toffeeblue9
Player Valuation: £35m
Think where I'm at is that I did (and still do) believe that post-Dyche and post-new ownership, we needed to rebuild and stabilise the club which would take a couple of years. Moyes felt like (and still feels like) a decent bet to bed down some good foundations and then progress from there.
We can have a debate about style, players being played out of position, home record, youngsters not getting enough minutes etc etc, but I don't think it's up for debate that we've stabilised, have a stronger squad and have generally improved since he took over.
The only real argument which I think I'd get onside with is if someone could convince me that the stabilising is done and we are ready in the summer to move onto the next phase, which would be to progress both in terms of *how* we play, but also towards regular European football and that meant that Moyes should leave to achieve that.
As things stand, I don't think those foundations are fully in place and I'm not sure changing manager after 18 months helps us achieve our mid to longer term ambitions. This is the bit that I could be convinced otherwise on, if I saw a convincing argument to the contrary.
The issue, for me, is one I hadn't appreciated until recently and it surrounds his contract - I thought 2.5 years was perfect because that would be the point where I think it would be reasonable to assume that the legwork on recruitment and foundations of the squad are bedded in and then we could make an educated decision about whether Moyes was the man to take us onto the next phase of what we want to achieve. What I hadn't really thought too much about was the issue that a 2.5 year contract means that this summer he would have 12 months left on the deal - that's all well and good, but it's likely that neither he nor the club would be comfortable going into the final year with no certainty about what happens next, it would probably overshadow things and regardless of what players say in the media about speculation over their manager's future not affecting things, it does and plenty of players admit that after their careers are over.
I don't think we are ready to make a decision about offering Moyes a new deal or not, but we might end up being forced to because of circumstances and that's not ideal.
In the short term, issues like team selection, style of play etc bother me far less than rebuilding the squad and getting stable and towards the European places (Europe next season would have been my objective and still is, but if it happens this season I think we'll be ahead of where I'd imagined it was reasonable to expect as a target), I don't like the idea of being backed into a corner on the Moyes contract as far as what happens after next season though - I'm not convinced we are in a position to know what would be best for the club at this point.
If we achieve European qualification this season, I'd expect he gets an extension and you'd be hard-pushed to argue that he wouldn't have deserved that, but I'll maintain that even as a general "Moyes in" card-carrier currently, I don't think giving a new deal right now is necessarily the best move for our longer term goals.
We can have a debate about style, players being played out of position, home record, youngsters not getting enough minutes etc etc, but I don't think it's up for debate that we've stabilised, have a stronger squad and have generally improved since he took over.
The only real argument which I think I'd get onside with is if someone could convince me that the stabilising is done and we are ready in the summer to move onto the next phase, which would be to progress both in terms of *how* we play, but also towards regular European football and that meant that Moyes should leave to achieve that.
As things stand, I don't think those foundations are fully in place and I'm not sure changing manager after 18 months helps us achieve our mid to longer term ambitions. This is the bit that I could be convinced otherwise on, if I saw a convincing argument to the contrary.
The issue, for me, is one I hadn't appreciated until recently and it surrounds his contract - I thought 2.5 years was perfect because that would be the point where I think it would be reasonable to assume that the legwork on recruitment and foundations of the squad are bedded in and then we could make an educated decision about whether Moyes was the man to take us onto the next phase of what we want to achieve. What I hadn't really thought too much about was the issue that a 2.5 year contract means that this summer he would have 12 months left on the deal - that's all well and good, but it's likely that neither he nor the club would be comfortable going into the final year with no certainty about what happens next, it would probably overshadow things and regardless of what players say in the media about speculation over their manager's future not affecting things, it does and plenty of players admit that after their careers are over.
I don't think we are ready to make a decision about offering Moyes a new deal or not, but we might end up being forced to because of circumstances and that's not ideal.
In the short term, issues like team selection, style of play etc bother me far less than rebuilding the squad and getting stable and towards the European places (Europe next season would have been my objective and still is, but if it happens this season I think we'll be ahead of where I'd imagined it was reasonable to expect as a target), I don't like the idea of being backed into a corner on the Moyes contract as far as what happens after next season though - I'm not convinced we are in a position to know what would be best for the club at this point.
If we achieve European qualification this season, I'd expect he gets an extension and you'd be hard-pushed to argue that he wouldn't have deserved that, but I'll maintain that even as a general "Moyes in" card-carrier currently, I don't think giving a new deal right now is necessarily the best move for our longer term goals.
