The End of the Silly Season

By Simon P from NSNO - Posted by John P
September 23 2005

The following article appears in this month's BlueBlood fanzine, which will be available tomorrow before the game against Wigan from it's usual sales point of just outside the Winslow Pub on Goodison Road.

As always, it costs just £1.50, and includes the latest in editor George Orr's season by season history of Everton FC, the 1906-07 season, and a special behind the scenes look at the David France collection.

The article here was written by James Corbett, author of "Everton : The School of Science", who contributes to BlueBlood regularly, at the end of the last transfer window.

And so, with a hollow clunk, the transfer window shut again last night, bringing an end -- for another four months at least -- of feverish speculation, gossip and hope. This was our busiest period of transfer activity in living memory, yet the resounding feeling is one of disappointment. At the end of last season, there was a sense that here was a chance for Everton to build something great, yet when we opened (and closed) our all too brief Champions League campaign -- the quick route to big amounts of money -- we had just two additions to our starting line up, and in the second leg were forced to play an increasingly out of sorts midfielder in the alien left back position.

Yet looking back at our major purchases over the last few months – Davies, Van Der Meyde, Klodrup, Neville, Ferrari, Valente and the confirmation of the Arteta deal -- one can't help but be impressed. Without exception they are improvements to the players they have come to replace, and the sort of men who will provide the foundations for Everton to remain in the top six.

The question has to be begged, however, why on earth was the bulk of our business done in their last week of the transfer window? Why were the deals not put it in place for these men long before? I don't give much credence to this idea of "Dithering Dave" because in three years, while he's been cautious, he has almost always brought in good players, and conversely, the less he seems to spend, the better they seem to be.

Moyes reminds me very much of Arsène Wenger, who built his great Arsenal sites not on megabucks players like Wayne Rooney or Ruud Nistlerooy, but by buying good-quality men who had perhaps wilted a little over previous seasons, and had so seen their market value drop. It should be remembered only a couple of years ago Simon Davies was talked of as a £10 million player and potential replacement for David Beckham at United. If he lives up to the promise shown then, at £4 million he will prove a bargain. Likewise Van Der Meyde, who, if he remains injury free, will prove the bargain of the year at £1.8 million. Think of Wenger's best buys at Highbury and the names of Reyes (£15million from Sevilla), Wiltord (bought at a price of £10 million) and Jeffers (£8 million) don't spring immediately to mind. Instead the cornerstones of his great sides – Viera, Henry, Campbell and Pires -- were purchased for a combined total of around £15 million.

Identifying the right men, and how they might fit in, and where they might fit in is immeasurably more important than going out and blowing the clubs cash on the first player that become available. Walter Smith was great at buying players, and we had new men all the time -- but rarely did they fit in with any great success. It's a similar case over the other side of Stanley Park, and had they not fluked their way through to European Cup success last year, their spend happiness would have seen them in immense financial difficulties. As it stands Rafel Benitez seems set on blundering Liverpool's cash away anyway. The financial difficulties of Liverpool might only lie a couple of unsuccessful seasons away. Here's hoping.

The one area of concern, and where I do feel most let down, is up front. Yet we have exactly the same forward line that helped bring us so much relative success last year. We all know that Moyes tried to buy a player to partner Beattie, but frankly I’m delighted that he didn't sign Craig Bellamy, who is a horrible man, and I'll wager with anybody that he won't score more than 10 goals this season. I don't think Andy Johnson is worth £10 million pounds any more than David Nugent (cost £100,000 in January) is worth £5 million. The one player who might have made a difference to Everton is Robbie Keane, but again, Spurs were putting an unrealistic price tag on his head, anywhere between £7million and £10 million, for a player who is out of contract in a year. My hope is that Moyes gives Beattie and Bent a chance together, because I feel that partnership might work; I also hope that the additions of Van der Meyde and Davies help transform a player who has previously been disappointing in a blue shirt.

It's worth remembering that when Beattie ended at the top of the Premiership scoring charts two years ago, his strike partner was Brett Ormerod, -- who has frankly found his level in the First Division. Beattie's most important colleagues then were on the wings, Fabrice Fernandez and Marian Pahars, men who could get good balls into the danger area. If we can do that, we'll thrive.

Reading the last issue of Blueblood I was staggered by Martin Ford's article, which questioned whether ‘Moyes is the Main Man’. Okay, I don't believe that everything that the guy does is perfect, but Martin Ford was having a laugh, whingeing and moaning like a red. In fact, after reading it, I was reminded of the Kopites who were burning their Stevie G shirts outside Mellwood just before their hero didn’t go to Chelsea. Ford warns us that we should "get ready for the fall", but goes on to say he won't be coming along to see it, because his support for Everton no longer extends to going to the match. I don't know what sort of Evertonian this man is, but anyone who claims they would rather see Wigan, Blackburn or even Bolton – the ugliest, dirtiest side the top flight has seen in a long time – live ahead of Everton deserves to have questions asked of their sanity.

Moyes has made his mistakes, but which manager hasn’t? If you’re only going to reflect on the negative, then you could make even Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson seem the worst managers in the world. The achievements of Moyes have been staggering. He’s done what Howard Kendall was twice unable to do, Joe Royle couldn’t manage even with millions of Hamperman’s readies, and Walter Smith never looked remotely like achieving, and that’s make Everton compete in this tough, tough world of modern football. If – and this a big imponderable, because we don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes – he could plan out his transfer strategy a little bit better or maybe get a Frank Arnesen-type to sort out the deals, he could be a legend.