Dear Mr Moyes,
I have a very simple question for you: how long are you going to have the nerve to remain as manager of Everton FC?
I have watched Everton for 50 years and I can honestly say that the football we are currently being subjected to is the worst I have ever seen us play. This isn’t a new problem; we’ve been gradually on the slide since we lost the FA Cup final. You have sold any flair players we’ve had and have claimed it has been your decision to do so. Pienaar, Arteta, Yakubu (who apparently could have gone to West Ham for a reported 6 million pounds and then was sold for peanuts a few months later).
A reported 14 million pound bid for Jagielka was rejected but you deemed 10 million to be enough for our best player. Beckford was moved on after a decent first season yet Anichebe who has never looked like a Premier League player is awarded a long contract. Denis and Drenthe were brought in but hardly get any game time while Saha and Cahill plod on looking well past their sell by dates.
We hear that Barkley is something special but never see him. The style of football is so negative it is beyond belief. This club has a proud history and a reputation for playing attractive football. We didn’t get the nickname of ‘School of Science’ for no reason. The greatest centre forward that ever played the game played for Everton and we built a reputation around that position.The number nine shirt at Everton means something to fans of this club, we expect to have top class centre forwards on the pitch every week and not sat on the bench while we attempt to eke out a one nil win or even a nil nil draw. Nil Satis seems to have been thrown in the bin nowadays at Everton.
We play games with no strikers on the pitch, something we don’t see from any other team. I remember you saying that if you ever lose the fans you would leave the club. Well believe me, Mr Moyes, you are seriously losing the fans as the dwindling attendances show.
If Everton played football worth watching the ground would be full every game. We constantly hear that David Moyes has worked wonders with little money. Sorry but that doesn’t wash: when you have had money it’s been wasted. Kroldrup, Heitinga, Bilyaletdino all spring to mind. Paul Lambert at Norwich and Brendan Rodgers at Swansea are living proof that you don’t need bags of money to compete at this level; it’s not the players you have on the pitch but it’s the way you tell them to play the game.
Every team can play passing, attacking football no matter how much money they’ve spent; the two teams I mentioned prove it and believe me, they are both far more exciting to watch than David Moyes’ Everton. You have turned strikers like Beattie, Johnson and Yakubu from being top class goalscorers into ordinary players by asking them to play wide chasing hopeful long punts from the back. Sorry but that’s not a centre forwards job, you provide service to any striker and they will score goals.And the place where they are most effective is in the penalty area, not by the corner flag. It appears that you have decided that the Moyes way is the way Everton are going to play even though it’s clearly not working, over half the season gone and not a single performance to get excited about.
There’s a saying that if something isnt broken then don’t fix it, well the fact is that Everton is broken almost beyond repair and it needs major surgery, and that involves change. The system we adopt doesn’t work and needs to be altered. There are talented players at the club who don’t get enough game time. Saha isn’t scoring goals yet keeps his place but Denis gets 4 or 5 minutes at the end of games. Give him a run of 10 games and then we’ll see if he’s going to be good enough.
Lets see Drenthe given a regular start because he clearly has the ability and is a naturally attacking player. It’s pointless starting him one in every four games, that isn’t doing him or the team any favours. I’ve heard that he has to learn to develop his game and up his work ethic and learn to defend more because that’s the Everton way. Well I beg to differ, the Everton way is not to have your attack minded players turn into workrate zombies, if Drenthe is attack minded then leave him attack minded because thats how you win football matches.
Sadly, it appears that our priority is to not lose games rather than to win them and it’s simply not good enough. We see your after match interviews and you constantly tell us that we have played well when it’s clear for all to see that we have not only not played well, but we’ve been absolutely woeful week after week. That is treating the fans that work hard to pay your wages like fools and they deserve better. How can you seriously expect people to keep putting their hands in their pockets to watch the dreadful anti football that you have Everton serving up every week?
The fans aren’t fools and they wont be treated that way as you are seeing by the numbers that are staying away. Even in our dark days when we were in relegation fights we did the one thing that your team doesn’t do, we played attacking football. It seems the only option we have for getting the ball forward now is the big hoof up the pitch and it’s not acceptable. Fans would accept results going against us if they were watching good football but take it from me, as much as it pains me to say it, Everton play the most awful football to watch in the league without a shadow of a doubt.
I honestly dont know how you have the nerve to stay at the club being paid an enormous salary and making no apparent effort to put things right or change the way we play. I can assure you that I take no pleasure whatsoever in writing this letter but it’s the only way I can let off steam because I’m watching your tactics slowly destroy my club and it hurts.
Ten years at the club and no trophies whatsoever says to me that you have outstayed your welcome. Please do the decent thing and make way for somebody who wants to give the fans good football and some hope. We don’t want our teams ambition to be to finish anywhere above 17th every year but that’s the impression that you give now. We’re sinking fast and its time for change…….please.
Les Olsen
Hi Mods; please delete or merge if/as necessary...I found this very interesting as it has some very pertinent points especially as it was written two years ago, and how it relates to present day...
