Nicholas: Everton fans were ‘cruel’ to Moyes
Former Everton manager David Moyes enjoyed a fantastic period in charge of the club, and he’ll be going up against his old team on Saturday.
The Toffees travel to the London Stadium to face West Ham United in a game that both teams will view as eminently winnable.
Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas, though, feels that the hosts will come out on top 2-1 in a competitive clash.
“What a cracking game. David Moyes, who I thought would get the Everton job, comes up against his old club once more. I have to be honest; I thought Everton fans were tremendously cruel to Moyes,” he wrote on the Sky Sports website.
“He walks in the door at West Ham and everyone wonders how he will get on. He does have to prove a point and keep West Ham alive, but I did the Everton match and they only just deserved to win against Brighton. In the end, they were panicking.
“Carlo Ancelotti has picked up a couple of decent results but the scar and embarrassment of losing to Liverpool’s schoolboys still lingers. He will want to prove a point to Everton fans and really, he believes he should be back there. It looked as though it should have been his job, but they went with the fabulous Carlo Ancelotti and he is a different man.
“West Ham will be aggressive and get in their face. Everton are a talented bunch and they are an inconsistent bunch. I am going for narrow scorelines this weekend, so Jeff Stelling may be worried about the £250,000 jackpot going!”
Were the Everton fans cruel to Moyes?
What’s Nicholas referring to, here? Judging by what he wrote leading up to the comment, you’d assume he means that the Toffees supporters were cruel by not wanting Moyes to return as manager last month.
Is that cruel, though? Surely that’s just them being entitled to their opinion. They wanted the club to go forward not back, and so it proved with the appointment of Ancelotti.
As for Nicholas’ assertion that the Blues only just deserved to beat Brighton, that seems harsh as well. They dominated for at least 70 minutes. Yes they were hanging on at the end, but they did more than enough to earn all three points.
In other Everton news, the club’s director of football Marcel Brands has reportedly opened contract talks with a Toffees regular.