From the Messiah to the Moyesiah?

I always knew this was likely to happen... In a drizzle ridden summer peppered with rejections from transfer targets and garnished with board chaos, the most important staff contract at Everton Football Club quietly sits there, still unsigned.

Word is that Moyes will be extending his contract soon, but that has been the official line for months now; Newcastle United, searching high and low for a suitable replacement for Keegan, would be stupid not to look towards Goodison.

I am confident Moyes will stick with his band of brothers, but his failure to sign his new contract leaves him open to approaches from other Premier League suitors.

With an utter lack of information from the club - most of the summer the Official Site has been running sickly sweet articles in which players exhalt our talented youngsters - nuance and rumour are the only reliable currency of the fans.

The Mirror recently reported that Everton had actually signed Brazilian striker Wagner Love on Monday, but that CSKA Moscow wanted to keep him until the end of the Russian season - meaning he wouldn't arrive in Merseyside until January.

No confirmation of this had happened through official channels and Everton have also been quiet on the possibility that Inter Milan's Victor Obinna could still end up at Goodison after the Italian club refused to accept the Nigarian's rejected UK work permit. Both of these stories would bring cheer to Evertonians, but again the club have continued with their muted School of Silence policy. Perhaps the Official Site has been burnt by the whopping farce that was the accidental posting of an article claiming that  we had signed Juan Roman Riquelme, but whatever the case - we need to raise morale at Goodison.

Moyes of late has looked weary, his confidence sapped by a depressing summer running after players like a terrier chasing cars. The last minute signing of Fellaini - a 20-year old midfielder for 15million - must have been a relief and has been lauded as "The Big One", but the sales of Andy Johnson and James McFadden match up with the price paid for the Belgian suggesting that Moyes wasn't given any transfer kitty this summer other than the funds he generated through sales.

Whether there is any more money is open to debate, but the idea that Moyes had to sell before they could buy dovetails well with his sunken and depressed public appearances. If it is true, that the man who drove Everton to fifth was given next to no financial support, then Moyes is even more of a stoic hero than we already thought.

Moyes' declarations - before our flurry of last minute signings - that Everton haven't got a decent seized squad to compete in the Premier League, veered wildly from the cheery optimism of
Phil Neville's midsummer interviews on the Official Site. Recently, Bialystock Kenwright also expressed his desperation, admitting: "it is impossible to continue in the financial way we are at the moment," heaping more melancholy onto our club. The most ridiculous thing is this miasma of negativity doesn't change the fact that aside from Lee Carsley - our first eleven is unchanged - but the summer has somehow dented our confidence and realigned our perspectives.

£3 and a half million a year is the reported sum that Keegan was on, whilst I don't feel that Moyes will leave - at least for Newcastle United - but if he did go,he would surely be able to name his price, and he is one of the few managerial appointments that would save Mike Ashley's skin.

We're crying out for the School of Silence to make some noise, and the first thing they can do is get Moyes signed up and scream it from the rooftops...

Ed Bottomley

Comments

[Pete]

It seems to me that Moyes has got away with taking the burden of responsibility for EFCs failure to buy talent this break. He is a dour and negative manager at the best of times but his contract refusal smacks of him wanting things his way - hopefully he will leave the sinking ship that is Kenwrights folly and let it ease to the bottom of the ocean. Not historically what EFC deserve, but in recent years they have become a laughing stock

[Ernie]

School of Science?? You have a long memory! It is now "the people's club" and that should be common knowledge because it is plastered all over Goodison Park. Quite why the change took place and the reason is a closely-guarded secret.

[Richard Parker]

I'm fairly certain that Moyes wouldn't take up an offer from Newcastle. I don't think he would knowingly move to a club where he wouldn't have full control over his players.

We have seen that Moyes is a man of unerring principle, which has sometimes worked against him. He has nothing to gain from going to Newcastle. Especially with a chairman like Ashley in charge.

Whether he'll stay at Everton, as time goes on, I think it's less and less likely. We just don't appear capable, as a club, of matching his ambitions.

[Richard Martin]

Think of all the opportunities Moyes will get at Newcastle that he won't at Everton.

Fat beer-swilling idiot owner? Check.
Googly-eyed midget assassin/thug masquerading as Director of Football? Check.
Likelihood of getting sacked within a year? Check.
Fan base holding firmly to the belief that they should be winning every trophy, every season, despite the fact that the only thing they've won in over 50 years is the Intertoto Cup? Check.

How can he possibly turn all that down?