Tom Lappin: Moyes' career is ready for take-off

Published on Friday 10 April 2009 22:24

CHILDREN'S entertainer, chat-show host, ray of sunshine. David Moyes' career options might be a little straitened by his personality, but he doesn't need to worry about that right now. He is doing such a proficient job at Everton that his Premier League prospects are more than healthy.

Admittedly, if he wants a job with a top-four club it will probably entail working a few more miracles at Everton rather than moving jobs. Moyes' side managed a remarkable fourth place in 2005, and there isn't a huge credibility gap between them and a similar finish this season.

Tomorrow afternoon's match at Villa Park is a tough prospect, but could see them leapfrog Martin O'Neill's team into fifth. Moyes has been going about his business in a relatively quiet manner this season, keeping his short-fuse damped down and relishing the lack of attention. Now might be the right time to give him some credit for thriving in a Premier League environment that is even more daunting than it was four years ago.

Money is the most obvious consideration. While Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea enjoy the benefit of infinitely extended American overdrafts or capacious Russian pockets, Arsenal hear the steady ka-ching of the Emirates turnstiles, and Aston Villa are indulged by doting uncle Randy Lerner, Everton are the equivalent of theatrical buskers miming for spare change.

As the impresario Bill Kenwright tries to find a buyer for the club, Moyes has become its most valuable asset, a manager who has been able to carve an impressive, committed and consistent team out of the unpromising raw material provided.

Gauging a manager's influence on his team is never going to be an exact science. Looking at Everton's season though, it seems to follow a pattern of an uneven and unimpressive start, until winter, when Moyes got a grip on his players and the club steadily climbed the table. Everton have flatlined in sixth place since January, but have slowly closed the points gap on Aston Villa to the extent that they are now poised to overtake them.

That graph suggests a team with substantial problems at the start of the season that were solved by managerial tinkering and team strengthening. That in itself is remarkable given Everton's meagre resources.

Of course, meagre is a relative term when we remember that Moyes spent 15 million on Marouane Fellaini in September.

Everton's riches are concentrated in midfield. In the first half of the season it was the deficiencies in attack that cost Everton a more solid start. Moyes though is an improvisational manager. Having recruited one superfluous Manchester striker Louis Saha last autumn, he acquired another, Jo, in the January transfer window. After five goals in seven starts, Jo has started talking in a Scouse accent about a permanent move. Moyes has hummed and hahed with a grace of a manger who knows that spending 10 million is not the sort of thing Everton can do without substantial soul-searching.

In the meantime, Everton's status owes much to their impeccable midfield. Fellaini has become enough of a favourite to inspire fans to customise their old Harry Enfield Scouser wigs in homage to his extravagant hairstyle (at which point Fellaini changed to a tightly-braided coiffure). He has scored regularly, complementing Tim Cahill, whose combative leaps and accurate headers from set-pieces remain Everton's trademark.

Under Walter Smith, Everton became something of a refuge for Scottish internationals. Moyes, pragmatist rather than patriot, reshaped the squad to the extent that the only Scot left at the club is himself. The SPL could claim a little reflected glory though in the continued excellence of Mikel Arteta. His form with Everton had brought the Basque close to international recognition, significant when you remember that Spain is blessed with God's Own Midfield. Arteta's loss to a cruciate ligament injury in February should have had a lethal effect on Everton's season. Such is Moyes' skill at adjusting to such misfortunes though that the team has prospered without him.

This no-man's land between mediocrity and genuine title challenges is something of a managerial minefield.

It involves the balancing of priorities. Fiscal considerations make Champions League qualification the bottom-line. Qualifying for the new Europa League is more ambiguous. A few weeks back the level-headed Martin O'Neill made it clear in his team selection that the Uefa Cup was expendable if it distracted from Villa's battle for fourth place. He may regret that now Villa have a fight on their hands to remain fifth. Moyes and O'Neill, neither of them great romantics, might ask themselves what is the point of qualifying for Europe if you don't attempt to win that trophy.

Moyes might also allow himself a little respite from league considerations next weekend as Everton have an FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United. Moyes might remember Sir Alex Ferguson's United career only took off with an FA Cup final win in 1990. If any Premier League manager deserves a spot of cup glory it's Moyes, if only so the nation can see what his smile looks like.