A dreadful start to the season followed by a much improved second half and lengthy FA Cup run – it couldn’t be anybody other than Everton could it?

Overview

The last time these sides met at Loftus Road QPR’s surprise 3-1 win over Joe Royle’s side actually derailed their push for European football, while at the same time giving Rangers fans hopes that salvation may be achieved after all. That was a rare thing for Everton at the time, a couple of years with Royle at the helm in which they also beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final, sitting like an oasis in a desert of 1990s mediocrity at Goodison Park.

With the halcyon days of the 1980s well and truly over the Toffees became one of those sides that seemed to be perennially struggling against relegation from the Premier League under the management of Mike Walker, Howard Kendall second and third time around and later Walter Smith. That was a dangerous game to play back then because dropping out of the top flight just as the television money was about to get really big was not an intelligent business plan. Everton were usually joined at the bottom of the table on an annual basis by Coventry and Southampton – both of whom eventually succumbed, have since financially collapsed and have never been back.

That Everton didn’t go the same way is largely down to the inspired decision to take unproven young manager David Moyes from First Division Preston North End and make him the gaffer at Goodison back in 2002. They were struggling against relegation again when he arrived in March that year, but stayed up with something to spare and have rarely been in any trouble since – qualifying for the Champions League once, reaching an FA Cup final and playing in the UEFA Cup in his nine years at the club.

Everton are known for two things these days: firstly, starting the season abysmally and ending it in amazing form; secondly spending next to no money on players, selling their star names every year, and maintaining midtable Premiership status.

Last season they won one of their first eight and went out of the League Cup at Brentford before finishing seventh, in 2009/10 they lost three of their first four and won just two of 18 in the run up to Boxing Day but finished eighth, the year before they won two of their first 12 and ended up fifth and so it continues. This season they won two of their first ten and lost to our motley crew on day one but come into this game unbeaten in seven of which four were wins. Nobody understands why this keeps happening.

According to Soccerbase Everton have spent £5.5m this season and recouped £14.5m, last season they spent nothing and sold £5.5m, in 2009/10 they spent a hefty £20.9m but offset it with the sale of Joleon Lescott and made a £1.85m profit on transfers. They have maintained top half finishes throughout this period.

This is stuff that should gladden the hearts of fans at clubs like QPR – it can be done, you don’t need to go absolutely mental and bankrupt your club. So why, you may ask, have Everton fans been taking to the streets around Goodison Park and protesting against the board this season? Well, perhaps because they recognise that without David Moyes to work this spectacular juggling act they could very well be in trouble and for all of chairman Bill Kenwright’s words about finding a buyer for the club who can inject some serious cash no takeover has even been rumoured. When a club like QPR, in a ground less than half the size of Goodison and a division lower, can attract Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone, Lakshmi Mittal and Tony Fernandes to invest in it it’s understandable that the Everton fans may ask exactly why nobody is having a sniff at their club. The suggestion from the protesters is that Kenwright is hanging onto the club for selfish reasons, because he’s a supporter and he loves being the chairman.

That said Everton fans would do well to look across Stanley Park at their bitter rivals Liverpool, or across Lancashire at everybody’s favourite farce Blackburn, to see the dangers of a long serving board perceived to lack either the ambition or the wherewithal to push the club on stepping aside for some foreign saviour or other. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

While the sight of Moyes succeeding without spending massive amounts of money should reassure the league’s smaller clubs, like ourselves, that it is possible the fact that Everton, with a huge support base and stadium of 40,000 seats, don’t feel they can compete at this level without a billionaire owner. When you look at Everton’s support and stadium compared to QPR that’s rather frightening.

In the meantime, with no takeover, there is no sign of Moyes’ miracle letting up. Still in the FA Cup and in their best form of the season Everton are on course for another top half finish and memorable end to the campaign – this despite yet again selling their best player for big money without replacement back in the summer. Magnificent achievement all in all.

Interview

Two pundits from the opposition this week. Paul McIver who responded to our request sent to the Blue Kipper website (click the banner) and Matt Clegg who was lightening quick out of the blocks when we made a Twitter appeal on Wednesday. Thanks to both.

What have you made of Everton's season so far?

Matt - The first half of the season was pretty tough as it was a pessimistic pre-season even by Everton's standards. The sale of several players, no new permanent acquisitions and the increasingly negative information and rumours regarding the clubs financial situation meant the season began under a bit of a cloud. The fresh impetus provided in January and by our largely unexpected transfer activity and progress in the FA Cup has meant most fans are looking to the final part of the season with renewed optimism.

