The Mail Bag
'Night Out In A Brewery'
Comments (25)
We have all been there, by this I mean exasperation at our beloved club. If it's not crass defending, it's poor midfield play or ?how did he miss that??. For me, this exasperation invariably means the inherent bad management that runs through like a seam.
My first match was in August 1963 and the gate man couldn?t change a pound note! We had to go to a shop to buy some sweets and get some coins. This was the current League Champions and seemingly one of the most progressive teams in England. We all remember too the Uefa Cup ticketing fiascos of the last few years. The chip fryer fires that delay kick offs. The shoddy merchandise that featured on BBC consumer programmes in the 90s... We have all had experience of it.
How about player transfers? Alan Ball being off loaded to Arsenal. Colin Harvey shunted away to the old Second Division. Howard Kendall as a transfer make-weight, later as a manager being allowed to emigrate to Spain... Letting the 'old Lady' of Goodison get to such a state that we will have to leave.
The latest being letting Lee Carsley leave. Not so much not keeping him but not replacing him. It's not that they didn?t have enough notice. He is 34 and wanted to be nearer his handicapped daughter in Birmingham. Chelsea quite happily shipped Makele off, because they knew that Mickel had been groomed to take his place. So now we have the ludicrous sight of Mikel Artel passing as a holding midfielder. The correct analogy is buying a Rolls Royce and using it on a Car Rally.
Even during the Summer, the CEO walks and Moyes dithers over signing a new contract. The result: drift in the transfer market and a disjointed pre-season. This resulted in a bad start to the season, with currently one win at home by December, and a failure at the first hurdle in the Uefa Cup.
If anyone, in the current climate, is mad or rich enough to take this club on, they need to do a root and branch erasure of the culture within the club. Not so much to turn it into a candidate for ?Thatcher?s Business of The Year?, but something that is fit for purpose ? fill it with management, either financial or football that are PRO ACTIVE.
A question for Everton management. Re arrange this into a well known phrase or saying: 'Arrange can you night out a in a brewery?'
Mike Brerry, Posted 20/12/2008 at 08:21:49
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As for the sale of Alan Ball, as far as I?m concerned it was the blackest day in the club?s history and the only conceivable excuse for Catterick?s behaviour is that he was unwell.
The club has made huge cock-ups in its time but it has also pulled off some masterstrokes usually when least expected. That is what Everton is and what it always has been ? a bit like life ? a rollercoaster ride. Enjoy the up parts and don?t wallow in the lows. Merry Christmas!
I’ll bet you’d like to blame the current global economic downturn on the club’s mismanagement? A half decent point made with some ludicrous examples.
Merry Christmas by the way!
I like a good moan myself, but this is world class moaning.
I fell about laughing when I read the bit where you complained the fella on the Turnstyle didn't have change for a pound in NINETEEN SIXTY THREE!?!
have you ever seen Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy? You are defo Marvin the paranoid android. The players you cite were all getting on in years so my club did what they saw as the biz (financial).
Right, coz at 26, Ball would never be the 20-goal-a-season dynamo he used to be, his goal total while impressive was on a downward trend, as all these goalscoring non-out-and-out strikers do (Robson, Platt, Keane (r), Speed, Rooney, Ronaldo even Gerrard and Cahill). In most cases they still have the nouse but lack the vital extra bit of pace that they had in their early 20?s.
Yes they will still score if the defence underestimates or ?forgets? aka writes them off, but not at the rate at 29 they did at 22. This is one of the main reasons Best packed in ? well decided what with all the media shite, he knew that he was never going to be as good as he was, this comes gradually to most players and they compensate, using the head to save their legs.
And Wrong for nor seeing the changes that were ongoing in both football and players, especially the ability to play on in a meaninful way well past their benchmark 30th birthday.
If you read Robert Elstone's article in the Daily Post, he expects a new Everton investor within 3 months of Kirkby being approved (which it no doubt will). Personally I believe him, why should I be a cynic? I like to think they have the best interests of the club at heart. Everton know there are investors waiting in the wings for this outcome before making their move.
I believe that 2009 is likely to be the most important year in Everton's history, and I am excited about, if just for the fact it could be good news for a change
Don?t forget... be in bed early on Wednesday ? the sooner you?re asleep, the sooner he gets here.
I know times are lean boys but we are an established Top Six type club in a very money orientated enviroment. I think we are very fortunate to call ourselves blues. We have had some fun along the way... it's not all bad is it?
A cushion nearly landed on my head in the 70s. Well, I say "nearly" ? it actually landed on the pitch a good distance from my speck in the Street End but, you know, fair?s fair, Health & Safety and all that.
Good God above.
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I just can't help feeling that such wholesale condemnation is misplaced. People make decisions on consideration of the facts and information they have to hand. Be it the sale of Alan Ball, which made good business sense to them at the time, to the arguably sensible decision to let Carsley move on.
Whatever happens, and whoever we get in to run the show, you can be sure of one thing: they will make what are mistakes in your view, and they will continue to exasperate you because you will disagree with the decisions they make ? no matter how PRO ACTIVE they may be.
ps: Who'd want to spend a night out in a brewery anyway... unless there was actually a piss-up going down?