

There is rope a dope and there is the dope with no hope, which one fits us this morning??

EFC threw the dice and failed and we know now that it was unsustainable. Moyes is a good man and I think he is waiting to see if a miracle happens in the form of the team improving again but I think he knows that it won't and he is preparing to walk. the future for Everton is bleak, believe me.

Ideally what would happen is that the value of the club would fall in line with our performance and we would be snapped up by somebody taking advantage of temporary weakness. It isn't temporary weakness though; it is managed decline over the last 40 years and it shows no sign of stopping.

One day soon the penny will drop amongst those who are berating the manager and board for not providing them with success. As the article says, the Emperor has no clothes; there is no silver bullet for EFC. If Moyes goes, I'd have a look at what odds I could get on relegation next season.

We have had nearly 11 years of this and many of us are sick of it and yet people like yourself have been brainwashed and taken in by the media into thinking that disaster awaits if he leaves the club.

I would love him to go so that hopefully we will have a chance of winning something again in my lifetime. But of course we all know it is just a smokescreen because Moyes has nowhere else to go. More's the pity.

Do you really think we can do "better than that" at the moment? Why? How?

The brain washing is entirely on your side mate. I don't think disaster awaits Everton only because Moyes leaves. Everton are a declining club and the disaster happened long ago. Moyes leaving only has the potential to accelerate it, there is very little chance that it could arrest it.

You are also completely missing the point about Moyes, the likelihood is that he isn't looking to go somewhere else, he is willing to fall on his sword and accept responsibility by walking. There's a difference.

It's no good us wanting to get a manager who adopts a Barcelona style tiki taka because unless you've got Barcelona capability players it doesn't work(hello Brenda Rogers!!). To be honest I also wonder whether that style can ever work in the English footie cos of the speed and tackling, which is basically outlawed in Spain. There's a couple of teams trying it in our league and both are below us thus far( RS n Swansea).

The other option is the dour grind it out one, of the old style Arsenal and RS -which Moyes used for many years cos of inferior standard players but which has evolved into the more expansive style we see mostly now. Albeit he reverts to type when we're under pressure. Whilst not winning anything, it's been arguably the best of the rest for a while now-in the League at least.

So for me we'd need someone who seeks to continue what David Moyes does, hopefully with a similar level of ability to get better players arriving gradually but for basically peanuts. My fear is we get a Brenda Rogers type who needs to spend a bloody fortune that we haven't got , that actually takes us backwards.

Obviously time will tell... But Moysie going pits us between a rock n a hard place for me, we'll need to be really lucky to get someone who can replicate what he gives us.

I have yet to really witness the 'wonders' that Moyes has achieved at Everton on a 'limited budget'. If you class an average finish of 8th or 9th during his 11 years and no trophy as 'wonders' then you really have been brainwashed.

What happened at the end is what happens to a huge amount of teams up and down the leagues when you have a one goal lead in the dying minutes. I've seen Man U under the cosh at old trafford in similar ways to league 2 teams at the death.

It was inevitable that Oldham were going to throw everyone forward and so Moyes put on his tallest CB (who everyone on here has been clamourng for!). Its not rocket science!

Moyes is far from perfect and truly I wish he would see what a liability Neville has become but some of the flak he gets on here is absurd!!

The "finances" defence has worn thin now no matter the rights or wrong.

The error over his contract stance is monumental, looking disrespectful and duplicitous wouldn't be tolerated here if you were a winner - but he's not.

It's typical of his judgement throughout his time and it's done for him. It's hard to imagine being at EFC for nigh on 11 years and still not grasp the magnitude and character of the institution, many things will be excused even forgiven - but don't take the piss out of the club.

The boos continued yesterday as they will at every defeat, unexpected draw unpopular substitution and his post match interview was a picture of "how the fuck do I get out of this" - I doubt he'll last the season.

Blue Square Premier is about Bill's level - although I am possibly giving him too much credit there.

If Moyes goes in the summer it will cost money, but we are getting more money in the summer so not such a big problem? We are likely to stay in the Premier league if you look at our income.

But there are important exceptions to that rule - Newcastle, currently Aston Villa, Sunderland and Liverpool are all underperforming relative to their income or potential income. NOTE unlike those listed we are about at our potential income level due to lack of modern facilities. They could improve their performance far more easily than we can but they lack - what? A Moyes/Kenwright partnership? These two are expert at making the most of what we have year on year, but maybe not so successful at building our potential income.

Two out of the four clubs mentioned have dipped into the Championship and come back. One or two clubs comparable to Everton have never returned (Leeds). If Everton were to be relegated we do not have non-TV revenue to underpin our return - we would struggle.

Which is Everton's fate once Moyes goes is far from certain and the risks are very high that we would not be able to buy our way out of trouble (see Aston Villa), nor rectify relegation quickly. Man City returned with a new stadium but the chances of the Commonwealth Games being held in Liverpool are remote for the next 10 years so buyouts would be limited as potential income is limited.

