David Moyes and his lack of dignity
David Moyes: "We do things with a bit of dignity at Everton."
I had to hold back the fits of laughter when David Moyes said the above following the Merseyside Derby at Anfield this season. The man of many sound bites, each more laughable than the next, actually believes what he's saying, making the whole episode ten times worse. But as comical and entertaining as the fella is at times, dignified he is not.
"Everton should be in this position. There have been many years when the fans were used to winning leagues and cups, but all that was taken away from them by other reasons."
Dignified is not referring to the Heysel disaster yet again, on the anniversary of the 39 lives that were lost back in 1985, and highlighting once more that Everton used to be one of the greats before that horrible night. It's not the first time he's brought up the subject, but the interview he gave before this weekend's FA Cup Final is more harrowing and shocking than anything he's said before, purely for it's timing.
Is it any wonder that the "murderers" mentality amongst Evertonians is so rife when the man in charge of their own club is fuelling that mindset within their support? Is it any wonder there is increased bitterness, hatred and venom within Evertonians towards their more successful red counterparts, when their own manager is blaming Heysel for Everton's dramatic and spectacular fall from grace?
How dignified is it bringing that up on the anniversary of the 39 deaths?
Sections of their support chant "Justice for the 39", when they have no real desire to seek justice for those lost lives. Liverpool fans were arrested, prosecuted and jailed for their involvement of Heysel. I'm not going to get into what happened that night in detail, as I wasn't there and every person you speak to will have a different version of events. It was a horrible night, it happened, and a catalogue of incidents resulted in 39 lost lives. Liverpool fans that charged, Juventus fans that instigated the violence, Uefa that chose the venue and refused to listen to pleas of concern about it's suitability, and the severe lack of control by the police on the day; all of the above have a portion of the blame attached to them over what happened that night.
39 innocent people died, yet Everton seem to think of Heysel as their disaster.
They were the victims; nobody else. Nobody was hurt more than Everton, and the events of that night are entirely to blame for their failure to remain as one of the "Big 5". Liverpool, Manchester United, Everton, Arsenal and Tottenham were the "Big 5" of that time. 3 of them still remain so, the other 2 not. How were Everton affected by Heysel in greater affect than Liverpool, United and Arsenal?
What about the likes of Norwich, Wimbledon and Luton that were denied a rare chance of strutting their stuff on the European stage? Do their fans and club management constantly refer to Heysel as the reason they find themselves in the position they do today?
Have they ever looked at the appointments of Mike Walker and Howard Kendall (again and again) as reasons for their demise? Have they looked to the years of mismanagement at board level with "Agent Johnson". A board that rejected a move to build a new ground at the Kings Dock years ago that could have taken the club forwards. Instead they've remained in a rotten and dated stadium, employed countless failures as managers and had an inept boardroom. Yet Moyes seems to believe, and brainwashing the fan base into thinking the same, that the events of Heysel played a far bigger part in that failure than any in-house error. A little look closer to home will highlight the real reasons Everton are no longer one of the big boys.
Every English club was banned from European for 5 years, so how were Everton affected by that ban more than any other club? We were banned for 7 years, so surely we'd have been hindered by that ban more than anyone?
Evertonian folklore states that they lost all of their best players following the ban, and broke up their greatest ever side. They are convinced they only needed to turn up the following year and they'd have beaten everyone en-route to winning The European Cup. They were such a great side that Liverpool won the double in 1986! Can anyone name all these great players that left Everton in search of European football?
They were so decimated by the disaster that they could only attract players like Gary Linekar to the club, who just happened to be one of the best strikers in the world at the time. Signing AFTER Heysel for a record transfer fee; so much for not having the pulling power and all players leaving in search of European football. Linekar remained for one season, before signing for Barcelona.
The following season Everton walked away with the league title, with probably their greatest ever side in 1987 and broke the transfer record again in signing Tony Cottee. I thought that side of 1985 was pulled apart as a result of the ban?
When exactly did the affects of the 5 year ban kick in for Everton? 1990? 1992?
Heysel being the root cause of all Everton's subsequent failures is one of the biggest myths in football. Years of gross mismanagement is where it all began, meaning they were fighting relegation when the Sky and Premiership boom kicked in. Instead of being one of the Big 5 at the time, they were more often than not in the bottom 5, and therefore missed the gravy train that was the Premiership. That is the real reason they find themselves as the poor relations on Merseyside.
Liverpool and Everton were the two best sides in the country in 1985, and remained so for the following few years with Liverpool winning the League and FA Cup in 1986, and Everton the League in 1987. In the early 1990's both clubs declined, with Souness failing to rebuild the side he inherited from Dalglish and both clubs being shy on silverware throughout the 90's. 1 FA Cup for Everton with 1 FA Cup and 1 League Cup for ourselves. Hardly the glory days of the 80's.
We managed to drag ourselves back onto the European stage under Gerard Houllier, before errors were made at the end of his tenure. Rafael Benitez has again restored our position as one of the greatest sides in Europe. Everton have clawed themselves away from being relegation fodder and are now "best of the rest" when you take away the elite 4 this league has now produced.
David Moyes has done a brilliant job at the club taking into consideration the funds available to him, but he does himself no favours whatsoever by constantly referring to Heysel as a defining moment in the club's history. If he had any dignity, he'd concentrate on the job at hand, forget about what happened 24 years ago and forget about constantly using the death of 39 innocent people as collateral damage in the decline of Everton Football Club.
If anyone is in any doubt why the "Friendly Derby" is now one of the most fierce and venom filled in the country, then look no further than the bitterness and lack of dignity shown by David Moyes in fuelling the Heysel myth that Liverpool are to blame for everything that has gone wrong at the blue end of Stanley Park. Evertonians are now growing up seeing Liverpool gather silverware and compete on the biggest stage. They are being preached to by the men at the top of their club that Everton would too be like Liverpool if it wasn't for Heysel.
Dignity? Not an ounce of it.
Paul Jones