The Highly Underrated Genius of David Moyes

David William Moyes. Proud Scotsman, Everton manager and a financial mastermind.

If any of you happen to be investors or in the financial field or just some random teenager, finding it hard to manage your spending when on minimal allowance, feel free to take inspiration from this man. We’ve seen it almost every single transfer window in recent history, where David Moyes is given the least budget possible by his bosses and yet manages to sign a few gems of players.

The third longest-serving manager after Sir Alex and Monsieur Arsene, Moyes arrived at Goodison in 2002, when the club were treading in nowhere-land after the board had just sacked Walter Smith after putting up with his measly bottom-half finishes for three consecutive seasons. Enter Moyes. He transforms Everton into a regular top-eight club, putting up a small bid for the Champions League spot (and getting it in 2005), and going on scintillating runs in the other domestic competitions too (2009 FA Cup = mindblown!).

For me personally, Everton have got to be one of the most underrated teams of all time, managed rightly by one of the most underrated managers! Every time Chelsea visit Goodison Park, my pulse rate is just a bit more higher than any other Premier League club; I just cross my fingers for that much more longer than usual. Moyes has created a fortress at the Goodison and rightly so. His philosophy has always been to ensure that his team don’t concede much, which is why many of the times you see Everton play, you can always notice that even if they don’t win much on their bad days, they always somehow squeeze out a draw. On their good days, it is a whole different ball game, though.

Those of you who profess to be Wayne Rooney fanatics, you better give Moyes his due credit. Moyes facilitated Rooney signing his first ever professional contract for the Toffees. It was under his management that the teenage Rooney broke in magnificent fashion into the first team, eventually scoring the goal that broke Arsenal‘s 30 match unbeaten run and stripping to unveil that he was, ahem, ‘once a blue, always a blue’ . Moyes eventually lost his young star to Manchester United, but it didn’t deter him from continuing his Everton mission.

In the summer of 2004, Moyes used the money profited by the club from the Rooney deal to bring in what fans consider his most prolific signing – the pocket-dynamo, Aussie Grit, Tim Cahill. 68 goals and 38 assists in 250-odd appearances and especially a few notable ones in Merseyside derbies and Cahill became a cult hero and club legend. All this, at only 1.5 million pounds. Quite a bargain. But then again, this IS Moyes, we’re talking about.

Moyes has a certain panache for bargains, and more often that not, they turn out to be extremely successful. Call it luck, if you want, but I’d prefer to call it Moyes’ golden touch. Let’s take Maruoane Fellaini, he was bought for 15 million pounds, only. Yet in the recently concluded transfer window, some of the top clubs in England including Manchester United and Chelsea were reported to be chasing the Belgian to acquire his signature and services for fees of around 25-30 million. 4 years with Moyes and Fellaini’s value doubles. Still think it’s luck? Mikel Arteta was bought for a mere 2 million from Real Sociedad. A few years on and with a touch of Moyes magic, Arsenal buy him on a ‘bargain’ deadline day deal for 10 million.

Let’s take a more famous recent chase for an Everton player; Manchester United, ready to splash any amount of cash for leftback Leighton Baines. The Red Devils were ready to offer 20 million and even stretched it to 25 million at a certain point of time – just to get the Englishman in a red shirt next season. His price when Moyes acquired him? 5 million. Jagielka is yet another benefactor of the ‘Moyes effect’. He was bought for 4 million and just a few seasons back, Arsenal were desperate to sign him for 15 million.

Moyes also has a knack of picking up players who seem to be left out or out of contention for regular starting places at top clubs. He picked up club captain Phil Neville and goalkeeper Tim Howard, both from Manchester United for 3.5 and 3 million respectively. He re-signed Steven Pienaar after it was evident that he was not conducive to White Hart Lane. Johnny Heitinga was not getting starts at Atletico and Moyes immediately snapped up the Dutchman for 6.4 million. All of these 4 are now mainstays in the Everton XI. Master-strokes? Most surely.

A watchful and shrewd investor, Moyes also knows exactly what type of talent to invest in. A great supporter of the Everton youth system, his stint has seen the emergence of bright talents such as the recently departed Jack Rodwell, striker Victor Anichebe and Ross Barkley to name a few. His most recent master-stroke signing would happen to be Croatian Nikica Jelavic. The former Rangers man signed in the January 2011 window for 5 million only, and yet, already has 12 goals to his name in only 19 appearances for the Toffees.

David Moyes really is a ‘perfect’ manager if there ever was one. Despite having to work with one of the tightest budgets in the Premier League, where you have clubs bankrolled by billionaires, he’s just put his head down, gotten to the job and done built a magnificent and capable team. Everything, without complaining one tad. He’s got extraordinary talent at keeping the squad together – never do you hear of an Everton player speaking against his gaffer. Moyes’ Everton have been exceptional so far, that it is hard not to imagine how good they really would be if Moyes just had some more money to work with. The prospect, almost seems scary for non-Everton fans.

For such an exceptional manager, he’s never really had his fair share of the spotlight, to be honest. Given Everton’s rich history, maybe they should be aiming bigger and reaching higher. Maybe they’re undermining themselves. Maybe, that’s all they can do on the constrained budget they’ve been offered. But under Moyes, you can be assured that even if they aren’t always challenging for trophies, they will always give you one hell of a tough fight. And though his managerial CV lacks a major trophy with Everton – which I hope is not too far away – Moyes deserves all the credit he gets and more for the splendiferous work he’s done so far at Goodison Park.

Here’s to one of the greatest managers to have graced the Premier League.. David William Moyes!