A huge amount rests on our next manager. Moyes & Kenwrights achievements are vastly underrated, especially by those who are too young to remember the truly bad times.

If we stay where we are now we are in with a chance of further improvement (especially with the new financial rules) and we are increasingly given respect. If we go down it would be for some time and ruin the history of the club. If we stray into the bottom half of the league we become diminished in the eyes of many - 'perennial struggler's' is a label I remember well.

In any case the biggest issue has to be that Neville cannot even compete against League 1 players, and by that I mean in each passage of play that he was involved in he was lamentable. And yet he still demanded the ball every time it was near him, but subsequently didn't have a fucking clue what to do with it, and I mean not a single fucking clue, at all, not once. (But Tim Howard still pays him enormous tribute on the OS, so maybe I've got him wrong). Can't wait for his next rallying cry on the same site.

Trying to be positive though.......I'll get back to you on that one.

Yes the stadium limits matchday revenue, and to a lesser degree commercial income, but we are being outstripped by a lot of clubs in terms of their sponsorship - both in terms of value, and number of lower tier sponsors.

And whilst the current custodians continue to see the commercial department as a cost centre, and not a revenue centre it will continue. Whilst they continue to sign deals that are favourable to the other party due to the revenue-up-front component, we'll continue to be left behind. Remember, the next set of accounts is the one where Liverpool's commercial income alone will eclipse our total turnover, and if you think that's acceptable that's fine, but not everyone has expectations or standards as low as yours.

Duffy was on for a few mere minutes, Jelavic would have only been defending those corners anyway, it did not symbolise anything other than we've got a few corners to defend in the last few minutes. It was not tactically bereft and it was the exact thing that you were all calling for him to do against newcastle when we conceded in the last minute...Hypocrites.

Brave brave Steve Clark hey, didn't look that brave when we battered them at Goodison did he? What about the fact that Anfield was his first win of this year. Where are they in the league again? His team defended for their lives at Anfield without barely venturing forward. it was KITAP1 in its ultimate form, Liverpool were so bad however that they let them have two witht heir only two menaingful forays of the game. If you want to see football like that game in game out then fine. you might get your one big result that the media loves but there is no consistency in playing that way.

What does his salary have to do with how much money he's given for players? Would anyone on here sacrifice their salary to improve their companies figures? I doubt his 4 million makes a difference when the players we require to take us to the next level cost around the ten million mark. Why don't we just not pay anyone anything then we'll have loads of money for players.

Just because the team has hit a slump people are making out that we've been in it for 11 years. Form has fluctuated up and down a lot over this time (like it does for all teams except those few at the very top). I can't believe some people have forgotten the beginning fo the season already. Lets forget that the last 12 months of great football happened hey. Lets just whine that we haven't been able to keep it up all season with a tiny squad plagued by injuries that the board refused to add to that is STILL in the FA cup and still in with a chance of European football. terrible times to be an Evertonian indeed. Some of the knee jerkism on here is truly embarassing and laughable.

I think most seasons Everton have improved under Moyes but we tend to make our biggest steps forward when we have sold a player for big money and brought in a few players. if Moyes stayed and got good money for Felliani or Baines I think Moyes could take us up another level, unfortunately I don’t think we will see it as I think he has had enough.

What I fear is the slow demise of Everton like Villa since O’Neil left or Newcastle when Sir Bobby Robson left. I honestly think over the next 3 to 5 years as we lose the likes of Distin, Jaggs, Baines, Fellaini etc we will sink and be back where we were 11 years ago before Moyes arrived.

On anything other than Moyes, this site is still the best place for intelligent disussion, but the same issues and selective distortions are being recycled by the malevolent moaners to the point at which it is bcoming depressing (and percived my many fans to be a joke). And yes, I know... I'm a dupe of the Board, I'm trying to suppress democratic opinions and if don't kike it, don't read the threads. Well, on the last point, I increasingly don't.

Since the inception of the premier league has the football we've played over the last 12 months been some of the best in my opinion? Yes. Can people find games where we've played badly? Of course. Are there games where we've hit our very top form and played very well? Yes. Are either repeated over long period of time? No. Just like every other football club in this division we have a level somewhere in between that we play at for most weeks. The results over the last 12 months would suggest this level is usually very good. But if you want to complain that its not been as good a sour best perfroamnces in this time period then go ahead bbut you'll find that that is a problem that no manager will ever be able to solve.

I believe it shows how tragically little you know both about business and soccer by not seeing the exceptional job that needs to be done to get us where we are and it doesn’t need brain washing only primary school intellect.

Come on then, bless with your expertise, a new manager comes in, on your logic it could be anybody because anybody but Moyes would be better. What is he going to do given that the answer to his first request to the board is “no”.

