This year’s FA Cup Final was a case of the haves against the have nots or, more specifically, the billionaires against the millionaires. In this case the billionaires, Chelsea, ran out winners with a 2-1 victory over the millionaires, Everton. Everton’s run to the final was a prominent feature of this year’s FA Cup. They were no strangers to financial mismatches after having already dumped Liverpool and Manchester Utd out of the competition but, despite going 1-0 up on 25 seconds through Louis Saha, this Chelsea side proved to be one step too far as they came back strongly with goals from Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.
Despite the defeat, Everton’s cup run won the manager David Moyes a lot of richly deserved and overdue praise from the media and fans of other football clubs, so much so that he has been linked with the Manchester Utd job when Alex Ferguson retires. Everton are finally becoming recognised as an established top 6 club and it is down to David Moyes. He has, slowly but surely, revolutionised the club based on 3 factors: Team spirit and work ethic, shrewd transfer dealings and intelligent coaching and management.
The first factor, team spirit and work ethic, was visible from the start. When he was appointed in March 2002, Everton were being dragged into a relegation battle and were recovering from a gruesome FA Cup capitulation at Middlesbrough. The squad was lacking in confidence and full of unmotivated, ageing stars such as Paul Gascoigne, David Ginola and Jesper Blomqvist. Stars whose every attribute (other than perhaps their wage packets) were long since on the wane. Moyes’ appointment was like a breath of fresh air at the time, the change in attitude of the team was reflected by a win in his opening game in charge against Fulham. Moyes publicly demonstrated no one player was bigger than the team with a dressing down of Jesper Blomqvist for a petulant reaction to getting substituted. Everton went on to win 3 out of their last 8 games to avoid relegation.
However, it wasn’t until the 2004-05 season that the second two factors, shrewd transfer business and intelligent management were introduced to augment this team spirit. It was the combination of these 3 elements that allowed Everton to recover from their worst ever Premier League season (in 2003-04 Everton finished 17th with 39 points, their lowest ever total) and the subsequent sale of the outrageously talented Wayne Rooney to Manchester United. Only relative unknowns Marcus Bent and Tim Cahill were signed for a combined total of £2.5 million for the start of the season, to supplement a seemingly limited squad that many tipped for relegation. To the surprise of most football experts Everton finished the season in a miraculous 4th place and qualified for the Champions League. In the 4 subsequent seasons, Everton have finished in the top 6 on 3 occasions.
Moyes has been the architect of this success, setting out his teams to play in a 4-1-4-1 formation that maximises the strengths of the players and minimises their limitations. Journeyman midfielder Lee Carsley was deployed just in front of the back 4 breaking up play, becoming a vital component of the team for the next 3 seasons, making them more solid defensively and allowing creative players such as Thomas Gravesen, and later Mikel Arteta and Manuel Fernandes, much more freedom to attack without concern for their defensive duties. Tim Cahill was given a role floating behind the lone striker, free to make late runs into the box and pounce on even the smallest half chances, and gain a reputation as one of the most dangerous attacking midfielders in the Premier League.
In The 2008-09 season, a 4-1-5-0 formation was introduced in response to a striker injury crisis, Tim Cahill and Marouane Fellaini alternated as auxiliary forwards – Everton went 9 games unbeaten in this period.
All this has been achieved on a relative shoestring budget. Key players such as Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill were signed for £2.5 million apiece, a fraction of their current value. The likes of Phil Jagielka and Joleon Lescott were plucked from the Championship and developed into England internationals. Even the £15 million signing of Marouane Fellaini, a club record, is a relatively small sum in today’s market.
It remains to be seen whether financial constraints will allow Moyes and his model to break into the 4 Champions League places on a consistent basis, or whether he will decide to try his luck at a club with better resources. But what cannot be argued is that Moyes has turned Everton around from those dark days of 2002 and given them a platform from which to build, with a squad full of players committed to the cause and top notch youth and coaching facilities. That Moyes has done all this without significant investment should be a cause of optimism not just for Everton fans, but also those of other clubs not owned by billionaires.
Written by Geoff Edwards
