Why Everton duo should adhere to some wise words
At Everton, Steven Pienaar and Mikel Arteta are given freedom to express themselves. David Moyes has moulded his team over his tenure at Goodison Park into a balanced, competitive outfit. To match the creativity and guile of Pienaar and Arteta, the likes of Neville and Fellaini add the extra bite. Regardless of of who plays at the back – Yobo, Jagielka, Heitinga, Distin etc – there is an organisation that exists throughout. Everton have a lot of good players, and because of the fact that the club isn’t in the upper echelons, those players are always susceptible to rumours of bigger deals elsewhere.
Everton have struggled to make the inroads that Villa, Man City and Spurs have managed over the last few seasons because they simply don’t have the money to compete. David Moyes has to be certain in the transfer market because his board cannot afford expensive mistakes (think James Beattie). It’s not that Moyes has no money to spend, the likes of Fellaini, Saha and Yakubu didn’t arrive for nothing, but in terms of offering big contracts, and trying to match other clubs over transfer fees, then they are more limited than their rivals. If a bigger club come calling, it can be difficult to fend them off, case in point – Joleon Lescott. The biggest help Everton can get, is the commitment of the player them self.
Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar have both been linked with bigger clubs, most notably Arsenal, but would it really be the right move for them? Would Steven Pienaar get 40 games a season at Arsenal when competing for places with Arshavin, Nasri, Rosicky and Walcott? What he has at Everton may be very difficult to recreate elsewhere. Understandably, players want to play for as bigger club as possible; it takes a brave person to turn down a move to a big club and the chance of proving them self on a higher stage. Understanding that you have a good thing and not being greedy, balanced with the lure of trophies and success at the risk of a lack of games, is a difficult thing to come to terms with. For some it pays off, for others it can be years in the wilderness.
Louis Saha, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Scott Parker are players who moved to bigger clubs only to find that maybe it was a step too far. All have moved on from those transfers with varying success, but how different would their careers have been if they had stayed put. Then again, if Man Utd want you, how do you say no? It has happened to Everton before, Duncan Ferguson and Francis Jeffers both moved to bigger clubs only to find their career hit a stumbling block. Francis Jeffers is currently on trial at Blackpool, what would be his eighth club in the nine years since he left Goodison. Leaving Everton for a bigger club, for Jeffers, was a gamble that failed to pay off.
Players can spend entire careers trying to find a club that fits them; Craig Bellamy, Marcus Bent or Peter Crouch for example. Pienaar and Arteta have found their club. They are adored by Toffee fans, their team plays a brand of football that suits them, they are integral members of a squad that competes with the top teams in the country and enjoys European football. Everton have helped raise the profile of both players, considered far better than the ones that arrived at the club, and in response, the midfielders should realise they are part of a good thing. For fans of any club, it would be sad to see them have to start from scratch somewhere else, than continue to blossom at home.
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Who wrote this pile of bollocks?
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This is quite insulting. Was it wrote by an Everton fan or a koppite trying to wind us up. For whatever we have achieved, to say that we have not made inroads compared to Tottenham and Villa, and Man City. To say that Newcastle are bigger than us. I think we have spent more than Arsenal on our top signings and we are not far behind. We have had our problems last season, but to forget what we have achieved because one season we were crippled with injuries, and if the league started in January we would have been close to winning the league.
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The article makes the right point of how Pienaar and Arteta are at the right club, We have made more in roads than the other teams for compete with.
One other point “Fellaini, Saha and Yakubu did not arrive at the club for nothing”
Isn’t that exactly what Saha arrived at the club for….Free?
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Ok, time to justify myself.
I admit I have been a bit flippant in my use of the term ‘big club’ and it’s probably been the wrong term to use. What I have been trying to show is that while Everton are historically superior than most other clubs, I still believe that in the current climate (economically) other clubs have more resources, and more chance of breaking the old ‘Big 4′. I am aware, and impressed, with Everton’s consistent high league finishes, but I still believe that this season, Spurs and Man City, probably not Villa, have more chance of finishing in the top four.
Duncan Ferguson may have not left for a ‘bigger club’ but he left a team that just survived relegation to play for a team that was in Europe.
Francis Jeffers left to play for the Prem Champions.
Maybe, the term ‘richer’ rather than ‘bigger’ would have been more apt.
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What a load of utter garbage this article is.
The first piece of garbage
‘If a bigger club come calling, it can be difficult to fend them off, case in point – Joleon Lescott’
Since WHEN were Manchester City a bigger club than Everton. Sure they have a lot of money NOW but they have never been a bigger club than Everton.
The same with Newcastle. They’ve done NOTHING for fifty years. Apart from getting relegated.
Luke Bradshaw (author of this drivel) needs to read up on the clubs he is writing about before he starts talking about Big and Small clubs.
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