I do think for all his short comings, it's hard to actually criticise the David Moyes era up to 2009, because he did so much, and as for the finishing 17th, it was clear that the players had switched off, by all accounts we were poor, but once safety was assured by late March, we, and Moyes just looked at the season ahead, what difference does it make if we finish 17th with 39points or 17th with 45points.
He did turn us from a gang of cloggers ala Bolton, to a team, who played football, and for fans who were starved of football for 10 years before he took over, who oversaw 2 last day survival miracles and so forth, it has to be appreciated, that out went the old boys and in came, the young 20 something lads like Cahill, Arteta, Lescott who all wanted to win.
Sadly, how do you motivate a fella like Moyes, when he starts to believe the hype? it's tricky. In his Everton team of the last few years, he had a team capable of getting top 4, but in his head, he knew he could do no wrong, even if the team finished 8th, but his short comings could be taken, and spun into a positive due to finishing above the RS, when in reality, all our fans wanted was a team who'd go out and attack, and in the end, Over-Cautious Davey, brought his own demise, by being exactly that. A team starved of success like Everton, the last thing you want is to sit back, in a semi-final, against your arch rivals, and blow a 1-0 lead, which some fans may have forgiven, but any credit Moyes may of received for his tenure, will always be overshadowed by the fact that he simply could not finish the job.
In 11 years he failed to win a major trophy, in which time, Middlesbrough, Swansea, Birmingham, Portsmouth and Wigan all did so, with sides like Bradford, Cardiff (x2), Millwall, Southampton, Stoke and Fulham all appearing in the same amount of finals, so that would be his major shortcoming.
He failed to beat Liverpool at Anfield in 12 attempts, which is just ridiculous considering the amount of 'success' we had. This goes for Arsenal, United an Chelsea too.
In all, i'm grateful for the job Moyes did, as he really did save us, but the perennial tagging of 'over-achieving', was in reality probably unjust, when in reality, we simply were stuck in a rut, something the fans could feel.
Thanks for the job, but you're actions were classless since leaving, and well you know how they put it
Thanks for leaving. Here's to Bobby.