It's not the people who don't slag the club incessantly that are brainwashed, it's people like you who think that clubs can do the impossible in the modern game. We are doing well in the EPL despite meagre spending, we are still in the cup and yet still the constant whingeing from the tiny minority of our fan base for whom the club can do no right. Of course they can do better but slagging for anything or nothing is neither clever or constructive. Over to you.

Fact is that you said why bother when Moyes has failed for the past 11 years which is total bollocks as we have beaten both Chelsea and Man us in the cup.

Not saying that Moyes has a great cup record but you don't need to exaggerate it by saying things that are patently incorrect.

In your last response, you say "We are doing well in the EPL despite meagre spending." — I totally agree but, unlike you, I would ask why we are spending so little?

Since this Board's inception, we have gone into God only knows how much debt; apart from players contracts we own nothing. Our commercial activities off the field, in all fields, are an absolute joke and in the scheme of things contribute nothing in terms of money for the manager to spend. The interaction between Board and support is awful by any stretch of the imagination. We've had the support split on so many issues like never before.

Regardless of all your "show me" and "prove to me" remarks, we have been misled and lied too. Can you imagine where we might be if these so-called expert businessmen who are members of the Board, used their so called knowledge and time in furtherance of the Club? I don't necessarily agree that its other people who are brainwashed, Martin, maybe have a look in the mirror!

If you wish to criticise the board for not increasing revenue please give us a rundown on how you would do it yourself?

Do you think these people are idiots who can be told what to do by a small group of football fans?

So much for the Club as a whole, what about the manager, If David Moyes was being judged on football matters alone, he would not have survived the 2005-06 season and he may not have survived past Christmas 2011.

How many PL teams take to the field nearly every single week with at least one player in the side who isn't up to PL standard?, Everton often take to the pitch with 2 or 3 players who are not up to the mark. When you add players who are out of form to those who are not good enough, you have the makings of a very average team. Many fans can see this and they rightfully air their concerns regularly.

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that a squad contains at least a minimum of 15 players of PL ability? Of course it is the managers job, that has little to do with limited budget, that is more to do with his judgement of footballing ability. Evertonians don't expect a team of world beaters, but we do expect the minimum level of skill befitting a club with an eye on European football. The squad has become far too old, too safe in the knowledge that while David Moyes is in charge they will regardless of performance be in or around the first team. Too many of the players and the manager himself think they are doing Everton FC a favour by being at the club, they are not, they are paid well for their services and they should be grateful for that.

As fans we want to see the team do well and play well, but far too often the team even when it wins does not play as well as a side should be playing with CL ambition. The excuses trotted out about how other clubs suffer the same pitfalls and poor performances doesn't bother the fans who pay to watch the blues, they are only concerned about how our team plays and how well we do.

Maybe some fans expect too much in this modern day era, but I also feel that probably more fans expect far too little.

They are absentee owners, who all see this club as hobby, and a sound investment. They have proven by their actions they have no interest in planning for the future, or funding success by maximising profits through commercial gains.

I believe you are on a wind up mission on here, either that, or you are the most clueless moron ever to support the shower in the Boardroom.

Some of us are old enough to remember the good old days and judged against them then their achievements are just not good enough.

Idiots in their own personal business world's, maybe not, but definitely idiots for the way they are and have miss-managed OUR great club.

You are dead right in that they will not listen to a group of football fans but nor do they care about that same group of fans.

The irony of the situation is that it is the likes of my £1,280 per year contribution that keeps the useless buggers in office rather than the flow of funds from the Kazakhstan BK Supporters Club!

The 'Good Old Days' (I assume you mean 1960s?) were funded by the Abramovic of his day, John Moores. If we had him now, things would be a lot different.

By that I mean matching the oppostions work rate or surpassing it. Closing down, pressing getting tight actually putting in tackle in with the intention of going through the over player (eg Gibson 2nd tackle against Oldham) as opposed to this tendacy by some our 1st team of trying half heartedly to nick the ball.

Apart from Jags id say the majority of our players are currently lacking in all of the above labouring under the false assumption they are technically superior than their counter parts.

Starting with Norwich, we need to get stuck in grind out a result and build back up. No parting of the Red Sea in midfield, no gifts in 6 yard box and no players coming off the field knowing they could have give more -Osman, Neville, Felliani and even lately dare I say Baines?

We'll beat them at the old lady, beat Wigan, draw Millwall and then play Man Utd in the final. It could still be a fairytale season with a top 6th finish and an FA Cup – it's important to be optimistic.... COYB

I know it's something managers do but it is at best a gamble and at worst a huge mistake. But typical of Moyes not to consider it as such — after all, he doesn't make any mistakes, does he?

I started reading your post with a smile, waiting for the punchline, it never arrived. Now I can't decide if you was being serious or sarcastic. It must have been sarcasm cos no one in their right mind would call that result 'brilliant'.

