A very defensive Harry Redknapp: ” We battered them non-stop”
Ten years at the helm of Everton and David Moyes moves onto his second decade unheralded. Another Scotsman corners all the glory across town in the glamour club and yet if there ever was a players coach, it would be the Everton man, whose obvious man management qualities and nurturing instincts should have put him in charge of something far more shiny many moons ago.
Moyes has been afflicted by the blight of too little transfer money over the years but still he soldiers on drawing the best from the players while maintaining league respectability and challenging for the odd FA Cup. All the while, forced to sell players as the club tries to remain afloat. Here is the stat:
Since coming to Goodison Park in March 2002, Moyes has spent an estimated £25.8m more than he has received in transfer fees – less than Kenny Dalglish has spent in eight months at Anfield. Liverpool’s net outlay in that time has been £110.7m.
Yet, here he is only two points off Liverpool in 9th position with his team scoring just 28 goals with only Stoke and Wigan scoring fewer.
Today, he made Harry Redknapp look like a rank amateur. The prohibitive favourite for the England job had to endure his third defeat in a row. Where has the potent Spurs attack gone? They’re leaking goals at the slightest threat. And there was no semblance of coherence in the Modric led midfield for large spells in the first half. The reason why Redknapp is considered a front runner is because of what he’s accomplished at Spurs.
The funny thing is the speculation that Moyes might be Redknapp’s replacement should the Spurs manager take the England job. The FA should look more seriously at Moyes as a candidate. There were parallels to Mourinho’s Inter against Barca in the CL semi-final two years ago in the way Everton defended the second half, frustrating the life out of the Spurs or as Redknapp more colourfully put it ” battered them non -stop”. And yet Mou is on the FA’s radar except they will never get him but they might Moyes if they play their cards right.