Dedicated Followers of Fashion
Comments (25) : Watching the first half display against Arsenal, open-mouthed and in awe of the variation of most of our attacking play, I was reminded of the stylish way in which we had dispatched Sunderland, West Ham and Bolton in recent weeks. And yet, I could not seem to rid my mind of Phil Neville?s comments from after the Premier League victory against the Hammers two weeks earlier. He referred to us as being unfashionable and in doing so, provided The Sunday Mirror?s Michael Calvin with an opportunity to christen us, Matalan United.
First of all, I would like to make it clear that I do not intend to berate our captain marvel, Phil Neville, nor do I encourage any fans to criticise him with particular reference to the aforementioned comments. They were slightly naïve given his experience of dealing with the media, but were spoken with the best of intentions, namely to highlight the lack of coverage we generally receive on Match of the Day and to provoke a reaction from the BBC pundits.
I have no doubt that my old university tutors would refer to Michael Calvin?s article as a prime example of lazy journalism. They spent many hours labouring against those of us with a tendency to indulge in far-fetched analogies and inaccurate metaphors and I suspect Calvin?s article would have been greeted with a succession of illegible and angry red squiggles.
Phil Neville?s reference to Everton as being unfashionable can be justified. It was merely an accurate analysis of the lack of coverage we receive from all quarters of the media and can be considered a fair comment. For reasons unknown to myself, the media do not consider our football club to be worthy of a reasonable amount of news coverage.
Speculating on what these reasons could be, I concede that we are not in possession of a new, state of the art stadium at present. Moreover, our manager does not fall into the ?rent-a-quote? category like Jose Mourinho, Neil Warnock, Ian Holloway or Gordon Strachan. David Moyes does not offer much in the way of entertainment, but then why should he? He speaks candidly and with an abundance of passion. I suspect it is his belief that the football his team play should provide enough entertainment to guarantee they are not labelled ?unfashionable?.
I implore anyone to speak to any genuine football fan that watches a decent amount of Premier League action, whether it is live or on television and I am sure they will be at a loss to explain why Everton are still commonly considered to be so unfashionable.
While I accept that Everton are not a media-friendly club, what angered me the most about Calvin?s article was his attempt to justify Everton?s unfashionable tag through the style of football we currently exhibit.
?The scufflers of the Premier League are not sprinkled with stardust, or sugar coated with celebrity. They do pragmatism, not poetry. Organisation rather than inspiration,? says Calvin about Everton.
Scufflers? My blood was almost at boiling point as early as the second sentence. Such a derogatory and ignorant analysis of our current squad suggests Mr Calvin has not witnessed an Everton match since the ?Dogs of War? era some 12 years ago. Not sprinkled with stardust? Ask Ian Harte if that could be said of Mikel Arteta as I believe he is still in the process of untying himself after the Spanish magician turned him inside out a few weeks ago. Leon Osman?s goal against Larissa is an example of poetry in motion and contradicts Calvin?s suggestion that we are a no-nonsense outfit. Yes we are almost always organised, but now I quite often leave Goodison park feeling inspired to enjoy the rest of my weekend.
Calvin?s analysis may have been accurate in the season we unexpectedly finished fourth and qualified for the Champion?s League, but not now. Back then Moyes was in the process of stabilising our Premiership status. We won many games 1-0. I think it is fair to say that we over-achieved to a certain extent. However, Calvin does not give us the credit we deserve. We are in the top six on merit and often play with flair more akin to Brazil circa 1970 (slight over-exaggeration I admit).
Matalan United would have been applicable to a team containing players such as Kevin Kilbane, Steve Watson, Mark Pembridge, David Weir, Tony Hibbert, and Gary Naysmith- in short, Everton 5 or 6 years ago.
Moyes ?has assembled a mixture of bargain signings, academy products, and occasional luxury buys,? says Calvin and I suppose this is an acceptable comment, at least on the face of it, but then a more detailed examination suggests there has been more than the occasional luxury purchase by Moyes. The obvious ones are Johnson and Yakubu, but then what about £5 million for Lescott and a similar figure for Yobo when he was just 21? While they may have turned out to be bargains, they were hardly budget buys. Furthermore, £6 million for Baines represents a fairly large fee for a full back, as does £3 million for Phil Neville.
Just around the period when Moyes was in the process of cementing our Premier League status by making us difficult to play against, Tottenham were in the process of buying every bit of young talent the nation had to offer. I am not ashamed to admit that I looked on with envy. It felt like whenever we showed an interest in a young player, the more fashionable Spurs would hijack the bid. And who could blame the players? From the outside, there was this group of young British players there, playing good football and with a great morale. There was a desirable clique at Spurs and for a player with a choice between them and us we came second.
In contrast to Spurs, our squad was then predominantly made up of ageing journeymen and mediocre Scots. Gradually Moyes has added good young players to blend with the seasoned professionals and has brought through players from the academy. The results are clear to see. We play better football and have started to look like a consistently decent Premier League outfit.
