The Nick Armitage Column
Columnist: Nick Armitage

The Blue Barometer
24 September 2004

Tony Hibbert: Blue Barometer

Tony Hibbert is a barometer for the first team.  I say that because, over the last three seasons, his form has closely matched that of the Everton team he has played in.  Last season, the lad had a devastating loss of confidence but to his credit, not once did I see him go missing in a game. When selected, young Hibbert always gave his usual 100%; his touch and belief had deserted him but his bottle and heart hadn’t.

During the last dreadful campaign, Hibbert got booed and jeered on several occasions by idiots sitting near me, it was obvious from his demeanour that it just wasn’t happening for him.  His short game was shot to bits and his crossing had deteriorated to such a degree that he was even surpassing Unsworth’s regular aerial bombardments on the crowd.  The injuries Hibbert had suffered during the past two years looked like they had taken their toll on a very promising young player.  When he played, he looked like the team he was part of: low on ability, short on inspiration, and a yard behind the opposition.  He was the next boo boy target waiting to happen.  I felt so sorry for the lad and I feared for his future at the club.

Right now on the pitch Everton are rocking again, there’s a buzz around Goodison and we’re getting the old young Tony Hibbert back.  If there is a better English right back at this moment in time, I haven’t seen him.  Hibbert looks sharp, hungry and fit; his distribution, particularly his crossing, have improved dramatically.  It’s a pleasure to watch him bombing up and down the touchline again.  It’s also been a pleasure to watch Everton sticking two fingers up to all of the doubters.

In a recent interview on the official website, Tony Hibbert admitted that last season was a complete nightmare for him, he didn’t need to tell us.  Over the pre-season, he’s worked his bollocks off to give himself the best possible chance of this season not being a repeat of the last one – and it shows.  He’s wiped his slate clean and got back to what he is good at.

Elsewhere at the club, the Board will soon have the clean slate that they have desired for so long.  The way in which that clean slate was arrived at was a sad episode in Everton’s fine history but a line must be drawn underneath it, because that’s what it is now — history.

It appears that many individuals within the club have also learnt from their errors of last season and, perhaps more importantly, the Board have learnt lessons from the endless series cock-ups of recent years.  Every man alive makes mistakes.  Real men admit to making mistakes and the sensible men amongst them learn from them.  Men who don’t learn from their mistakes and men who make them again are simply imbeciles.  From here on in, there is no hiding place for the Everton Board.  Instead of feeding us whimsical dreams, the Board now has the chance to lay concrete foundations for the future; years of stagnation and misery can finally come to an end.  A new Youth Academy, higher calibre additions to the first team, and a new stadium are all in the pipeline.

Personally, I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that the only way to achieve success in modern football is by having a new stadium.  Only an idiot would proclaim that relocating would not help us and I look forward to the day it happens, but I remain convinced that a new stadium isn’t the immediate passport to glory that many claim.  Remember that Sunderland have one and Arsenal don’t.

The critical factor in moving a club forward is having a good manger who can get the best out of his players — whoever they may be.  Sunderland haven’t had one and Arsenal have.  Luckily for us, we have one and look at what David Moyes is now getting out of all of his players, especially Tony Hibbert.

Nick Armitage

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