Friday, February 13, 2009

Ooooh David Moyes

Brilliant piece on the BBC website outlining what us bluenoses have known all along

Moyes has proved himself

Moyes is under-stated, dour at times admittedly, but he has produced an Everton team full of passion, character and team spirit. The days of Goodison Park's flirtation with relegation have gone.

The Scot rules pretty much all he surveys at Everton. He is not to be trifled with, just ask Victor Anichebe when you next see him, and his players are seen rather than heard.

He has manouevred his budget skilfully, using particular guile when dipping into the Championship to pay £4m for Phil Jagielka from Sheffield United, £5m to buy Joleon Lescott from Wolves and - in one of the game's great bargains of recent times - £2m to take Tim Cahill from Millwall.

He has been outrageously written off as an international player by some on the basis of a misplaced pass for England against Spain, arguably the world's best international team on Wednesday, but ask Moyes for his rating of Jagielka and he will put it at pretty much priceless.

Indeed, it is interesting that much of Everton's recent resurgence has been based on an all-English back four of Lescott, Jagielka, Tony Hibbert and Leighton Baines.

Moyes has proved himself an able builder of teams, willing to give young English talent a chance and dip into the lower divisions to find talent. He is also happy (well relatively happy) to work within a restricted budget and yet still comes up with results.

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