Well essentially mate the dilema as far as i can make out is this have:
Everton hit a glass ceiling of progress with Moyes - his coaches and methods.
or
Has Moyes hit a glass ceilling at Everton in terms of the means available to progress the club.
Putting it into perspective we probably have the same type of budgets as Bolton and Wigan in terms of outlays on players (though we prob spend more on wages), so by the average standard of comparison we should prob look to be somewhere in between those two clubs finishing positions last season. We werent - what would you say were the main varibles of influence on the eventual outcome of the season and how many of them are directly influenced by the manager - quite a few i would imagine. Not to mention the fact that said success accounted for argueably 30-40% of the turnover of the club.
Simply put the club in so many ways are utterly dependent on the manager. All this we know. The nature of the football will always dictate that fans rightly scrutinise performence. Often our team have to play the percentages and win individual battles, its very unlikely to do it any other way based on means and depth of quality. Moyes will always have fans disagree with decisons, style , tactics - lets face it every manager in the world does by fans who think they know better. Point being his deciosns have provided success relative to Everton and its means presently. The very nature of this debate is self defeatest, asking in the context of finishing fifth have we outgrown our management team - it mearely shows how successfull our management team have been - due to the expectations in this thread - in comparrison with our peers means, we have no right really. We are very lucky to have DM and i think any strategy suggesting to change that postion from a club point of view should be known as - PLAN ARMAGEDDON. Its like the loons questioning Wenger at Arsenal.
Neither are infalable or always right but the trick is getting it more right then wrong compared to the rest - Moyes has proven this.
To put into perspective the expectation Moyes's success has created:
In the game before he joined we were hammered 3-0 by Middlesbrough and were 16th in the table
In a few weeks time we will be playing in the stadium of light in Europe.
* By association when i mention the manager i include his staff.
So exactly what are you trying to say?
Seriously, how much gratitude are we to show
Moyes for doing what is known in the world of football as '
his job'?
Moyes was employed to manage the club, and with it certain expectations were laid before him.
I'm sure the expectations were to keep the club in the Premiership first and foremost, and no doubt long term, the expectations were to take the club forward and add success during his tenure.
There is absolutely no doubt what so ever that Moyes has done what he has been paid to do, and probably exceeded initial expectations.
At what point do the club then look at our current situation, and discuss the next step?
At what point does the back patting for past performance stop, and the bar get raised?
At what point does the lack of silverware and prize money start to take it's toll on the patience of the board?
I can tell you from experience that any business will look to increase profit year after year.
I can also tell you from experience that a company director will insist that if we can do it once, then we can do it again, and even if your targets are reached, and indeed exceeded, the targets for the following year will still be based upon the previous years results, with the view of continued increase.
Moyes has hit targets that have been set, and as a result, the club and indeed fans now feel that we are firmly established as a top of the table team, and the budgets of the club are drawn accordingly.
Are we now to settle for a 5th place finish, or do we want to take the next step forward and join the elite?
The answer is yes, we want to take the next step, and I don't believe anyone wants to settle for always missing out, be it board director or fan.
Moyes' job expectancies have now changed.
No longer are we at the foot of the table looking for survival. It goes without saying that it is important to assess whether we can actually make the next step, and it is also important to be aware that if we can't, we need to at least not take a step backwards while we are finding a solution.
Last season, once again we qualified for a European place, and also managed to get to a Wembley final.
This was brought about by good management on behalf of Moyes, support from both the board and indeed the fans, and also effort from the players involved.
Regarding the board, they are currently in a catch 22 situation, where they rely on our successes across the spectrum to both finance the club, and indeed convince the banks that we are a good bet for repaying any loans etc etc.
Unless we get investment, we are pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place regarding transfer budgets. It is certainly a factor that we can't compete financially with other teams, but some of the poorest teams in the league are looking down on us at this moment in time. It's also noticeable that a team that has recently been taken over is at the foot of the table.
Regarding Moyes, he wants more money, just like every manager does, and prefers to do it without selling existing players.
He knows that we need a bigger squad, and he knows that we need cover for certain areas of the pitch incase of injury or fatigue. He also knows to pinpoint any areas of weakness and attempt to strengthen those areas. This isn't something that suddenly pops into his mind on the first day of the transfer window, and then pops out again on the last day.
Did he make good use of the window?
He knows that it is important to have a successful pre-season, by keeping the players fit, keeping them happy, and integrating any new faces into the squad at the earliest opportunity.
Did he make good use of our pre-season?
It is also important to find a balance , and decide how best to implement each player in each position. To have a plan of action regarding utilizing each player, and find yourself understanding your own team, and what makes it tick. On the first day of the season, you should have a very good idea of who is going to play where, and who is going to be on the bench, and who will possibly be part of a rotation system.
Has he done this?
Any players that are worth keeping in the squad, but probably won't get much football in the season, especially younger players, are worth loaning out to teams that can offer them first team opportunities, good coaching, and prevent them getting stale and unhappy.
The same applies to bringing in players on loan, or on frees, that can contribute to the squad.
Has he done this?
We all know we could go on and on with different scenarios and questions, and easily find fault if we scrutinize things enough, but the facts still remain that at the moment, our pre-season was an absolute shambles. The transfer window was an absolute shambles, and our start to the season yet again has been an absolute shambles.
Now I'm not putting all the blame here in Moyes' corner, but I'm certainly asking if now he has brought us this far, does he have what it takes to keep us where we are at wost, and improve us even more as a club.
He may well go on to prove that he is indeed capable of doing this, but there are an awful lot of weaknesses that need ironing out if he is to do this, and Moyes must start learning from past mistakes and become a better manager to be able to do it.
I still think he should take a close look at the coaching staff, and ask himself the same questions of them that we ask of him, because the bottom line is that regardless of what we all think of Moyes, our football is mediocre and it's time that after 7 years, there was an improvement to how we play, and unfortunately there hasn't really been one that I can see.
We can only listen to the same song so often before the record needs changing, even if it was a great song.
Whats worse is that in Moyes time only 3 league cups and 1 fa cup won outside the sky4. Are there any others you've missed?
