Keeping up the Moyes level
By
Mickey Blue Eyes.

It has been an interesting if hairy season for David Moyes. I suspect he has learned a lot about football and himself, some of which he may not even have suspected. Anyone who has examined the recorded lives of past leaders of anything will detect a familiar pattern. The relatively trivial occupation of football manager is no exception.

Let me be clear at the outset. I am a big fan of Moyesy’s abilities without any belief in some absurd kind of “Messiah complex.” We are talking football here, people, not life and death, and certainly not something that should deter us from raw reality into the phoney world of media-induced soap operas, sports or others, or the fickleness of those fans who strain under the burden of their own inadequacies.

In my opinion David Moyes has it in him to become a great manager if he gets the breaks and has sufficient determinism. But he is a human being, not a machine or a statistic. It is likely the next few years will be critical for him. It will probably complete the first phase of his football manager education, the practical application of all those theories he learned and taught himself. My instincts tell me there is much more of a life long autodidact in him than any academic inclination or badged-up coaching course. Which is as it should be in professional athletics. Few human pursuits are so unforgivingly existential. In that respect you only have to witness the cold clammy hand of statisticians, journalists and accountants now sucking the lifeblood out of the game.

The only statistic you’ll find in this piece is the fact that he has now been manager of Everton for just two full seasons and a bit during which we have seen some remarkable changes on the playing field. There are those who look at our position in the league table and for them that’s all the interest they have, and it’s enough for the blighted of spirit to claim we are no better off than we were under Walter Smith. The claim is bollocks and anyone remotely acquainted with realities of the game will tell you the same. The league table never lies about the performances of a team but it can’t tell you the facts of how and why and who is ultimately responsible. Only an understanding of human flesh and blood and events can do that.

None of this is to claim Moyes hasn’t made or won’t make mistakes. Such a claim would be as stupid as the more fickle of those fans who base their knee-jerk reaction on results. Nor is it to say the buck doesn’t stop at the manager’s desk. I am willing to bet that if he had thought of it first he would have a plaque on his office door reading, “The buck stops here,” or, “If you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen.” Both of these may be visceral clichés but they also contain some truth.

As we all know he got off to a flying start and we avoided relegation. His first full season ended with us in seventh place. Only a late collapse of results prevented us qualifying for Europe. This season has been an unexpected mediocre struggle that more than justified early ominous indications something was wrong. Virtually the same players who performed well the previous season were now playing similar to the way they did under Walter Smith. The question is “Why?”

I think we can reasonably absolve the four last minute pre-season signings made by Moyes – Nigel Martyn, Kevin Kilbane, Jamie McFadden and Francis Jeffers. Our player of the season will surely come from the first two named, while McFadden started brilliantly and then struggled with the more stringent fitness regime and better playing standard of English football. I will be surprised if McFadden doesn’t come through the present challenge. The only outright “failure” of the four has been Jeffers, though I think his signing had more to do with financial arrangements with Arsenal than anything else. Nor can he be blamed if he is injury prone, or if he has the alleged “glass ankles.” The biggest query of all against Jeffers is his temperament and whether he has the inner composure and concentration to live up to his initial promise of three years ago. I have my doubts but hope I am wrong.

The rest of the players are those Moyes inherited from Smith, the ones he had fitter and playing better last season. When he arrived he said he had analysed the players were ten percent short of fitness. He duly proved it when the team outstayed most others and got some good results in difficult circumstances. This confirmed the feelings of sensible fans that they had not performed to their full potential under Walter Smith, a seeming trait which maddened anyone who saw it regularly. Smith tried to counter this by having them play more defensively than perhaps they needed to. Initially, Moyes reversed the emphasis and took a lot of other teams by surprise. This season the opposition were more prepared but that still doesn’t explain some of the performances and the present league standing. Something else was in play.

What first needs to be recognised is the number of players we have at or nearing veteran stage. The most obvious three are David Weir, Duncan Ferguson and Kevin Campbell. Then there’s David Unsworth, Steve Watson, injury-prone Sandro Pistone and Alan Stubbs. That’s a substantial part of the first team squad with serious consequences for the immediate future. Though they require replacement there is no guarantee that replacements we can afford will either fit in or be good enough. In fact there are no guarantees of any kind in football.

When Moyes first arrived he said he wanted young and enthusiastic players. I didn’t interpret this as a slight of the older players, merely a statement of common sense preference. My guess is his initial look at the squad immediately told him where the practical problems were. He was clarifying his own thoughts by making them public, something the fans obviously like about him but which won’t necessarily help him in the dressing room. Sometimes he uses the truth like a blunt weapon instead of a tool to open up the future. A highly placed individual at the club told me he thought Moyes needed to learn “how to put his arm around a player’s shoulder.” I have no idea of the truth of this. If true, that ability also carries necessary nuances – one of them being how to do it without appearing condescending, unctuous or false.

In my opinion we won’t really be able to judge of Moyes’ abilities until he has assembled his own team. Unfortunately our financial position means he won’t have the signing opportunities even Walter Smith had. We’re skint and that won’t change until we get a new infusion of money from somewhere or some new benefactor willing to underwrite ludicrous loans. The financial institutions rightly regard modern football as a dog with fleas where loans are concerned. A rights issue won’t provide enough money even if it reaches its highest projected level – which it won’t – since there are other pressing financial matters to add to transfer costs, not least of which is the stadium issue. With that as background incoming transfers are going to depend on bargain hunting or young unknowns. Likely we are going to be scraping for every little bit of success we can manage. There is no magic wand. Anyone who tells you there is is living in cloud cuckoo land and not to be trusted. Still, we have to start somewhere. David Moyes knew all of this when he took the job. It is to his credit he has never looked or sounded overwhelmed by the problems, though his body language has left some telling impressions this season. Overtly he remains enthusiastic and determined.