It also seems that we are fashionable, to players at least and why not? We don?t concede many goals, we score a lot and the mood in the camp seems great. Our young, vibrant squad features players with elaborate celebrations, big personalities and those with a tendency to kiss the badge. Every single member of the team celebrates together when we score and those on the bench are the first to congratulate those who have played.
Calvin refers to Cahill as Frank Lampard ?without the ego?. I beg to differ. Cahill does have an ego. Anyone whose goal celebration involves ritually sparring with the corner flag has to have an ego. However, Cahill also has humility, which is apparent in his industrious displays as well as in his post match comments.
For the reasons stated above, it is now us that the players choose. London native, Johnson made the trip up north, settled in and has shown a desire to stay. Lescott chose us over his hometown club, Aston Villa and most recently, 17-year-old Dan Gosling decided to up sticks from his Plymouth home and become a part of the new revolution at Everton.
To finish, I?ll indulge Mr Calvin and his analogy. Yes we are organised, hard to beat, resilient, physical when we have to be and good value for money. But we are not the no-nonsense, ordinary and unfashionable outfit the name, Matalan United suggests we are. We play with verve and flair. The proposition of a trip to Goodsion is a fearful one, even for the big four these days. Whether it was meant as a compliment or not, to say we are Matalan United is completely unfounded and I find it patronising to say the least.
If Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool are Harrods, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and John Lewis (struggling for a fourth) respectively and Derby are the Aldi of the Premiership then surely, we are at least House of Fraser?
I found Mr Calvin?s article to exhibit style over substance. If his article was a current Everton player, it would be James McFadden. How?s that for a tenuous analogy?
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it wont be long before they do!
That kind of thing sort of reinforces the feeling that we’re on the move, precisely because we’re not fashionable in the eyes of the media and not a favourite with the neutrals. It wouldn’t be happening if we weren’t doing something right. So, to sum up, don’t let the bastards bring you down.
Nice one though. Good fun read with well argued points.
I understand your analogy about McFadden but me thinks it’s a bit cruel on James. (only ’casue the article is such utter dross)
Like that Green person I hear on the radio sometimes. Another beneficiary of care in the community.
Are they a bunch of 20 somethings who believe,like sky, that football didnt exist before the inception of the Premiership?
Apart from tedious cheap pieces like the one by Mr Calvin..i am often left to ponder , upon reading some of our match reports, wether the journo reporting was actually at the game , or just takes a brief look at MOTD and then fills in the blanks with his own preconceptions, especially when it comes to offering each player marks out of 10...
After the Bolton game I bought up virtually every Sunday Rag just to see them awx lyrical over what was to me a perfect, faultless performance by Jags..leaving Anelka as a mildly inteested spectator..
To my amazement..the highest mark he recieved in any of the papers was a 7..!!!
In one rag it was actually a 5...
Turn to the RS reports and as always Stevie Me La was getting his usual mixture of 8’s and 9’s..
The same happens with Carsley,..becuse he aint doing twenty stepovers on the wing he too never seems to achieve more than a 6 or 7 when to my mind he has been an absolute rock since his return..
All of this brings me back to the original point(at last)...If any person who, for whatever reason, does not get to watch a lot of football,but gets their views from the local press, it will be no wonder that we are percieved as "unfashionable"..because no matter what we achieve.the reporting will always be biased towards SKYS big 4
The bottom line is that they are taking note and the guys on Five Live on Wednesday night were all agreed that we are the real deal out of ’the chasing pack’ and whilst recognising our quality, depth, and all round entertainment value then tipped us for trophies in the non too distant future. Which is fine by me!
One point you make in particular i feel needs discussion. Tim Cahill’s post match interviews in my book show a humility, composure and understanding of the game way beyond that of his peers and he is a natural for football management in the future.
So you heard it here first. Tim Cahill. Future Everton manager anyone?!
He must have an e-mail address?
For Calvin?s to describe our present style of football as "The scufflers of the Premier League are not sprinkled with stardust, or sugar coated with celebrity. They do pragmatism, not poetry. Organisation rather than inspiration,? is, I agree, seriously flawed.
However, it isn’t necessarily only the media who portray Everton in a bad light. There are those of us amongst our own who do not recognize the quality of football we are playing these days.
In the wake of the Arsenal game I read posts on this website that our football was "horrible", "hoofball", that we only score "scrappy six yard box goals".
I was - I still am - incredulous at such comments. Are the people making such comments actually attending the matches or at worst seeing any highlights of our games and goals we are scoring? Because such a negative portrayal of our football is totally erroneous.
Now whilst I’m shocked that fellow Blues still hold such a cynical, stereotypical and dated view of what we are today, I really don’t give a toss that the media and maybe other supporters continue to malign or overlook us. Rather, I am quite happy to continue to fly under the radar and be overlooked because this gives us an element of surprise when it comes to key games. By contrast, probably like many of you, the fans of other clubs are being very, very complimentary about Everton and Moyes these days and talking of us as being a genuine threat again...
