TUN Q&A on Air

By John P
October 6 2005

On Friday the 30th of September 2005, I received a phone call about a pre-recorded radio show called Soccer Guru's on Red 104.9. The show went on the air later that day and informed the Malaysian people of informative Premiership news and views. Below is the Q&A session

1) In my opinion, Everton's recent transfer dealings has been a farce. It's bad enough that EFC have failed to attract the better players but some of the new players are out injured without even playing a game (Per Kroldrup & Andy Van der Meyde for example). To add to that misery, players that EFC dont buy due to injury concerns are playing well with other teams (Mikael Forssell of Birmingham is the best example). It this all just plain bad luck or is there something very wrong with the way Everton's medical team is evaluating players' fitness?

A lot of it is due to the fact that Moyes knows what sort of player will fit into his team. There's no point in buying players just because they become available if the whole dynamics of a team will need to be changed just to accommodate that one player. The Forssel saga is down to the fact that he failed a long term medical. He apparantly as issues with his knees but if Birmingham want to take a risk with that sort of player its up to them. Injuries are an unfortunate part of the game, if we signed Emre instead of Newcastle, he'd be out injured at the moment. Per kroldrup played a full 90 mins against Udinese for everton in a pre season game and was fine, its just bad luck for everton he needed an operation to sort out an issue now rather than carry it all season.

2) There's a long list of players out injured at the moment, what's David Moyes's strategy of dealing with this situation? Buy more average players or just give the young players a run out?

At the moment we have to stick it out due to the transfer window closing. Not many teams suffer 8 injuries at any one time, it is just bad luck! At the moment moyes is giving some of the other younger lads a run out and seeing what happens towards the next transfer window.

3) Speaking of young players, Everton seemed to have a dread of new bloods. This doesn't augur well for Everton's Football Academy . There must be something wrong considering that Wayne Rooney is their best product for many, many years. It's a shame that we had at least one Gerrard (that I know of) & couldn't even mold him into a half decent player let alone someone in the veins of the hugely successful Steven. What can the academy do to produce more high caliber juniors?

The Financial Director of Everton is moving the Youth Academy to a better ground with more advanced training facilities but if you look through the lower leagues you'll find ex-everton players everywhere, Danny Cadamarteri, Phil Jevons, Michael Branch….Tony Hibbert was part of the youth academy and has stepped up to European football. And at the end of the day if Anthony Gerrard was that good how come Walsall is the only team that will pick him up? Wayne Rooney is pure raw talent and happens to be one of the best young players in the world but how many teams in the world can say that they have brought up a player, like rooney, through their own academy in the last 5 years?

4) You mentioned that there are 3 Thai players at the academy, how are they coping with the system?

They have recently been interviewed by Everton FC official website and they are doing remarkably well. The coaches have been impressed with their level of professionalism and their high work rates. They love playing football and it shows.

5) In your honest opinion, did the Pre-season in Bangkok do any more good then harm in terms of preparations for the Premierleague campaign?

In my honest opinion, I think it did more harm. It was nice to see Everton get out abroad and show the club and its players off to the world, but it did seem a bit of a waste of time. We lost both games and it was too hot to train. The players werent as prepared for this season as they were last season when we went to America.

6) The dreaded vote of confidence has now been given to David Moyes. We all know that it could now be a matter of time before a decision comes to retain or to keep DM...whats your opinion on keeping Moyes? Can he keep the Toffees up?

Fans are already screaming for Moyes's head on a pole but at the end of the day David has done more for this club in a few seasons than anyone else has done for 20 years. He's taken us into Europe. If we are in this situation at christmas then things will become more desperate but right now we have only played 6 games so it’s a case of wait and see.

7) What's the back pages of the UK papers saying about Everton this week as well as the other teams?

There's been a lot of positive feedback from other managers, such as Paul Jewell from Wigan stating that it’s a matter of time before the season starts for us, but to tell you the honest truth a lot of the papers are reporting on the fans turning on Sir Alex Ferguson. Things are really hotting up in Manchester, especially after Rooney was left on the bench in the last game.