All of this has told in varying degrees on team performances. It is inevitable. As I said, we are talking human flesh and blood not automatons. The first season-long flush of enthusiasm is over. It is now up to everybody – EVERYBODY – to make it work. Herein lies the rub. Who, if anybody, is the root cause of this season’s form? What, if anything, has triggered such poor results? Is it managerial methods? Or tactics? Are some of the players simply not pulling their weight? Are the owners and board of directors doing enough? You work your prejudices and make your choice.

In one of these areas I am reminded of Howard Kendall’s early days when he first arrived. At the time Mick Lyons was club captain and generally regarded as “Mister Everton,” an undisputed great Evertonian through to his marrow. There are those who claim Mick came to believe the publicity. And he was indeed a fist-waving dominant playing personality who tried to be everywhere all at the same time. As soon as he could Kendall transferred him out. He wanted a team, not dominant personalities. In previous years Harry Catterick did precisely the same thing with Bobby Collins, then referred to as “King of Goodison.” All great managers used to do the same thing. These days it is much more difficult because of the strength of players’ contracts and freedom of movement. It is virtually impossible to be so dictatorial. Even an acknowledged hard man like Alex Ferguson doesn’t get his own way all the time.

Ferguson is rightly regarded as the leading manager of his day. His football greatness is assured by his self-evident achievements. But he did it by nurturing young players who he could direct better in his and their own interests, and by introducing big signings at exactly the right moment to bolster what he already had. Sounds easy, but of course it requires the kind of instinctive man management talents you can’t get out of a book or on a coaching course. It also requires a rare sort of human chemistry and large slices of luck. You don’t get that at night school or by listening to the more lunatic notions of the more lunatic fans.

In my opinion this is the first and most rigorous challenge faced by Moyes and I am willing to bet he knows it perfectly well. How he deals with it will probably dictate how his career goes from now on, whether (hopefully) it is with us or (hopefully not) somewhere else. He needs to gently replace the old guard with his own players, those who can grow together with him in the job. It would be a lot easier if he had lots of money to help him but he hasn’t and that’s that.

If the rumours are to believed some players have this season rebelled against his disciplinary regime, principally some of the older players. The rumours claim the older players have transferred their resentments to the younger players. The alleged aggregate affect is a deterioration in form caused by the kind of sulkiness you would recognise in all demoralised workplaces. Another rumour is that he made the mistake of telling some of the first team they wouldn’t be at the club beyond this season. I have no idea if this is true or not or whether it is an exaggeration by peons looking for notoriety. If it is true, then Moyes has no alternative, he has to clear out the “guilty” parties as soon as contracts allow. There can be only one manager. But what would that do to our short term playing fortunes? Is it a price worth paying for our future prospects?

The fact remains an untried David Moyes came into a well-nigh impossible situation and organised and inspired the team to perform much better last season. There was nothing flukey about it, not over the period of a whole season. Anybody who says otherwise simply doesn’t know the game of football or our playing/ownership history over the last five years or is so mean-spirited they aren’t worth knowing. That said, we are a year on, the older players are slower and we don’t yet have the kind of replacements we all know we need, particularly in midfield. We are asking Moyes to plait sawdust. Nor is it fair to ignore the level of risk taken by the present board and owners. Had Moyes not delivered so quickly we could easily be in a lower division by now. Those mere reactionaries who point to our present league position would do well to consider that chastening fact.

Veteran fans knew very well this season would pose a real challenge, though I freely concede I certainly didn’t expect us to struggle as badly as we have done. I was confident we could achieve tenth place at least. Which just goes to show you can’t simply uproot problems and solve them overnight, or wave a fictitious magic wand of more money. Don’t expect the rabid, spittle-sputtering loonies out there to understand that though.

My expectation, though not certainty, is that David Moyes will absorb the lessons of this season and change some elements of his approach. If players have indeed opposed him on personality grounds they will be shipped out, as they should be. Howard Kendall and Harry Catterick would approve. We need a strong dressing room, not one raddled with self-indulgence or self-pity. The players too need to show at least a modicum of respect and loyalty for what was achieved last season. The ones who show willing will stay. It is a moment requiring a peculiar combination of delicacy and ruthlessness. It remains to be seen if the young, talented and determined manager has it in him to do what’s necessary without sounding like a latter day Tommy Docherty.

If he achieves the kind of success we all hope for it is difficult to see how we could hold on to him long term. The fact is we do not have the finances or the stadium to match the highest aspirations and there’s no sign they’ll appear any time soon. Which means we are partly dependent on his patience. There can be no questioning his ambitions for himself. He’s made them clear enough during his time here. He obviously gives it his best shot, right or wrong, mistakes or not. We could not ask for more in that respect. The rate at which he grows and learns is a matter for himself. Only he can know that process and how he intends to deal with it. I hope he manages to avoid the pitfalls that, for instance, felled David O’Leary and have seen off other young ambitious men in other walks of life. There is always a crisis of faith, always a moment when you falter and then need to summon the inner strength to dash the obstacles aside.

This season David Moyes has had his crisis of faith. We are about to find out how he will deal with it.

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