I have a very simple question for you: how long are you going to have the nerve to remain as manager of Everton FC?
I have watched Everton for 50 years and I can honestly say that the football we are currently being subjected to is the worst I have ever seen us play. This isn’t a new problem; we’ve been gradually on the slide since we lost the FA Cup final. You have sold any flair players we’ve had and have claimed it has been your decision to do so. Pienaar, Arteta, Yakubu (who apparently could have gone to West Ham for a reported 6 million pounds and then was sold for peanuts a few months later).
A reported 14 million pound bid for Jagielka was rejected but you deemed 10 million to be enough for our best player. Beckford was moved on after a decent first season yet Anichebe who has never looked like a Premier League player is awarded a long contract. Denis and Drenthe were brought in but hardly get any game time while Saha and Cahill plod on looking well past their sell by dates.
We hear that Barkley is something special but never see him. The style of football is so negative it is beyond belief. This club has a proud history and a reputation for playing attractive football. We didn’t get the nickname of ‘School of Science’ for no reason. The greatest centre forward that ever played the game played for Everton and we built a reputation around that position.The number nine shirt at Everton means something to fans of this club, we expect to have top class centre forwards on the pitch every week and not sat on the bench while we attempt to eke out a one nil win or even a nil nil draw. Nil Satis seems to have been thrown in the bin nowadays at Everton.
We play games with no strikers on the pitch, something we don’t see from any other team. I remember you saying that if you ever lose the fans you would leave the club. Well believe me, Mr Moyes, you are seriously losing the fans as the dwindling attendances show.
If Everton played football worth watching the ground would be full every game. We constantly hear that David Moyes has worked wonders with little money. Sorry but that doesn’t wash: when you have had money it’s been wasted. Kroldrup, Heitinga, Bilyaletdino all spring to mind. Paul Lambert at Norwich and Brendan Rodgers at Swansea are living proof that you don’t need bags of money to compete at this level; it’s not the players you have on the pitch but it’s the way you tell them to play the game.
Every team can play passing, attacking football no matter how much money they’ve spent; the two teams I mentioned prove it and believe me, they are both far more exciting to watch than David Moyes’ Everton. You have turned strikers like Beattie, Johnson and Yakubu from being top class goalscorers into ordinary players by asking them to play wide chasing hopeful long punts from the back. Sorry but that’s not a centre forwards job, you provide service to any striker and they will score goals.And the place where they are most effective is in the penalty area, not by the corner flag. It appears that you have decided that the Moyes way is the way Everton are going to play even though it’s clearly not working, over half the season gone and not a single performance to get excited about.
There’s a saying that if something isnt broken then don’t fix it, well the fact is that Everton is broken almost beyond repair and it needs major surgery, and that involves change. The system we adopt doesn’t work and needs to be altered. There are talented players at the club who don’t get enough game time. Saha isn’t scoring goals yet keeps his place but Denis gets 4 or 5 minutes at the end of games. Give him a run of 10 games and then we’ll see if he’s going to be good enough.
Lets see Drenthe given a regular start because he clearly has the ability and is a naturally attacking player. It’s pointless starting him one in every four games, that isn’t doing him or the team any favours. I’ve heard that he has to learn to develop his game and up his work ethic and learn to defend more because that’s the Everton way. Well I beg to differ, the Everton way is not to have your attack minded players turn into workrate zombies, if Drenthe is attack minded then leave him attack minded because thats how you win football matches.
Sadly, it appears that our priority is to not lose games rather than to win them and it’s simply not good enough. We see your after match interviews and you constantly tell us that we have played well when it’s clear for all to see that we have not only not played well, but we’ve been absolutely woeful week after week. That is treating the fans that work hard to pay your wages like fools and they deserve better. How can you seriously expect people to keep putting their hands in their pockets to watch the dreadful anti football that you have Everton serving up every week?
The fans aren’t fools and they wont be treated that way as you are seeing by the numbers that are staying away. Even in our dark days when we were in relegation fights we did the one thing that your team doesn’t do, we played attacking football. It seems the only option we have for getting the ball forward now is the big hoof up the pitch and it’s not acceptable. Fans would accept results going against us if they were watching good football but take it from me, as much as it pains me to say it, Everton play the most awful football to watch in the league without a shadow of a doubt.
I honestly dont know how you have the nerve to stay at the club being paid an enormous salary and making no apparent effort to put things right or change the way we play. I can assure you that I take no pleasure whatsoever in writing this letter but it’s the only way I can let off steam because I’m watching your tactics slowly destroy my club and it hurts.
Ten years at the club and no trophies whatsoever says to me that you have outstayed your welcome. Please do the decent thing and make way for somebody who wants to give the fans good football and some hope. We don’t want our teams ambition to be to finish anywhere above 17th every year but that’s the impression that you give now. We’re sinking fast and its time for change…….please.
Les Olsen
Hi Mods; please delete or merge if/as necessary...I found this very interesting as it has some very pertinent points especially as it was written two years ago, and how it relates to present day...
