Give David Moyes money and watch what happens
David Moyes has become one of the most respected managers in the Premier League following his arrival at Everton in 2002 and is currently the third longest serving manager in the Premier League, behind Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.
Since then he has won the League Managers Association Manager of the year award in three different seasons (2003, 2005 and 2009). When he took over towards the end of the 2001-2002 season, Everton were edging towards the relegation zone, but following Moyes’ arrival he led them to a convincingly good run and a comfortable 15th final position, and then the following season was then able to lead them to a remarkable 7th place, and 8 place gap between the two seasons.
In recent years it has become well known that Everton have struggled for funds, and especially throughout this summer they have been unable to compete within the transfer market. Despite this, Moyes has been able to bring in cheaper players who have still been able to impress. The likes of Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines have both been involved with the England squad following their low costing arrivals at Goodison Park. Moyes also brought in Joleon Lescott from Wolves for as little as £5million, and following an impressive three years at the club, was then sold on for £22 million.
During the on-going transfer issues, Moyes has still been able to obtain consistently good league finishes with Everton and has even led them to a Champions League sports and a handful of Europa League places, whilst they have impressively finished no lower than 8th since the 2006-07 season.
Perhaps the most impressive signing Moyes has been able to bring in is Australian Tim Cahill who was recruited from Milwall for £1.5million in 2004. He has then become a fan favourite and has gone on to make over 200 appearances for the club. This is a prime example of Moyes’ clever buying, which suggests what he could achieve should he be given a acceptable amount of transfer funds.
Everton are not particularly weak in any position on the field, but following the departure of Mikel Arteta, they do not have any stand out players. It would be interesting to see who the Toffee’s boss would recruit as he has been able to bring in unknown players and transform them into stars, for example Steven Pieenar, Mikel Arteta and Leighton Baines.
