FAN SCENE: James McFadden has echoes of Davies’ career

Dec 7 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

TOMORROW’S game against Fulham will see the return of one of David Moyes’s less successful buys, Simon Davies.

Apparently he’s doing all right down at Craven Cottage where, if everyone is honest, expectations are no longer as high as they used to be.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that we used to covet some of their players, especially the likes of Steed Malbranque, and even envied their fluent style under French manager Jean Tigana.

Their policy of snapping up players no longer deemed up to muster at Goodison has highlighted their gradual decline, with Davies the latest in quite a long line stretching back to Mark Pembridge.

Davies was apparently a target of Manchester United at one point, so he obviously had something, but a combination of injuries and the fact that Everton struggled to find a position for him meant that he never really had a great run of games or made any sort of big impact in royal blue.

And in some ways it looks like his situation is being repeated with James McFadden.

The Scot’s obviously had more memorable moments for Everton than Davies ever did, and it’s a standing joke that he is linked with the exit every time the transfer window opens, but Wednesday night against Zenit St Petersburg there was the biggest hint yet that he may have finally come to the end of the road.

When the number 11 came up, with Victor Anichebe waiting to come on, McFadden struggled to contain his disappointment, trudging across the pitch like a scolded schoolboy.

And while it annoyed the fans, who wanted to see us get on with the game and go for the winner, it was hard not to feel a little sympathy for the Scottish international.

After all, he was playing pretty well, holding the ball up and linking with the midfield.

Not everything he tried came off, but he certainly looked far sharper and more dangerous than his partner, Andrew Johnson.

His slumped shoulders as he made his way to the touchline looked like those of a player who has finally accepted that no matter how hard he tries and how well he plays he is always going to be the one to make way.

Perhaps though, as with the likes of Davies, Pembridge and Tomasz Radzinski, Everton have just moved on a bit.

It’s harsh, but ultimately that’s football. And if AlexMcLeish does offer in the region of the rumoured £4 million for McFadden, then maybe a move to Birmingham might actually be the best thing for all concerned.