Top Ten Everton Flops – When Moyes got it wrong

Even though David Moyes has been an excellent manager since he first came to Everton in 2002, some of the players he has purchased have left much to be desired. Often working on a tight budget, it is vital that Moyes spends his money wisely and that the players his brings to the Premier League are up to the challenge. In the 7 years in which Moyes has been manager of the Toffees, some Everton fans would rather forget a handful of the players who played at Goodison Park. Even though the mistakes that the Scotsman has made in the transfer market don’t come around that often, here are the ten biggest Everton flops:

10: Simon Davies – The Welsh international midfielder joined Everton in 2005 after a £4 million fee was agreed with Tottenham. The former Spurs player had a poor first season at Goodison Park and never really found the form that he had at White Hart Lane or Craven Cottage, where he plays his football now. After less than 2 full seasons with Everton, Davies moved to Fulham for an undisclosed fee after playing less than 50 Premier League games for the Toffees, and the question remains as to why he couldn’t reproduce his talent during his time on Merseyside.

9: Richard Wright – The former England goalkeeper was Moyes’ biggest summer signing in 2002, and cost Everton an initial fee of £3.5 million despite struggling at Arsenal. Wright had a reasonable start to his career at Goodison Park and was initially Moyes’ first choice ‘keeper, but a number of mistakes and injuries meant that he became the backup to veteran Nigel Martyn. He made just 60 league appearances in 5 seasons, during which time he injured himself during a warm-up against Chelsea when he fell on a sign telling the players to practise elsewhere. The irony.

8: Li Tie – The Chinese midfielder was a success when Everton signed him on loan for the 2002/03 season. But when they made his move a permanent one in 2003, the initial scepticism was proved to be right. Whilst on loan Li Tie was a surprising success and played in 31 Premiership games for Everton. However when they signed the Chinese international for a fee of around £1 million his fortunes declined, as a sending off against Arsenal as well as a string of injuries meant he played just 7 more games in 3 years. His arrival was also saw the following player move to Everton:

7: Li Wei-Feng – The Chinese international arrived as part of a 2 for 1 deal in 2002 that also brought Li Tie to Everton and didn’t exactly give a good impression of Chinese football in the English Premier League. After the 2002 World Cup Wei-Feng had a trial at Everton in a move that was thought to be forced upon David Moyes for sponsorship reasons. The defender benefited from a contract between Everton and mobile phone manufacturer China Keijan Company, but only appeared once in the Premiership and returned to China after apparently suffering from a bad nose injury.

6: James Beattie – When Beattie signed for Everton in 2005 for £6 million, he became their most expensive player of all-time and much was expected of the English striker. However, the former Southampton star found it difficult to settle on Merseyside and was sent off for head butting William Gallas against Chelsea in just his 5th Premier League appearance for Everton. His second season was an improvement but the following year he quickly fell out of favour with Moyes again and was mainly used as a substitute. In 3 seasons he scored only 13 Premiership goals in 76 appearances.

5: Lars Jacobsen – The first of two Danish defenders to appear on this list, you might have thought that Moyes would have learned his lesson from the first Denmark international footballer that he bought but it seems like he didn’t. Jacobsen was signed on a free transfer in 2008 and spent just one season at Goodison Park, managing to play just 5 Premiership games due to injury. His highlight was coming on as a substitute in the FA Cup Final against Chelsea, but this was the last time that the Toffees’ fans saw him playing, as he has now moved to Blackburn.

4: Anderson Silva – After a long transfer saga in 2005 he eventually signed for Everton after much confusion. The club signed the commercial rights to the player that were held by Nacional despite him actually playing for Racing Santander at that time, but he didn’t even posses an EU passport. He was in turn loaned out to Malaga so that he could earn a passport and after 18 months in limbo, Silva eventually officially signed for Everton in 2007. He made one Premier League appearance against Charlton but was shipped off to Barnsley and all the wait wasn’t worth it in the end.

3: Juliano Rodrigo – Signed by David Moyes way back in 2002, Rodrigo was tipped by none other than Jairzinho to be better than Rivaldo, a claim that was quickly shown to be rubbish. The attacking midfielder cost Everton £1.25 million and succumbed to a knee injury after making just 4 appearances from the substitutes bench in the 2002/03 Premier League campaign. The Brazilian had ‘Rodrigol’ printed on the back of his shirt, but he didn’t bring the Brazilian flair to the Premiership that Moyes was hoping for and left after 1 season, with nothing much heard about him since.

2: Andy van der Meyde – There is quite a lot of bad blood between the Dutch international and Moyes, as van der Meyde has thrown his toys out of his pram and accused the Everton manager of trying to sabotage his career. Signed by the Toffees from Inter Milan back in 2005, the Dutch midfielder made just 24 appearances in his 4 year spell at Everton. His time at Goodison Park was ruined by a string of injuries and off the field controversy, including rumours of an alcohol problem, before van der Meyde was unceremoniously released by Everton in the summer.

1: Per Kroldrup – Moyes signed the Denmark international from Udinese in 2005 for £5 million but the central defender wasn’t exactly a resounding success at Goodison Park. Kroldrup made just one Premier League appearance for Everton against Aston Villa in what must be one of the most expensive appearances ever, before he was quickly shipped back to Italy when Fiorentina bought him the following year. Moyes’ mistake of judgment was so bad, that The Times named Kroldrup as the worst transfer in the history of the Premiership back in 2007, suggesting he couldn’t actually head the ball.

Many Everton fans would rather forget many of these players and Kroldrup in particular remains one of the main mistakes that David Moyes has made as manager of the Toffees. But are there any other players that you remember as being stinkers and do any other footballers deserve to be in the top ten Everton flops under Moyes?