Moyes Buying/European Wayne Rooney Cash

[Neiler]

I was thinking back on who Moyes has signed since he took over and what were the finacial constraints he found himself under at the time. I noticed a trend he is a superb shopper at picking up bargains/gems with limited funds. But when there is decent money or there needs to be a lot of players brought in he is not as astute at shopping with a big budget.

Probably the worst window in terms of signing players was arguably the one were he had the most resources available, the summer of 04/05 with the rooney/potential european cash.

i.e davies, kroldrup, VDM. you can add Beattie some months later to that.

Admittedly Arteta and Neville have done well, but he took a long hard look at arteta and we all knew what wed get of Phil.

Now my point is not to criticise Moyes's eye for talent or potential as we all know hes picked up some gems.

But:is their value in debating:


(1) are his talents better suited to what we are now and what he has progressed us into a mid table club vying for europe every second season?

(2) Can Moyes take us to the next level?

(3) Can he prove that if he gets big sums he canl spend them wisely?


I.M.O: Yes

I feel in a round about way that window was a short sharp shock for Moyes in trying to attract players at the higher end of the market which he found challenging and frustrating! I beleive he panicked and snapped at his second and third choices, they didnt come of for us.

But credit to him he learned and each window since he planned and analysed and did not sacrifice quantity for quality i.e Johnson, Lescoot, Fernandes.

I think we are not only seeing a maturing team but a maturing manager and for me one who learns form his mistakes. This encourages me in his ability and in the lonng term i am satisfied that he can take the club forward to were we all want it to be.

 

[chicoazul]

Sums it up for me mostly too.

We are showing signs of moving forward, UEFA should be achieved this year to keep everyone happy and improve our profile. Lets face it we were not ready for the Champions League, and it showed, at least we should be ready for the UEFA should it come about.

Bridging the gap will be difficult but a new stadium and long term better revenue should at least make sure we dont fall too far behind. Its a business these days, y'know.

 

[Hayee]

well written, moyes has unearthed some quality players for what seems a bargain considering how "little" we payed for cahill, lescott and AJ (in terms of what theyve given back) compared to smith spending hugely on not so successful players (nyarko, pistone et al) and i think all the "moyes out" people should give him a break!

 

[Cal]

well written, moyes has unearthed some quality players for what seems a bargain considering how "little" we payed for cahill, lescott and AJ (in terms of what theyve given back) compared to smith spending hugely on not so successful players (nyarko, pistone et al) and i think all the "moyes out" people should give him a break!

Agree there Hayee.

Hes unearthed players such as Mikel and Tim for small fees and they have given us something special.

Hes defo moved us on, i mean we're not in relagation battles anymore even though we were bottom of the league last year but ended up finishing a mid table position.

I think we need to keep him and not begin to say he should be sacked, halfway through the season, always wait till the end and see where he gets us into that position.

 

[SuitsBlue]

I reckon you are onto something here.

when moyes has been allowed to take his time, and think the deal through, he has succeeded, whereas when his hand has been forced and he has had to recruit en masse then the signings have been less hit than miss.

kilbane was a known quantity so difficult to pigeon hole, came in with mcfadden, whilst nyarko and jeffers (loan) returned, and moyes first master stroke landing nigel martyn on a nominal fee.

that was 03-04 i think

04-05 was the magnificent 4th place season, rooney jumped ship, every football 'expert' in the land tipped us for relegation radzinski criticised the club and went to fulham, whilst moyes brought just Tim Cahill (1.8m) and Marcus Bent (650k)in.

team performed miracles till january, out went gravesen (2.5m, Real), in came arteta (2m, Real Sociedad)

[Interesting fact about Mikel Arteta - he played foer barcelona youth then moved to PSG 2000-2002 making 31 appearances scoring twice.
then moved to Rangers making 50 appearances scoring 12 times.
then moved to sociedad making 15 appearances scoring once.
then to Everton and so far as wikipedia says making 64 appearances scoring 8 times.

*Note, appearances counted as competative games only]

I am a little hazey in my memory, did Beattie arrive in the january along with arteta? i recall him being arriving injured from southampton and clearly unfit, his (Beattie's) first game being against chelsea and getting a straight red within 20 minutes.

We limped to 4th place, and the summer of 05 moyes had to strengthen a small and limited squad. kroldrup, davies, VDM, p.neville, Valente all recruited.

cant remember the ferrari deal, was he brought in as kroldrup went out?

I have completely lost my sense of direction now, trying to remember so many deals, figures and dates, i will quickly move on.

In summary, when moyes has had time to check, recheck and check again a possible signing, he usually gets it right, he actually waited for 12 months for johnson instead of spunking the money up the wall on good but crocked forsell (remember that?)

He is one of very few managers that has actually made money on purchases, letting bent go at a 1.5 mill profit, and doing the same when kilbane left for pastures new.

Set against this are losses like richard wright (the figure was said to be 4.5 million, but that was all appearance based and required wright to become a regular england international) we have certainly lost on wright, but not the full 4.5 mill that was crowed about in the media initially. Same goes for simon davies, the 3.5 mill we payed for him was appearance based, so 2.5 from fulham isnt bad business, i dont believe we have lost the full million.

Beattie is the glaring failure thus far, signed for a whopping full 6 million, seems to have suffered from marcus bent syndrome since johnson arrived, granted he (beatts) doesnt get the appropriate service required for a player of his style and size, but lackadaisical performances and effort are the way out of the quandry james!

this january we saw the final arrival of da silva, a supposed tough tackling brazilian that knows how to play rough. and the rest of the full month of january was taken up dancing around with the FA and uefa rules trying to land the loan signing of manny fernandes.

just like last summer, the summer before and back to st. domingos, the coming summer is make or break yet again, can moyes strengthen with the proper signing of quality? has he or is he making a list of targets to watch out for? will we see early summer moves for just a couple of signings then nothing for the rest of the summer? i certainly hope so, because it is this strong minded focus of moyes's that has reaped the best rewards thus far in his tenure.

Howard 4 mill
fernandes 9 mill
pedersen 7.5 mill

we can all live in hope, right?