The transfer dealings of Moyes

I won't harp on about yesterday's result, but a couple of nice points from The Observer:

his talent for blending home-developed colts with cast-offs from bigger clubs while also taking calculated gambles on foreign talent

Moyes has made some errors in the transfer market, mainly in 2005/06 when he was trying to build a team capable of Champions League football too quickly. The likes of James Beattie, Andy Van der Meyde, Per Kroldrup, and Matteo Ferrari all came in during this period and were all out of their depth. The genius of Moyes' transfers have been this combination of three things:

• Home-developed colts - aside from Jack Rodwell, this isn't about Dan Gosling (who has a knack for important goals but little more) or Victor Anichebe (who scares the shit out of foreign teams but does little more) - but Tony Hibbert, James Vaughan, and most importantly Leon Osman. Ossie was our best player against Sporting and should have been man of the match against United.
• Cast-offs from bigger clubs - e.g. Phil Neville, Tim Howard, Louis Saha have all been cheap, and have found their level.
• Calculated gambles on foreign talent - Mikel Arteta, Steven Pienaar, Jonny Heitinga, Landon Donovan - these are all automatic starters with transfer fees of about the £5m mark. They'd all have gotten in the United side too

What Paul Hayward missed out on is two other types of signing that Moyes has excelled at. Firstly the blockbuster - Moyes' transfer philosophy is one big signing per year. The last 2 have been Fellaini and Yakubu. Which other clubs can boast that the last 2 times they've broken their transfer record it's paid off? Secondly, and most importantly, Moyes' unbridled knack of picking up a bargain from the lower leagues. In particular, Tim Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Leighton Baines, Jolean Lescott. All came from the football league, all have gone on to Internatonal honours, and have seen their transfer values skyrocket.

Moyes must have the best transfer record of any Premiership manager, purely because of the lack of funds at his disposal. I know how controversial these studies are, but whilst the media help Rafa Benitez paint this misleading idea that they can't match the resources of the other "Big 4", in just over 5 years he's seen a turnover of about 120 players, with a net spend of about £85m. Yes, they're skint now, but that's partly due to a lack of return on investment. As Hayward concludes:

There is a debate to be had now about which side of Stanley Park is the rosier. Liverpool have more assets but much greater debt. Everton have stability and evolutionary force. And they have Moyes.

This was the point of my previous post, and even my defense of Bill Kenwright. Even off the pitch I wouldn't swap our finances with any other club, and David Moyes is the reason. Last time I checked he'd had a net spend of about £3m a year. To rebuild the School of Science for that is phenomenal.