Paul - . Everton are getting a name for themselves as a team whose season starts on January 1 every year. We had ambitions of a top four place after a decent per-season, then it all started to go tits up again from the first match - you know who we played. You were shite and we were worse, the best player on the pitch that day was Shaun Derry and that says it all.

For the first time this season we have seen some real protests against the Everton board. Where do you stand on this, what are the protests actually about and are the fans united or divided on the issue?

Paul - A fans’ group called the Blue Union have been campaigning for chairman Bill Kenwright and his board to let go of the reins and find a new buyer to run the club. Everton fans are divided on the issue, really divided - it has caused bitterness amongst us as we all have our opinions. Blue Bill is an Evertonian through and through, a Toffeeman who wants the best for Everton Football Club - but in owner terms he is a pauper, so we are skint. Is it better to have someone running the club that is a supporter who knows and loves the club or an Indian Chicken Farmer? There lies the problem. Where do we stand? We want a billionaire Evertonian to come out of the woodwork.

Matt - The movement and protests emerged with the coming together of various fan based lobby groups, with the aim of making the club more open about it's financial situation, address the perceived 'stagnation' of the club in recent years under Bill Kenwright, and ultimately to 'assist' in the process of securing fresh financial investment as soon as possible.

My views on this, like a large proportion of Evertonians are not entirely clear cut. Largely this involves the contradiction surrounding the chairmanship of the club by Kenwright. Despite his undeniable Evertonian credentials his lack of ability to provide more investment himself, or source fresh avenues of financial assistance, have proved increasingly frustrating and meant the club is falling further behind 'competitors' with the Premier League. Many fail to understand why despite searching "24/7" Kenwright has been unable to find new investors, despite investment over the years in other clubs at premiership level and below. Some fans go as far as suggesting the lack of investment is down to Kenwright selfishly clinging onto to control of the club he loves and misrepresenting the clubs true financial position, as he does not want to relinquish the reigns. The argument being that Kenwright is not just holding the club back but hamstringing the clubs ability to move forward for personal reasons.

On the other hand Kenwright sympathisers suggest that the club have made steady progress in recent years, and warn against the desire for investment at any cost mentality. They argue that the constant highlighting of the clubs financial situation does not help the club as it increasingly makes them vulnerable to the transfer policies of richer clubs and gives off an air of desperation allowing Everton to be held to ransom on financial issues. Countless warnings of financial problems and instability provided by 'false dawn' investment, has been seen at other clubs who have gone on to face worse financial problems in the future. In this respect it is argued that it is far better to have a cautious, dyed-in-the-wool Evertonian like Bill Kenwright in charge of the clubs affairs until genuine secure investment can be found.

I think beyond a percentage of fans at the extremities of these arguments, the vast majority of fans fall in the middle of these 2 positions. I would hope that the problem will be solved by the emergence of a billionaire die hard Evertonian in the near future...but disappointingly billionaires don't seem to grow on trees.

Could this summer finally be the one where David Moyes is tempted somewhere else? Or is he likely to stay at Everton indefinitely until Ferguson leaves Man Utd?

Matt - It's possible. The club have increasingly had to deal with media speculation surrounding Moyes over the years as his impressive ability to make Everton competitive within the Premier League makes him an obvious target for many clubs. Moyes has been loyal to the club but must question whether he, or anyone else, can take Everton forward without fresh financial assistance. I think that an offer from Man Utd would be very hard to turn down for Moyes, and would not begrudge him leaving for a shot at managing them. However I hope and believe that Moyes will probably stay at the club until the Utd job was to be offered to him. I can't see him taking a sideways step to clubs with better finances such as Villa or Newcastle, who have been linked with him via media speculation when they have found their managerial position vacant in recent times. That being said, I would not feel comfortable should Spurs coming knocking for him in the event that Redknapp takes the England job. I would like to see Moyes at Everton with fresh investment so we can see what he could do with a genuinely competitive transfer budget.

Paul - Moyesy go elsewhere? Where to? He does not have the credentials for the top four as he has never won anything and plays a very defensive brand of football, Everton do not win 3-0. That leaves the likes of the Redshite (he would never move across the park, anyway Klu Klux King Kenny from Klanfield is taking the vermin to new heights) and Villa who have already ignored him once. Plus, is Villa really a step up? Or the Skunks where Pardew has done a good job so far. If 'he's got red hair and we don't care' Davey, Davey Moyes was to move on it would be north of the border to Celtic.

What did you make of your January transfer window business?

