For the Good of the Game

Every fan in the country outside of those scoundrels collectively known as Liverpool fans should be cheering on Everton in the forthcoming weeks. The domination of the top four clubs in the Premiership needs to be broken for the good of the game. That my club, Everton, appear at the moment best placed to do just that is a source of immense pride.

This year I have managed to get to a number of games including sitting amongst the Mancs at Old Trafford. I have noticed the great improvement in our play in general and have no wish to return to the aimless football endured for the previous 20 years.

Three players seem to have influenced this, Yakubu, Pienaar and Lescott, closely followed by Arteta and Cahill.

I was in contact with my brother and other season ticket holders following the win at Man City. We were all agreed that this team is the best team we have had since Kendall and Harvey?s teams of the 80?s Yakubu seems to be the linchpin demanding the ball to his feet and refusing to chase aimless balls into the channels, a role performed far more ably by Johnson. Moyes must take great credit for his adherence to a five man midfield. Strangely enough a five man midfield appears to offer far more attacking creativity and entertainment than a four man midfield with two strikers.

I like Moyes for a number of reasons. He repeats several mantras that are profoundly sensible. We all love a good football transfer story and can?t wait for Riquelme to sign but Moyes constantly reminds us that the most important players are those already at the club rather than those about to arrive or those who we wearily dream about arriving.

I also like the way he has dealt with young players at the club, Rooney being the exception as it seems clear we were not in a state to hold that young prodigy at that time an that he had little option other than to fight a losing battle to keep him. The handling of Vaughan, Anichebe, Hibbert, Osman and now hopefully Kissock, Rodwell, Baxter and others seems to me to have been expertly managed. Other young hopefuls such as Fox, Gerrard and Hughes are pursuing careers at more appropriate levels with the prospect of some considerable success.

Moyes has demonstrated considerable loyalty to some players and loyalty in an uncertain world is an admirable virtue. He has reluctantly let go several players (Stubbs, McFadden, Naysmith, for example) when it appears to have been in everyone?s interest for them to move on.

The squad size also is about right in my opinion and mirrors Mourinho?s beliefs about team togetherness and cohesion. The wasteful years of having several disgruntled egos undermining the team?s efforts from the sidelines by demanding games or transfers seem over under Moyes. Underachievers, admittedly some bought under Moyes, are swiftly moved along (Beattie, Kroldrup) the exception being Van Der Meyde who may still have a part to play and who has been unlucky with personal problems and injuries. In a successful season like this one, most of the first team squad members have had opportunities to seize a first team place at some stage of the season and this appears to me to have made competition for places very healthy, enabled individuals to commit themselves to the club under long contracts and silenced dissent in favour of a group togetherness. The club on the pitch at least seem all to be pulling in the right direction.

Moyes? handling of the media is perhaps a little dour. He doesn?t raise the media?s expectations of sensational transfers. When faced with grandiose speculation about what his team can achieve, he dampens the media?s enthusiasm. When invited to rail against officials (and this season he has had lots of reasons to rant and rail, for example, the Clattenburg derby, the Blackburn offside, the Tottenham Johnson/Huddlestone penalty award, the Eduardo handball, even against Man City who fielded three goalkeepers?) he bites his lip or will refuse to blame the officials. His favourite word seems to be ?No? as another searching question falls into the void. I?m happy with this as long as we continue to progress with results.

It is with regard to Europe though that I would like to make my point. The Champions League has enabled the top clubs in Europe to develop their global brand to such an extent that only a prolonged period of successful qualification for the Champions League will break this oligopoly. Furthermore what the pathetic showing of the Norwegian Champions against Everton demonstrated to me was that the Qualifying Stages of the Champions League provides little more than warm up games for the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal. I don?t want to denigrate our achievement against SK Brann but in reality I think they along with a number of other teams in Europe would not survive the rigours of the Premiership. Reasonably the top eight teams in the Premiership should enter the Champions League in my opinion.

It is amusing to see Liverpool demean themselves by losing 2-1 to Besiktas only to wallop them by a cricket score at Anfield but we are in danger of killing off interest in competitive European Football if the same teams laboriously contest an even more uncompetitive competition every Tuesday and Wednesday night through our Winters.

I am looking forward to us contesting the Champions league for seasons to come, I feel our best X1 surpasses Liverpool?s and I am looking forward to confirmation of this in the Anfield derby. I regularly talk with reds now that I no longer live in the city (where it was hard to meet reds) and they are a disgruntled lot at the moment. I think it is only a matter of time before Hicks, Gillett, Benitez and Gerrard all leave Liverpool and they leave Anfield for a 30,000 all-seater stadium under the Bestway Loop or closer to their fan base at Spaghetti Junction in Norway, financed by Osama Bin Laden.

Keep up the Good Work

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