Can’t believe you’ve actually got me trying to think what high street store we are akin to in Calvin’s freaky analogy!
The McFadden analogy tickled me too.
Thanks again Jon!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/01/05/rebirth-of-everton-sends-out-a-message-don-t-panic-89520-20275286/
I feel I should point out at this point, after referencing two articles from The Mirror that it is in no way my newspaper of choice. I saw this one mentioned in another forum.
take the article into context and it is very complimentary
it is using everton as a shining beacon of what is great in the prem besides the big four
it comes off the back of a comment capello made about the league and we are being used as its defence!
thats brilliant
people are starting (and its about fucking time) to notice us
we ARE hard working, organised, intelligent and gritty!
those words are not derogatory
he must have been watching the game against west ham, which to be fair we did grind out the win
we hardly played them off the park like we did against some teams this year
we dug deep, out battled and hustled them!
end of
Just one minor correction though - AJ isn’t a ’London native’; he was born in Bedford (some 50 miles north of London) and if this qualifies him as a Londoner then by the same token anyone born in say, Lancaster would have to qualify as a Scouser.
I for one (and clearly in the minority!!!) having read the original article, actually took it to be a pretty fair assessment despite the tacky journalistic references of what we are, a hard working, solid, commited no-nonsense squad, with one big defining factor: EGOLESS.
While I don't know any of the squad personally none of them presents with an ego, or a superstar demeanour that's better than anyone else., unlike the glamour 4, and no doubt Man City, Newcastle, and Spurs to name but 3. The whole 1st team squad are a credit to the club. who would think, Artetas valued at £25 million, Yak, Roger, Tiny Tim, etc not far behind them, I would applaud Matalan's chief buyer, in much the same way I would applaud Evertons. I always feel better having bought a perfect fitting Matalan suit, for a fraction of the cost of a designer suit that I may only wear once. COYB
This season we have the team to show what an unfashionable club can do, I just hope we take advantage of that!
My god, did anyone bother to see or comment on Tim Cahill’s goal vs. Chelsea! Premier League goal of the year! Go you Blues!
Superb, balanced piece of writing. I too read the aforementioned Mirror article and thought many the same thing. I mean, just how out of touch can a journalist be without his editor actually noticing. Does anyone actually proof read these things before they go to press?
Unfortunately, as some posters have mentioned we have become apathetic to the views of the southern press, who still recycle hackneyed stereotypes about any football club not within the media darlings club of the ’Big 4’ + Spurs.
I hope you have sent a copy of this in to the Mirror Jon, as a counter to the original article. You can guarantee that they won’t publish it though, it’s far too superior to anything their journalists could have written!
For the record, some points in that article were spot on, and some completely wrong. For example, little everton do indeed play terrible, ale-house football. Long balls into the box, elbows and boots everywhere, hoping to nick something from any loose balls. If that fails, launch some set pieces into the box and try to scramble a goal. That is the way little everton play, and the way you have played for the past 30 odd years. You know you’re not good enough to out football most teams, and play to your strengths. That’s exactly the way you played when LFC tonked you in the derby, although your ale house tactics never worked that day and you never even managed a shot on target. Obviously you all started whinging and used Clattenburg as the scapegoat to mask your woeful team. Those with any sense knew the real story, however.
On the other hand, the author’s comments about you being in a position to challenge the Big 4 are completely laughable. Maybe you’ll finish in the top 6 once every few years, but in general you’re just a no-mark club who are here to make up the numbers. You’ll never regularly challenge the big clubs, you’re just not a big or good enough to sustain it.
There’s a very good reason why nobody outside of your own tiny, deluded fanbase praises everton, and that’s because you’re a small, insignificant club who never, ever win anything. There’s no conspiracy, there’s no anti-everton agenda, you’re just not very important, that’s all.
You never ,ever fill your wooden shythole unless you’re playing LFC, you haven’t even been good enough to reach a cup final for 13 years when the likes of Tranmere, Millwall and Wigan have been. That’s all it is, a few seasons in the 80’s aside, you’ve achieved absolutely nothing for the best part of 40 years, and as such are treated accordingly.
Maybe if you actually win stuff over a prolonged period people might start to take notice, but you know as well as I do there isn’t a cat in hells chance of that ever happening.
Anyway, keep whinging whoppers, it’s what you lot do best, cos when it comes to football, everton fans haven?t got a clue.
How can any self-respecting journalist declare Everton ?Matalan Utd? with a magician like Arteta in the team?!!!
And Cahill as Frank Lampard ?without the ego? - surely that?s a good thing in an ego-centric industry. Tim is also half the size of Lamps as well.....
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1 Posted 04/01/2008 at 22:02:41
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The most articulate kick in the pants I have read in AGES.
Thank you.
How does a Nobel Prize sound?