Chris Beesley tackles a major talking point following Everton's 3-2 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park
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If you swapped around Everton’s home and away results, would ANYONE be questioning the manager?
Well, they shouldn’t be, but then even the Blues, one of the most loyal but long-suffering major fanbases in football are not immune to the ridiculous lack of patience displayed by some in a modern world that has become used to getting things instantly. Everton’s 3-2 win over Newcastle United at St James’ Park took them to the magical ‘40-point’ milestone which was long considered the threshold a team needs to achieve to avoid relegation.
In truth, no Premier League side has actually needed 40 points to stay up since 2010/11, and prior to that, the only occasions when teams with 40 points or more went down came in 1996/97; 1997/98 (when Howard Kendall’s Everton were spared the drop on goal difference at Bolton Wanderers’ expense) and 2002/03. Nevertheless, getting to this mark – or not as the case may be – has sadly become a watershed moment for the Blues in recent years.
In 2021/22 when Everton posted the joint lowest points total in their history (39), or the following year 2022/23 when they dropped that figure further (36), avoiding a first relegation in 72 years by a single goal on the final day, they didn’t even get there. Even when you base calculations on results achieved on the pitch given that they suffered a brace of points deductions in 2023/24, the Blues didn’t get there until April 24 and then last year – after David Moyes returned at the halfway stage to replace Sean Dyche – and the drop was mathematically avoided with five games to spare, it wasn’t until May 10.
This season, a 12th Premier League away win since the Glaswegian gaffer came back ensured Everton got there on February 28, the final day of winter. With spring now in the air and any nagging doubts now behind them, hopefully all Blues supporters can start adopting a sunnier attitude.
Following the result at St James’ Park, former world champion boxer and Everton fan Tony Bellew declared online that Moyes is the most underrated manager in the league. But underrated by who? Some of his own club’s supporters it would seem.
Shortly before that, Bellew, adding: “Always, always, always support your club,” retweeted a post from an account called Essential Everton that said: “Special mention to all those so-called Everton fans who prior to kick-off power posted on the official Everton pages endless hate over the team selection, endless hate on our manager, endless hate on our players and endless hate on our loyal fans for supporting the team. One fan even wrote: ‘seen the team, clueless manager, I’m not even watching us play now. CBA.’”
Thankfully, and rather wisely in this correspondent’s humble opinion, Moyes has repeatedly stated that he “doesn’t do social media.” My job requires that I do, but if I wasn’t a journalist, I don’t think I’d be spending much time on such platforms either, but many of course do.
No matter how wild a take on a subject, there is now a public arena to air your views where the rest of us can end up reading it. Nevertheless, football is of course a game of opinions and it would make for a much duller world if we all had the same one.
However, while fans of every team in every sport have always complained about manager’s decisions – being in a football hotbed like Merseyside with a club like Everton who have enjoyed an illustrious past but have struggled to hit those heights for a record-breaking period now only amplifies such frustrations – there is a significant difference between questioning tactics, formations and selections in personnel and making the jump to calling for an individual’s head, which in this instance is frankly ridiculous and downright dangerous.
Given the number of square pegs continuingly being deployed in round holes, Moyes’ recent line-ups have inevitably prompted much discussion. We were probably all surprised to see Dwight McNeil back in the starting line-up at St James’ Park, let alone playing on the right wing – although not too shocked given that the team was leaked again and shared online much earlier than the official announcement 75 minutes before kick-off – but considering that the Blues won the game and the man whose deadline day move to Crystal Palace collapsed played a part in a couple of the goals, the manager is vindicated in his decision.
At the end of the day, the rest of us are all just laymen. We are not privy to what the 62-year-old sees at Finch Farm every day and must trust his judgement.
Of course, the elephant in the room remains Everton’s home form. It’s almost three months since they last triumphed at Hill Dickinson Stadium having ‘raced’ to four victories by the Mersey waterfront by December 6.
Regardless of what transpired in Tyneside on Saturday, the visit of Burnley on Tuesday always felt like a ‘must-win’ fixture. But when using that term, we mean in terms of aspirations such as making a push for Europe... doesn’t the fact we’re talking about such matters suggest that significant progress has been made?
Hopefully the Blues can put things right by putting a smile back on the face of the lion’s share of their fanbase through beating the Clarets. But even if they don’t, they’re still in the best possible hands.
Whatever your personal take on Moyes, he’s the most consistent Everton manager of the Premier League era. Nine top-eight finishes in his first spell, including their highest-ever position in the competition of fourth in 2004/05 is testament to that.
You can go as far as making a strong case to suggest he’s the only man who has shown himself capable of managing the Blues of a prolonged period in modern times. When you add into the mix the additional experience, he has acquired his departing Goodison Park in 2013, including guiding West Ham United to a first major trophy in 43 years in 2023, Everton remain incredibly fortunate to have him back at the helm at this pivotal moment in their existence.
If Moyes did not have that prior connection with the Blues, they’d have never attracted a manager of his calibre to the club when The Friedkin Group dispensed of Sean Dyche with the team on just 17 points at the halfway stage of the historic final season at Goodison.
Incredibly, Dyche was the longest-serving manager of Farhad Moshiri’s ownership – a boast akin to being the tallest of Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs – after the Monaco-based businessman churned through eight in as many years.
Question: Who was the last Everton manager to complete two full seasons?
Answer: Roberto Martinez, almost 11 years ago.
Question: Who was the last Everton manager to complete three full seasons?
Answer: David Moyes (his Catalan successor got the chop a game shy of reaching that milestone).
Now it's high time for some stability.
Moyes was just 38 when he first took the reins in 2002 and dubbed Everton “The People’s Club.” In a perfect world, the Blues could have turned to the next Moyes this time around, but like a unicorn, such a creature does not exist.
That’s a problem not just for Everton but the whole of football with a generation of young managers struggling to make their mark and sadly lacking in his staying power. Only Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal have managed more Premier League matches and while he might not be in the same class as such illustrious serial title winners, this is far from being Moyes’ first rodeo and he deserves our time and respect – both home and away.
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