[NSNO comment]: When is “Enough” enough?

The silence said everything. At 6pm on Tuesday evening, Evertonians looked on forlornly as Tottenham officials confirmed that Rafael Van Der Vaart may be joining the London based outfit, from Real Madrid, for a fee in the region of £8m. At 6:01pm, after seeing other Premier League clubs such as Wolves, Birmingham, Stoke and Sunderland splash out millions of pounds on recruiting new players, the silence was broken. Evertonians began the inquest in earnest.

How could we have been outspent by clubs that don’t even have half the history that we do? How could David Moyes have dawdled over fixing the right wing position for another year? How could Bill Kenwright not provide any funds, once again, to prevent the records from showing a net spend of zero with regards to transfer fees? How could the club take out another loan, in the region of £14m, and not have any new signings to show for it?

Every question and every enquiry could be summed up in one six word question: Where do we go from here?

Having witnessed our beloved club fail to pick any silverware last term, and finish in our lowest position since the 2005-06 Premier League season, Evertonians were no doubt disappointed. Having seemingly taken steps forward over the three years previous, culminating in back to back fifth place finishes and an FA cup final appearance, finishing eighth felt like two steps backwards. Yes, there were injuries, and yes, the new players needed time to bed in, but there were no excuses for the frustrating draws against Wolves, Birmingham, West Ham and Stoke late on in the season as an unlikely push for Europe was attempted. As the 2009-10 season drew to a close, news emerged that there would be little to spend in the upcoming summer transfer window. It would be safe to say that Evertonians were a little apprehensive heading into the summer months.

That apprehension turned to despair, angst, anger and frustration on Tuesday as several Evertonians finally said “Enough is enough”. Countless posts on forums and message boards called for Kenwright to step aside, with some even seriously questioning David Moyes for the first time in the Scot’s eight and a half year tenure.

The man dubbed ‘The Moyesiah’ has worked the market to his advantage in his time here, and has assembled our best group of players since the glory days of the 1980s under Howard Kendall. However, as good a job as David Moyes has done, there will be question marks raised over part of his transfer policy this summer, particularly concerning the playing staff already at the club.

Steven Pienaar, Everton’s player of the year last season, is still neglecting to sign a new deal at Goodison Park. Countless questions have been asked surrounding the diminutive South African’s future, with remarks such as “The contract is on the table”, “Best offer we can give him” and “We won’t be increasing our offer” emanating out of L4. If Pienaar is refusing to sign a deal, then why was he not sold for some much needed funds? Why are Everton willing to gamble on keeping the 27 year old in the hope that he will help fire the Toffees into the Champion’s League? Pienaar may end up signing a new deal, he may end up helping us achieve European football again and he will still be as professional on the pitch as ever. It is a major gamble though to let Pienaar run his contract down in the hope of signing a pre-contract deal in January, and one which some Evertonians believe is the wrong one.

The current Blues boss hasn’t covered himself in glory over the situation surrounding Aiyegbeni Yakubu either. The Nigerian striker showed some signs, at the back end of last season, that he still had the quality to lead the line, but something is currently not right at Finch Farm. Yakubu has not been seen at Goodison for any of Everton’s four competitive fixtures so far this term. Rumours have circulated that the 27 year old is overweight, was holding out for a move to West Ham or just unhappy over certain issues at Everton. Does this justify leaving a proven goal scorer out of the 18 man squad for matches? Does this justify Moyes freezing out a player who could have bagged a goal at the weekend against Villa, on a day where everyone else failed to find the net? If the rumours are true, then there may be a case. However, rumours are very rarely backed up with concrete evidence and, in spite of the rumours, Yakubu is still here, despite the window having closed and despite West Ham making derisory offers for his services. Moyes must now put his man management skills to the test, put any issue regarding Yakubu behind him and get the front man up to speed during the international break. It would be foolhardy to rely on Louis Saha and Jermaine Beckford for the next four months before the opening of the transfer window in January, especially after crying foul over a lack of chances being converted into goals thus far.

Joseph Yobo going out on loan to Turkish side Fenerbahce is another perplexing move. The centre back has found himself down the pecking order at Goodison in recent months, and the chances of Yobo starting many games this season were slim. However, last season showed that injuries can occur at any time. Any injury to one of John Heitinga, Phil Jagielka or Sylvain Distin would leave Moyes fretting over his fit centre back options. Some fans will point out that Phil Neville and Tony Hibbert could fill in, but both players are stop gaps and, looking back at last season’s injury crisis, do we really want to see another square peg in another round hole?

Of course, Moyes is not the only man who should have the blame laid at his door. The board, once again, have failed to provide the Scot with adequate funds to strengthen his squad. True, the board should be congratulated on tying down key players to new deals, but once again financial support have failed to materialise. It has been a case of ‘sell to buy’ once more, which is not good enough for a team that is trying to compete at the top end of the table. Again, it is true that clubs like Liverpool and Aston Villa have also had to sell to bring in reinforcements, but Evertonians will point out that now is the perfect time to be overhauling this sides and laying down a base to push on further. As it happens, the purse strings have been pulled tight on an empty purse and, as the worn out saying goes, “We’ll go with what we’ve got”.

So, where do we go from here? Well, the season is still in its infancy, and Moyes, his playing squad and coaching team still have ample time to resurrect a season in which we are already playing catch up. We all know that this squad is capable of going on a run of games unbeaten, and on our day we are a match for the best teams in the country.

The fact remains, though, that money is very, very tight at Goodison Park and there does not appear to be any investment, or a buyer, forthcoming. There is a serious chance that our club could stagnate in the not too distant future, as the current squad is not getting any younger and as Moyes continues to try his best in scouring the transfer market for rough diamonds that he could turn into international stars.  It is only a matter of time before he has enough, like the rest of us, and moves on to pastures new. Unlike Moyes though, we the fans will be the ones who stick it out with our club, and it will be us that will suffer.

Is this the best we can do, or do we call for change and hope to see our treasured club back at the top table with the big guns? The decision, as always,  lies with the lifeblood of any club: the fans.

Thom