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I can’t help feeling a touch envious that David Moyes’ destination is Manchester United and not Arsenal. Even more so under the current circumstances, where we have a manager so drunk on egotistical arrogance and selfish indifference he can only offer indefinite hopelessness.
As regular readers of this site know, Moyes was my number one wish for the Arsenal job, and Arsenal should have grabbed him while they had the chance, perhaps even two seasons ago.
When I first suggested Moyes should replace Arsene Wenger, I was mocked. What has he won they said? Well what had George Graham won before he came to Arsenal? However, Man Utd can see the potential and Alex Ferguson was quick to appoint his successor.
What Moyes has done at Everton has been remarkable. He wasn’t given the sort of handouts Wenger had, when he took over at Everton they had just emerged from a relegation dogfight. In fact, when the Premier League first began in 1992-93, Everton only made it into the top 10 once prior to Moyes joining 10 years later. Subsequently, under Moyes’ tenure, Everton have finished 11th, 7th, 17th, 4th, 11th, 6th, 5th, 5th, 8th, 7th, 7th, and 6th.
What makes Moyes’ achievement incredible is not just the consistency, but the lack of funds he’s had to operate with. When Wenger sold off a high profile player, he either sat on millions available in the bank or was able to use the money to buy replacements, whereas Moyes had to make do. Everton don’t have the pulling power of a London club – especially a club of Arsenal’s stature, so Moyes could never attract big-name players to Merseyside, or even well-known players. He couldn’t afford a big squad either, so when injuries hit they really did have an impact.
And, of course, Moyes never had a £145m wage bill to play with, Everton’s wage bill currently stands at £63.4m – some £80m less than Arsenal, yet this season they only trail the Gunners by 7 points.
But what I like most about Moyes is his burning desire to win and how, in Everton's play, they reflect that desire. His teams gave their maximum 99% of the time, so when Everton lost it was usually because they didn’t have anything like the quality to compete or, like all clubs, simply had a bad day at the office. It was never for lack of effort or desire, or in particular the sort of arrogance and overconfidence, or hopeless tactics, that have plagued Arsenal under Wenger.
As a manager, Moyes makes the right noises. He was a great ambassador for Everton and is not prone to making stupid excuses. In his post-match interviews, Moyes is nearly always calm, lucid and explanatory. A classy chap, he’ll slot in beautifully at a classy club.
So what will Moyes offer Manchester Utd? Well, he evidently doesn’t suffer fools gladly, he seems to have the balance right between being hard nosed and respected and liked by his players. He’s a stable tactician; his Everton sides maintain a good balance between attack and defence and go into games with a gameplan - a strong defensive mindset against sides with much higher quality players/resources and sustained attacking impetus against those they’re expected to beat. Their willingness to battle and fight makes them attractive to watch and very difficult to trump.
In the Premier League, Moyes has everything in place to continue Ferguson’s success. At the moment, Man Utd have a young team and no rivals; they walked the title this season with a side that has plenty of room for improvement, while Man City and Chelsea have put up virtually no resistance.
However, it’s the Champions League where Moyes will have to prove his tactical worth; considering the club’s resources, Ferguson has a comparatively poor record in Europe. Thoughts of emulating Ferguson’s domestic success is the stuff of fantasy, but Moyes does at least have room to manoeuvre in the Champions League.
I believe that key to Moyes being able to keep Man Utd at the top will be how he handles Utd’s centre backs. Despite winning the title, Utd’s defence has been unusually poor in recent seasons; particularly this season. With Ferdinand ageing and often injured, and Vidic also out for long periods over the past few seasons, at some point soon Moyes will need to oversee a defensive revolution at the club. Still, it will be interesting to see what he can do armed with the sort of financial firepower he’s never had as a manager – that’s what makes his appointment so intriguing.
Of course, Moyes could fail – there has to be question marks on whether he can handle the pressure at the top. But fail spectacularly? I doubt it. The infrastructure at the club is too strong and he has the sort of experts around him to assist that Wenger refuses to employ or simply throws aside. Ferguson’s era had to end some day and Moyes is a brave, but sensible choice. It’s better to take a gamble and fail than fail indefinitely while doing absolutely nothing about it (cough).
With Moyes and Guardiola snapped up by Man Utd and Bayern respectively, and Jose Mourinho likely to return to Chelsea in the summer and give them new impetus, Arsenal have not only lost out on numerous opportunities to get rid of their criminally overpaid and underperforming manager, but are only likely to fall further behind the big clubs. Of course there are plenty of other managers out there much better than Wenger, but the biggest clubs in Europe have not hung around waiting to fail, they’ve acted swiftly and decisively to get their men while Arsenal dodder on seemingly impervious to the club’s decline.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the huge amount of funding that will benefit Arsenal financially in the coming seasons, but for me, it won’t make a blind bit of difference. Wenger will do what Wenger does; he does not want big-named players that will come in an make an immediate difference - they might question his authority, and even if I’m wrong and he does buy them, at the very highest level he’s simply not tactically competent enough to make the percentage difference where it counts. Wenger's record in Europe is quite simply abysmal; he’s simply not fit for purpose at that level – and after another horrible domestic season, he’s evidently no longer fit for purpose in the Premier League either.
The good news – if you can call it that, is that with huge funding next season from Sky’s megadeal and a major kit deal with Puma likely to be announced, plus the £100m+ sitting in the bank unspent, Wenger has even less grounds to cowardly hide behind the money factor and use it as an excuse.
Even if the Frenchman is willing to loosen the purse strings, if only to save his own neck, one has to ask, is Wenger really the man to blow Arsenal’s new inheritance? He’s squandered £164m in transfer fees over the past 5 years – and just as much in wages - yet doesn’t have a single world class player to show for it and hasn't moved the club on in any area.
