We are intelligent enough to reach our own conclusions
Richard O'Malley responds to the charge of Negativity

25 February 2002

I rarely feel inclined these days to participate in discussions over my beloved Club, as most things have already been said but I feel, after reading Terrence Leong's comments, something has to be said.

Firstly lets get the credibility issue out of the way.  I am a season ticket holder, I perform a 300 mile round trip for every home game, go to every away match (With the exception of a few London games) and purchase an excessive amount of Everton merchandise (I have a large family).  I have supported Everton sine 1967 (I would have been six years old).  I hope you would agree that I would have as much right as anyone to express my point of view.

I would like to say that I found his comments about your site to be totally unfounded.  Sometimes we all have to be judgemental about what is going on at Everton (there are no volunteers from the management team currently running the club) and I don't think any amount of intimidation to 'put up and shut up' should be allowed to go unanswered.  Mr Leong suggests that the 'negativity' from your articles may affect the Club and its performances! A truly naive statement and one intended to stifle views rather than encourage them.  His comments take the form of intimidation purely because his view intimates that you can't be a loyal and committed Evertonian if you are critical of the club.  It unwittingly generates the type of 'inappropriate' and 'misplaced' euphoria witnessed before Christmas when other notable calls for unity and subservience resulted in the inane statements being made of our championship and indeed European 'potential'.  A false dawn if ever there was one.

If Mr Leong feels so strongly about ' negativity' could I recommend he turns his attention to the real issues.  Ask the people who actually witnessed, first hand, the away games against Leicester, Sunderland and Middlesbrough what they thought of 'negativity', you would not be able to print their response.  Were these appalling performances brought on by fans 'negativity'?  No, this did not stem from the supporters (they remained truly loyal throughout and outshone their counterparts at each match).  This was brought on by the tactics and managerial acumen shown by Mr Smith and Mr Knox.  Should we not be critical of such blunders when they have contributed so much to our current predicament?

As for the resulting 'victimisation' of Walter Smith well I am afraid that is part and parcel of the job, particularly if you don't do it well enough!  (WS is still collecting a wage of over �1M per annum, not even performance based!!).  It is no different in any other commercial enterprise.  A Manager and his workforce live or die by performance and productivity. If Mr Leong is trying to tell us that someone else picks the team, decides the tactics and is generally responsible for the morale and well being of the players, then provide the name so as I can be as critical of him.  The answer is Walter Smith is in charge of his own destiny, he has influence in the club far outweighing his right or position.

Mr Leong suggests that people will be driven away because of such criticism and this is the most unforgivable remark of all.  It is the intimation that the Everton fan base is so 'shallow' and 'disloyal' as to walk a way the minute the club is in trouble.  Quite simply I have news for him, with a few notable exceptions since 1970, the club has always been in trouble, I haven't seen many heading for the exit during this time and am not likely to.  We are probably the most tolerant and objective set of supporters in the Country, I know of no other that would put up with Soap Opera we have had to endure over the past few years.

The club's future and fate will not be dictated to by the views of fans or ToffeeWeb (sorry fella's but its a fact) but in how we perform on the pitch and in the boardroom.  The comments of the fans should be heard and a consensus be drawn, I am afraid Mr Leong is obviously thinking of another club if he assumes anything we say or have said has had any impact on the way the club is currently being managed.

If Mr Leong wants to see examples of biased, indoctrinated, ill informed and censored views then I would suggest he sticks with Evertonfc.com, which is appallingly sycophantic and bland.  They would do worse than to follow the ToffeeWeb example and learn that open expression and real views is what the true fan is after.  We are intelligent enough to reach our own conclusions and opinions thank you very much.

Toffeeweb does a magnificent job and I have always found it expresses the voice and current thinking of the common fan, honestly and without discrimination.

Long may this go on

Regards,

Richard O'Malley

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