Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
I'd back him to do a recovery job, as you put it. He'll have been a big success if we are circa 8th position in the league in 18 months time. I doubt he'll get that far, though. His main job - as Dyche's was - is to keep us up this season. Unlike Dyche, he has the ability to move us up the table then - especially as, again, unlike Dyche, he'll have money to spend. But that's where it's going to get really tricky for Davey. With money to spend, he will not get away with slow starts to seasons - which he was notorious for with us - or those runs of seven or eight games with, say, a single win, three draws, and four defeats. Kenwright would never remove his shield back in the day, but these Americans, unlike Kenwright, having actually spent money, have higher standards.Now that the dust has settled, i think its important to take an objective look at why we appointed Moyes and holistically what it means to the club.
As regards the selection I think we were caught between competing needs of survival/stabilisation and progress if im honest. There are also other variables like availability without compo, working knowledge, experience of our current position etc. He just ticked an awful lot of logical boxes in terms of competency and in fact bang on what we needed. I said so many times over the last fer months id be really surprised if its wasn't Moyes, because given the skill set we need and competencies he's the perfect bridge for right now and the future.
What the club needs right now is survival, what ever we did in the last two seasons and it was nothing short of miraculous, the balance in the squad is off, we have one of the best defiance's in Europe and the worst attack. This conundrum need to be problem solved, is it possible more can be coached, is it possible the balance can be struck. Its something Moyes has done before. Thats the most immediate need and i think hes going to do it - its likely not going to be pretty and i think the next few months are the worst we are going to be.
What we have done in appointing Moyes, is more though. He has skills in terms of building football teams worth 100s of millions of football talent, bring those teams to European competition and higher PL placement. Lets be frank at the moment we are the poster boys off how not to build football teams, invested big, bought poorly, dragged us down the league and are a laughing stock of the footballing world - you go on different teams forums and they call us a turd that just wont flush. Our reputation is in tatters. That is borne out with players like Philogebe this week picking Ipswich over us - Ipwsich Town! Moyes took us over in this situation before he brought young talent in and turned many of them into international players commanding fees cumulatively worth 100s of millions to the club, did it again and again. But that was 10- 20 years ago? Hes done the exact same thing in his last job at WHU, brought them from relegation candidates to Europe and made them 100s of millions as a football club.
Simply put Moyes is going to recover this club. There are two sources of revenue. What you make yourself and what you can generate in player sales. Our current turnover is about £190 mill on a good year, yet this is eaten by high costs - this is finishing very shortly. Beyond June 25, we can expect an annual revenue of about £250 mill approx , that puts is a bracket with WHU, Newcastle, Aston Villa - who have to be our aim to compete with by the end of this cycle. Secondly with the added revenue created by cost saving in June and increased revenue - who do you trust to pick players who you can buy low, improve, appreciate, contribute and ultimately realize a significant profit on (being unwilling sellers) - contribute and increase revenue by bringing the club up the league and possibly Europe - its Moyes.
So in essence TFG have chosen him i would argue based on the above skills, competency and ability to manage the club now but also to manage whatever investment they will make in the playing squad in the coming years and overall increase the value of the club. They are backing him to raise all boats holistically at the club.
Which brings us to a judgment on the TFG, i think this is such a quick and clever decision and im really impressed with it, from an entirely holistic point of view including playing and business ive been saying for months now that id be surprised if it wasnt Moyes, hes absolutely the most logical choice for what we need, they've seen that almost immediately and that's impressive, they have this spot on if i was protecting a £600 mill pound investment and wanted to grow that investment and needed to trust someone to do all that i mention above, Moyes is a no brainer.
From their point of view Football investment in generally about a 10 year minimum financial investment before looking for a return, could TFG look at the first 2.5 year of this investment cycle being stabilisation and growth - absolutely, the job of work now is above and raising all boats. If they and Moyes achieve that over this cycle its a job well done and we consign this horrific time in our history to the skip.
Honestly when i weigh everything up i find it hard logically for it hard not to think that is the best decision we could have made. Im not saying there wont be bumps in the road, the next few months will be the lowest we will be. But i definitely have feeling with this decision and what it means holistically for the club that we've jus picked ourselves off rock bottom.
This is just about recovering the football team, this is about recovering the club holistically over a period of time, we have the right man.
Honestly, I think the very best outcome for us is we get behind Moyes, he keeps us up, and we pay him off in the summer. Anything else is simply prolonging a very predictable timeline where he eventually runs out of road once the club is safe, has money to spend, and the old self-imposed glass ceiling is reinstalled at the new stadium. I'd love to be wrong and hope I am. But for now, full support.
Last edited:
Blink