Paul - Every Evertonian was surprised and delighted with the transfer window activity. Gibson was a steal and has settled in well (unfortunately our only injury at present), Peanuts back from Spurs was a real surprise and he has started where he left off, on fire with Bainsey on the left. Landon Donovan returned from the Galaxy and was instrumental in turning our fortunes around after Christmas and we signed Jelly from The Gers for £5m. He’s been injured since but is fit again so watch him come off the bench and bag a couple.

Matt - Absolutely delighted, particularly given how unexpected it was. Most fans hoped for and expected the return of Landon Donovan, who provided a big boost and played like he had never been away. The arrival of Gibson and particularly Jelavic also provided grounds for optimism. It will be interesting to see if Jelavic can do the business in the premier league, but he has certainly arrived saying the right things and undoubtedly has an impressive goal scoring record. The icing on the cake was the return 'home' of Steven Pienaar, covering the hole in the side that had never been filled since his departure, repaying the clubs open armed welcome by running Chelsea ragged in the victory at Goodison. Can't say too much bad about the players departing either, Louis Saha had been stagnating a little of late and it was important for the club to free up wages by allowing him to leave. The sale of Bilyaletdinov a player who had failed to live up to his potential, I would imagine, largely funded the up front payment for Jelavic. All in all very pleased and provided an unexpected much needed boost to our season.

Who have been the stand out players and weak links in the team this season?

Matt - Baines is pure class and has performed solidly as usual providing a lot of our attacking threat in the absence of creativity in midfield. Distin until his injury was also performing consistently and dependably. The biggest disappointment has really been up front and a chronic lack of goals. Until his move I would probably have picked Saha as the biggest disappointment. His lack of confidence was evident but his lack of goal return and profligacy in front of goal was increasingly frustrating. This was made worse by the disappointment of Tim Cahill's goal return drying up, previously such a reliable scorer over the years.

Paul - Bainsey, Screech, Drenthe in patches, Buzz Distin has been solid and Johnny Heitinga has come good. Up front we were shite until the revelation that is Count Strachula found his scoring boots. We know Denis is not a footballer but he will bust a gut every game and is finding the net regularly.

What are Everton's realistic short, medium and long term aims?

Matt - For the remainder of the season I would like to see the club solidify their position within the top half and push as high up the league as possible. I would be disappointed with a lower finish than eighth. Think there is a realistic possibility of challenging for the FA Cup, and hope the club are starting to find form at the right time of the season. In the medium and long term much depends on keeping Moyes and the financial situation. Unless Everton can find investment it will be difficult as they will increasingly fall behind the top six or seven sides and will probably need to further sell players. The coming summer will be an interesting one, particularly given that Pienaar, Stracqualursi and Drenthe are all presently on loan.

Paul - Short - win the FA Cup (again). Medium - get into Europe every season. Long - win the Title (again).

Manager

David Moyes, Glasgow born, played more than 100 times for Preston, Dunfermline and Shrewsbury and on more than 50 occasions at Cambridge and Bristol City after starting his career with Celtic. But like several of the very best managers in recent times he was somebody who realised early on that he didn't have the ability to make it to the very top of the game as a player and so set about trying to do so as a coach. He picked up his first coaching badges aged just 22 and was a student of all the managers he played under during his career.

At Preston he started as a player in 1993 and worked his way through the club set up as a player coach, before finally getting a chance to manage the team midway through 1997/98 as it stared relegation to the bottom division in the face under his predecessor Gary Peters. The transformation in Preston from the moment they appointed Moyes was remarkable. Their ramshackle ground was redeveloped on all four sides and after surviving in 1998 they reached the play offs but lost and then won promotion automatically 12 months later. They then reached the First Division play offs in their first year at that level and although Moyes left for Everton a year later he left behind a revitalised club that has since twice came close to winning promotion to the Premiership only to lose in the play offs and was the Championship's longest serving member until they were relegated at the end of last season.

At Everton Moyes has turned a club that had become perpetual relegation strugglers into one that expects comfortable midtable finishes and regularly troubles the European spots despite a more limited budget than many of its rivals. He has been named the LMA Manager of the Year on three separate occasions, voted for by his peers.

But the more interesting question for me now is what happens next, for both Moyes and Everton? It’s clear that without some serious investment they’re only ever going to do as well as they’re currently doing – top half finishes and occasional cup finals – and one would think they’re highly likely to start doing worse should injuries or bad luck take hold. Would Moyes be tempted elsewhere? And if he was would Everton survive in the top flight?