I can’t help feeling a touch envious that David Moyes’ destination is Manchester United and not Arsenal. Even more so under the current circumstances, where we have a manager so drunk on egotistical arrogance and selfish indifference he can only offer indefinite hopelessness.
As regular readers of this site know, Moyes was my number one wish for the Arsenal job, and Arsenal should have grabbed him while they had the chance, perhaps even two seasons ago.
When I first suggested Moyes should replace Arsene Wenger, I was mocked. What has he won they said? Well what had George Graham won before he came to Arsenal? However, Man Utd can see the potential and Alex Ferguson was quick to appoint his successor.
What Moyes has done at Everton has been remarkable. He wasn’t given the sort of handouts Wenger had, when he took over at Everton they had just emerged from a relegation dogfight. In fact, when the Premier League first began in 1992-93, Everton only made it into the top 10 once prior to Moyes joining 10 years later. Subsequently, under Moyes’ tenure, Everton have finished 11th, 7th, 17th, 4th, 11th, 6th, 5th, 5th, 8th, 7th, 7th, and 6th.
What makes Moyes’ achievement incredible is not just the consistency, but the lack of funds he’s had to operate with. When Wenger sold off a high profile player, he either sat on millions available in the bank or was able to use the money to buy replacements, whereas Moyes had to make do. Everton don’t have the pulling power of a London club – especially a club of Arsenal’s stature, so Moyes could never attract big-name players to Merseyside, or even well-known players. He couldn’t afford a big squad either, so when injuries hit they really did have an impact.
And, of course, Moyes never had a £145m wage bill to play with, Everton’s wage bill currently stands at £63.4m – some £80m less than Arsenal, yet this season they only trail the Gunners by 7 points.
But what I like most about Moyes is his burning desire to win and how, in Everton's play, they reflect that desire. His teams gave their maximum 99% of the time, so when Everton lost it was usually because they didn’t have anything like the quality to compete or, like all clubs, simply had a bad day at the office. It was never for lack of effort or desire, or in particular the sort of arrogance and overconfidence, or hopeless tactics, that have plagued Arsenal under Wenger.
As a manager, Moyes makes the right noises. He was a great ambassador for Everton and is not prone to making stupid excuses. In his post-match interviews, Moyes is nearly always calm, lucid and explanatory. A classy chap, he’ll slot in beautifully at a classy club.
So what will Moyes offer Manchester Utd? Well, he evidently doesn’t suffer fools gladly, he seems to have the balance right between being hard nosed and respected and liked by his players. He’s a stable tactician; his Everton sides maintain a good balance between attack and defence and go into games with a gameplan - a strong defensive mindset against sides with much higher quality players/resources and sustained attacking impetus against those they’re expected to beat. Their willingness to battle and fight makes them attractive to watch and very difficult to trump.
In the Premier League, Moyes has everything in place to continue Ferguson’s success. At the moment, Man Utd have a young team and no rivals; they walked the title this season with a side that has plenty of room for improvement, while Man City and Chelsea have put up virtually no resistance.
However, it’s the Champions League where Moyes will have to prove his tactical worth; considering the club’s resources, Ferguson has a comparatively poor record in Europe. Thoughts of emulating Ferguson’s domestic success is the stuff of fantasy, but Moyes does at least have room to manoeuvre in the Champions League.
I believe that key to Moyes being able to keep Man Utd at the top will be how he handles Utd’s centre backs. Despite winning the title, Utd’s defence has been unusually poor in recent seasons; particularly this season. With Ferdinand ageing and often injured, and Vidic also out for long periods over the past few seasons, at some point soon Moyes will need to oversee a defensive revolution at the club. Still, it will be interesting to see what he can do armed with the sort of financial firepower he’s never had as a manager – that’s what makes his appointment so intriguing.
Of course, Moyes could fail – there has to be question marks on whether he can handle the pressure at the top. But fail spectacularly? I doubt it. The infrastructure at the club is too strong and he has the sort of experts around him to assist that Wenger refuses to employ or simply throws aside. Ferguson’s era had to end some day and Moyes is a brave, but sensible choice. It’s better to take a gamble and fail than fail indefinitely while doing absolutely nothing about it (cough).
With Moyes and Guardiola snapped up by Man Utd and Bayern respectively, and Jose Mourinho likely to return to Chelsea in the summer and give them new impetus, Arsenal have not only lost out on numerous opportunities to get rid of their criminally overpaid and underperforming manager, but are only likely to fall further behind the big clubs. Of course there are plenty of other managers out there much better than Wenger, but the biggest clubs in Europe have not hung around waiting to fail, they’ve acted swiftly and decisively to get their men while Arsenal dodder on seemingly impervious to the club’s decline.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the huge amount of funding that will benefit Arsenal financially in the coming seasons, but for me, it won’t make a blind bit of difference. Wenger will do what Wenger does; he does not want big-named players that will come in an make an immediate difference - they might question his authority, and even if I’m wrong and he does buy them, at the very highest level he’s simply not tactically competent enough to make the percentage difference where it counts. Wenger's record in Europe is quite simply abysmal; he’s simply not fit for purpose at that level – and after another horrible domestic season, he’s evidently no longer fit for purpose in the Premier League either.
The good news – if you can call it that, is that with huge funding next season from Sky’s megadeal and a major kit deal with Puma likely to be announced, plus the £100m+ sitting in the bank unspent, Wenger has even less grounds to cowardly hide behind the money factor and use it as an excuse.
Even if the Frenchman is willing to loosen the purse strings, if only to save his own neck, one has to ask, is Wenger really the man to blow Arsenal’s new inheritance? He’s squandered £164m in transfer fees over the past 5 years – and just as much in wages - yet doesn’t have a single world class player to show for it and hasn't moved the club on in any area.
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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