Mark Lawrenson: David Moyes reaps rewards for giving chance to Tim Cahill

Nov 13 2007 by Mark Lawrenson, Liverpool Daily Post

IT’S obvious in the short time he’s been back in the side that Tim Cahill will be central to Everton’s success.

And it’s success that the manager David Moyes fully deserves, simply for being brave enough to take the plunge with him in the first place.

The days of players coming up through the leagues and making an impact in the top flight have long gone.

Managers would rather bring in cheaper options from abroad or fork out money for established Premier League players to minimise the risk.

Even prolific scorers in the Championship can’t seem to adapt to life at the highest level any more so it’s no wonder the purchasing of players unproven in that environment is increasingly rare.

Which is why Cahill has proved a managerial masterstroke.

He shot to prominence in Millwall’s run to the FA Cup final, which attracted the attention of many Premier League clubs.

But it was Moyes who had the most conviction to get his man, to the extent that the £1.5million he paid for him is pretty much an irrelevance now.

Cahill has an even better scoring ratio for Everton than he did for Millwall, where he played regularly two divisions below the Premier in what is now League One.

But the way he has adapted means there can be little doubt that he is Moyes’s best signing – and his goals alone aren’t the only proof of that.

He has a bit of everything in the midfield and works so hard for the team. His runs into the area are timed to perfection, it’s not as if he does it to the detriment of the uglier jobs that need doing in central areas.

Cahill is one of those players who also knows his limits and you won’t see him doing things he isn’t capable of, which is a great skill in itself.

At Chelsea on Sunday, he only tried an overhead kick because it was the only way he was going to score, and he duly did.

And what about that determination to overcome injuries – which he’s had a lot of recently – and not let them affect his ability or impact on the team? Where does that, and the rest of his qualities, come from?

My theory is that could be something to do with his nationality – Australians are never ones to be shrinking violets, which you can’t afford to be when you take a step up in class to a big club. You’ll get eaten alive.

Cahill’s attitude has ensured that that is never going to happen to him and he has become such a big player.

So much so that getting him to pen a new five-year deal – along with Mikel Arteta and Andrew Johnson – is one of those signals that other players pick up on.

His presence alone can attract potential targets because they’ll look at Everton and think ‘hey, they’ve got some great players there, I fancy a bit of that’.

You can’t put a price on your club getting that kind of profile.

And at the moment, it’s hard to put a price on Cahill.

Mark Lawrenson was talking to NICK SMITH