Everyone seems to be jumping all over Moyes and yet we are still in the FA Cup and still in with a shot at Europe. I don't get it.

It was a brilliant result Paul cause Oldham were playing like it was the last game they were ever gonna play. Shot their bolt now though.

At school, my rugby teacher Ray Hughes said to me after I'd coughed up the ball in a maul, "You die before you let go of that ball, Gillen!" I know he was later done for child abuse but that spirit of playing as if your life depended on it won me a million sports matches in adulthood.

Sometimes when I see us punt the ball forward, I can see everyone saying, "Cut out the hoofball" but that doesn't give the front men an excuse not to contest the bloody thing.

Oldham were out on their feet against us with 20 minutes to go but they really put in a shift in the last ten and none of their men left the field with an ounce of breath. Playing with skill and your brains is laudable but there are days when you have to fight for the win.

The "chances" he has just given Duffy and Oviedo, should have been given against six weeks ago when we were cruising. Moyes gave Naismith a run instead.

As it stands, we're probably odds on favourites to get a game at Wembley. That is good for the club financially, but what effect will it have on the squad when Moyes falls on his sword again?

Honestly, people are saying that if he leaves we'll probably decline on the field. I disagree. For me, he wants to leave, but will probably stay because who else would have him? When he's here against his will, his dour, dithering, tactically inept, depressing demeanor we know now will seem like sunshine and rainbows.

You'll find its the same way any team plays against an opposition with a yellow streak longer than a stampede of diarrhetic camels. Why the need to defend when the opposition shows no desire to attack? Go for it!

Moyes has filled this team with fear. Told them what they can't achieve. Told them they have no right to be beating our peers. Our players believe that if we go a goal ahead, then we must hang onto that like our life depends on it. Forget attacking when 1 goal up, we must defend, defend, defend.

Then, if you're going into the last few minutes of a game and maybe the opposition are starting to lose the faith that they'll ever get a result, simply remove your only striker and bring on a defender to remove any doubt that you have ambitions of taking the game to them.

When you're that risk-averse, you will win fuck all. And then you'll convince yourself that you didn't have much chance of winning anything anyway, because the other team had more money, or were less tired, or whatever the excuse is that week. What was the excuse at Oldham?

But its not just about Oldham, of course. This shit has been going on for years at our club. Its a trait of Moyes that he seems unwilling or unable to break out of.

The article writer shows his complete disregard to what the manager has achieved since he came here. The fact is, these people who aim abuse at the manager cannot change their minds as most idiots always believe that, so long as they have the platform and microphone, it's all that matters.

The abuse should be aimed at the board of millionnaires who have consistently failed US THE FANS. We are the 26th richest club in the world but cannot find money to push on for a top four place.

Where is Ofoe, the loan window is open and we use it to loan OUT!! Stop baiting the manager, he has done a wonderful job keeping us in the top 8 each season without support from the board.

They will usually let a few snippets out in the press, if Kenwright is feeling the slightest heat from the fan base, and being blamed for him leaving.

In fact, that is one area of expertise our Board excel in, pulling the wool over our eyes, and blaming everyone but themselves.

Agree with all you posted. Moyes or whoever is next in, Kenwright and them are the problem.

Moyes has handled this contract thing like a child, a stubborn one at that. Moyes should get some real balls and resign right now if he is unhappy with the board's backing. The club comes first, no matter what!!!!

Also, for Moyes not to bring in Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe on loan is a disaster, twice he has had the chance to get him and he failed every time. Don't tell me Everton can not afford to bring in a loan player.

Tension is building within and it will destroy our CL dream for sure. Moyes needs to act, prevent or just go and say goodbye.

As an American, must say, Kenwright et al's free pass with the local press wouldn't happen over here. Most especially the Rooney give-away. Ownership would have been savaged.

"The contract situation is affecting performances big time, and it will do so until the situation is resolved" — No it hasn't, we haven't been playing well for awhile now, well before January.

"The club comes first, no matter what!!!!" — That's probably the reason why he hasn't just walked out and leaving the club managerless.

"Also, for Moyes not to bring in Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe on loan is a disaster, twice he has had the chance to get him and he failed every time. Don't tell me Everton can not afford to bring in a loan player." — He doesn't do the paperwork for the loans/transfers, how many times has this been discussed? He picks his targets and asks the board to get them for him. He isn't the accountant / lawyer / paymaster of the club.

Against Oldham, we got the lead and then assumed we could hold out, as usual in this situation we don't manage to park the bus all that efficiently. Last year's semi-final defeat revealed exactly the same mindset and we paid the penalty for our negative tactics.

I suggest you re read the article. I did not use foul language.

Cast your mind back to the second half of the Liverpool semi. If that 45 minutes was the work of a good manager then you need therapy.