Blue watch: Glad to see end of David Moyes contract saga
SO, apparently we've got an after dinner speech by Sir Bobby Robson to thank for David Moyes's decision to stick around at Goodison for a while longer.
The Everton manager has finally put pen to paper on a new deal, thankfully, as the declarations that he was close to signing were growing more tiresome than the old 'Gazza Three Weeks From Fitness' headlines.
In the past, the news of his bow-tied epiphany would have been met with almost universal delight by Evertonians, who admire Moyes and all that he's done in the six years or so since he came from Preston to take over the Goodison reins from Walter Smith.
There was a growing feeling, though, that he was in danger of over-playing his hand in his negotiations with Bill Kenwright and the Everton board.
Obviously, his remuneration and the terms of any new deal were between him and the club, and everyone accepts that when you are talking about a lot of money and a big commitment from both parties there's going to be a degree of wrangling.
However, the length of time that those negotiations dragged on, and more importantly, the way Everton have played so far this season, definitely started to grate with some supporters.
To be quite frank, it almost seemed as if Moyes was relying on the board's fear of a backlash from the fans if they failed to reach an agreement.
However, for all the deserved plaudits that have been heaped on him during his tenure as Everton manager, his stock is probably as low now as it's ever been. It certainly seems an almost perverse situation whereby the manager of a side that are already out of two competitions and are yet to win a home game can procrastinate over an apparent double-your-money deal.
Let's be honest, the way things have gone so far, you might have expected people to have been talking about sacking him, never mind paying him £3million a year.
The old argument about him working wonders on such a limited budget doesn't wash so much any more, given that he's recently broken the club transfer record for a player who looks like a massive gamble. And that's being polite.
Marouane Fellaini might only be young and it might be unsettling coming to a new club and a new country, etc, but Moyes's faint praise of the Belgian only seems to underline the suspicions that he was a panic buy and that the manager is unsure what to do with him.
At the moment, Fellaini looks no better than Jack Rodwell, and although he may well have potential, surely for £15million we really needed someone who could make a bit more of an immediate impact?
He's looked lost, quite frankly, and that's been in games against newly-promoted teams.
His role in the side is certainly a situation that needs rectifying, among several others, if Moyes is to salvage something from this season and prove himself worthy of the huge sums of cash that Everton are now paying him.
The hard work starts now if this new phase of the Moyes era is to prove a successful one.
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