There are fables, fairytales and adages aplenty in which the problems that face David Moyes commonly turn up.
When he takes to the training field this morning he will be joined by the most talented squad of players he has ever had the pleasure to manage.
They're young, fit, and fiercely competing for places in a League which they're all competent enough to do a job.
In short, a poor man never really had any problem, until he got rich.
Moyes has been the dictionary definition of a manager on a budget in past years.
Like Harry Houdini he has become the master of negotiating tricky situations with his hands tied by financial constraints, fitness problems and an ageing squad.
But now, thanks to his own mercurial style of shoestring management, domestic progress, youth development and foreign quality have all returned to Goodison Park.
And Moyes' job as manager of Everton Football Club is unrecognisable to the one he took over from Walter Smith in 2002.
In the run up to his eighth season at the helm, Everton were top of the tipsters charts to topple the big four and upset the game's new breed of money-men.
But they've faltered at the last three attempts, taking only one point from what, according to the form book, should have at least been seven.
Moyes has looked less sure of himself with a bigger squad.
Now he has almost two players for every position, his normally meticulous selections have been suspiciously trial and error.
The Blues latest defeat to Aston Villa was characteristic of all that has been wrong with their poor start to the season.
The Scot seemed bound to start Jack Rodwell after the Goodison prodigy tore lower league Huddersfield apart at the seems in the midweek Carling Cup fixture.
But rather than dropping a central midfielder he asked Rodwell to do a job on the right where he struggled to influence the game.
Similarly, World Cup finalist John Heitinga has carried his international form back to England with strong displays against Wolves and Huddersfield.
But to accommodate him Moyes would have had to split the so-far solid pair of Distin and Jagielka, and so Heitinga was not selected.
What is becoming clear as the season gathers pace is that Moyes is finding the luxury life of management with options difficult to come to terms with.
His inconsistent selections are mirrored in the teams displays and he must now strive to settle on an eleven which he feels is best equipped to recover from Everton's lack lustre start.
If the Blues want to be more than also-ran's in the race for European football this season, they can't afford to wait for injuries to pick the side for them.
There are managers in the league who would hand all transfer policy control over to a director of football, just to have the type of squad Moyes is coaching today.
But then, one man's medicine is another man's poison.
--
Follow our breaking EFC news on Twitter, at http://twitter.com/clickEFC
Post a comment