Daniel Moore


Following yet another summer of discontent at Everton their fans would have been excused for fearing the worst ahead of what should have been a promising season for the Toffees.

With an injury list as long as your arm and no money to remedy the situation, David Moyes eventually decided to gamble on offloading Joleon Lescott to Manchester City to generate some much-needed transfer cash to boost his squad. It was the most protracted transfer saga of the summer in the Premier League, with Everton fans convincing themselves that a move to the Citizens would represent a step down the footballing ladder for Lescott, and their counterparts assuring themselves he would be another important piece in their expensively-assembled jigsaw.

Having submitted a transfer request just days earlier, Lescott was offered little sympathy from Moyes, as he selected him at the heart of their defence for Everton’s opening day 6-1 drubbing from Arsenal. Or was it a lack of available players that meant the Scotsman was left with no alternative but to play the want-away Lescott? The fact that no centre backs were on the Everton bench that day might suggest the latter.

His replacement, Sylvain Distin, signed from struggling Portsmouth, has performed well this season, but he too was hit by the Everton injury jinx as he missed the entire Christmas period with an injury.

Club player of the year for 2008/09, Phil Jagielka, is yet to play a single minute of football this season due to a horrific knee injury picked up against Manchester City back in April. The same can be said for creative midfield lynch-pin Mikel Arteta and striker Victor Anichebe, both of whom were stretchered off the pitch with knee ligament injuries during Everton’s fixture with Newcastle in February of last year. Again, neither have made a single appearance this campaign. Captain Phil Neville, despite starting the season, missed three months of the campaign – again with knee ligament damage – while key man Steven Pienaar also missed two months with a knee injury.

Everton fans are quick to point out that it is their threadbare squad that led to their nightmare start to the season. Pick up a few injuries and the Blues are left with academy players such as right-back Seamus Coleman playing on the left, midfielder-cum-striker Tim Cahill being deployed as a left winger, and much-maligned right-back Tony Hibbert being asked to fill in at the centre of defence away to Benfica. Is it any surprise, then, that the Toffees were walloped 5-0 by the Portuguese?

Everton’s opening ten games of the season produced just 12 points, and the Merseyside club’s failure to beat Stoke, Wolves, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Tottenham and Birmingham in a disastrous six game run stretching from October to December at home speaks volumes about a team that harboured genuine ambitions – Everton finished fifth two seasons running – of breaking up the ‘big four’ in the English top flight.

Despite this, and ignoring the two defeats inflicted upon them by Benfica in the Europa League, Everton have performed well in European competition, qualifying second from their group with a game to spare. Indeed, since their disappointing performance at home to city rivals Liverpool, Everton lost just one game in ten in all competitions, with Belarus outfit BATE Borisov exposing Moyes’ young guns in a dead rubber game at Goodison Park with qualification to the next round already assured.

Dutchman John Heitinga, signed from Atlético Madrid in the summer, has already become a fan favourite with a series of uncompromising performances in defence, while the ever-increasing influence of ex-Standard Liege man Marouanne Fellaini anchoring the midfield has led to the team becoming much harder to break down.

For many Everton supporters width has been a real issue in recent years. Moyes is known to favour fielding five interchangeable midfielders, all capable of changing flanks and filling in as and when necessary; but the arrival of America’s most capped player, Landon Donovan, has set pulses racing after his injection of pace and quick-thinking down the right hand side, and has already led to many calling for his loan to be made permanent in the summer. Although that looks unlikely due to Donovan recently having signed a new five-year contract with the LA Galaxy, the new dimension added to Everton’s play is clear for all to see.

One candidate to fill in the gap that will be left by Donovan when his deal expires in March is Russian import Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, signed from Lokomotiv Moscow for £9M, a deal funded with part of the fee received for Lescott. After taking some time to settle into his new surroundings, the Russian is now showing the kind of form he regularly produces for his national side, and with Mikel Arteta soon to return from injury, as well as the red hot current displays of Pienaar and Fellaini, Billy – as he is fondly known to Toffees’ fans – can be expected to rise to the occasion and help fire Everton up the table in the second half of the season.

With regular top four finishers Liverpool floundering this season, manager David Moyes is sure to be ruing another poor summer in the transfer market and subsequent sloppy start to the season. Blues’ fans also feel questions have to be raised about how much longer a limited transfer budget can continue to be provided under the current tenure of chairman Bill Kenwright.

Many are expecting the Toffees to shoot up the table between now and May, and it would be hard to argue against Everton making good these predictions. Yet the huge deficit the Merseyside club have left themselves in achieving a Champions League berth might already mean it is no longer a realistic aim, and Everton fans will be wondering David Moyes is going to be given a fair crack of the whip in the transfer market. It is, perhaps, the only way to ensure the disastrous start to this season is not repeated next time around.

 

Related Articles:

 

Everton 1982 Retro Home Shirt           Everton 1985 CWC Final Retro Shirt

Everton 1982 retro home shirt                                Everton 1985 European cup Winners Cup Final retro shirt