Personally I’m amazed that nobody has offered him a really tempting job, particularly when you look at some of the appointments clubs like Newcastle, Aston Villa and Spurs have been making in recent times. It seems to me we’re at the stage where Moyes would only leave for a top four club, but lacks the experience in the Champions League to be offered one, an won’t leave for a sideways step like Villa even if there is more money to spend there. In a way I wish he would, because I’d be interested to know if he’s a Premiership Ian Holloway - excellent with no money at all, not really very comfortable when he suddenly has a bit of it to spend. With the Tottenham job likely to come up again this summer I wouldn’t be surprised to see him heavily linked to White Hart Lane in the coming months although his cautious style of play, in stark contrast to the current Spurs team, may put them off.

Scout Report

Everton’s problem for some time has been scoring enough goals, and this season is no exception. Their top scorers last season Louis Saha and Jermaine Beckford managed just ten each, and neither are with the club now – Beckford seems like no great loss but how galling must it be for Everton to see Saha suddenly hitting form for Spurs when he’d seemed so lethargic and disinterested in a blue shirt in the first half of the season?

Probably about as galling as seeing Yakubu’s single handed quest to keep a crap Blackburn side in the Premiership – the Nigerian looked overweight at Everton in the first half of last season and spent the second bit of the season on loan a division lower at Leicester, now he’s banging them in at Rovers while Moyes searches for a lone striker just like him.

His search led him north of the border to Rangers’ Nikica Jelavic who scored 36 goals in 53 appearances in Scotland. The key word in that sentence is of course ‘Scotland’ and as I always say, buying your players from the SPL is like shopping for your meat at Lidl. I’d have been disappointed had QPR spent that money on a player who has been playing at nothing more than Conference North level for the past few seasons but we’ll see how he does with David Moyes. I’m more worried about the physical power of Victor Anichebe, who made a scoring return from long term injury when I saw Everton at West Brom recently but struggles to muster a high enough work rate more often than not, and the unorthodox attacking styles of Roysten Drenthe and Denis Stracqualursi.

Anichebe scored from the bench at the Hawthorns and Everton had bagged ten of their 20 goals this season in the last ten minutes of matches at that stage showing an ability to not only keep going to the end of the game, but also to change things from the bench. Given QPR’s propensity to start games well and then find a way to bollocks things up after half time this does not bode well.

One thing Everton had always been good at, primarily through Tim Cahill, was getting goals from midfield but the Australian currently only has one goal in 27 appearances for the club this season despite averaging one in four throughout his Everton career, scoring nine last season and 14 the year before. Nobody ever really knew how Cahill did it when he was scoring so often, despite everybody knowing that he was a threat in the air at corners he just seemed to have a nose for space in the goal mouth when the delivery came, and it seems nobody really knows why he’s not scoring now. Mind you QPR are usually so generous with out of form players in these situations we could actually register as a charity so maybe Saturday is the day for Tim.

The other unexplainable phenomena at Everton is this trait of starting the season badly and finishing it strongly. One factor in that in two of the last three seasons has been the winter loan signing of American international Landon Donovan who fits into Everton’s system of a lone striker with a supporting cast beautifully. I find it amazing that Donovan has never actually signed for Everton from LA Galaxy despite two highly successful loan spells – he loves them, they love him, he fits in the team, the team is vastly better with him in it – but it seems he just likes California too much.

QPR fans relieved at his return to the States prior to this game should temper that joy slightly by the return of another midfielder who fits into Everton’s system better than he does anybody else’s: Steven Pienaar. Picked up by Spurs in Harry’s annual pledge drive to keep the country’s agents in business last January he found that Tottenham had no use for him and he has kicked his heals before returning to Everton with a bang and a goal against Chelsea. Pienaar will now reunite with Leighton Baines in an impressive left hand side combination.

I await convincing proof that Jack Rodwell is as brilliant as everybody makes out but he and Marouane Fellaini could potentially form a central midfield partnership for this game so much more physical and talented than anything QPR can put on the field that the match could be over before it begins.

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Pictures – Action Images

Photo: Action Images

Jeff added 12:05 - Mar 2 So in Mario Kart terms, Everton are like Bowser, with a slow acceleration but a high top speed, whereas we're more like Koopa Trooper, with a fairly good acceleration, but a poor top speed, and a lack of robustness overall.
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Northernr added 12:35 - Mar 2 Oh mate what have you started here. That's at least 90 minutes in the pub tomorrow.
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shooters47 added 14:16 - Mar 2 Very reassuring to see, according to our wonderful Captain, that the players want to win as much as we do...thats at least 3 hours in the pub for me!!
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Ribenaboy added 16:05 - Mar 2 Love the Mario Kart analogy. I think we r more like Yoshi - ridden by a few others, well known abroad, and very green at this level??
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