What Happens at Goodison When Nobody is Watching?

Comments (4)

I?d always thought that teachers had the longest holidays, being off from late July to early September. Then I decided it must be MPs, who pack it up about the same time as the teachers but don?t make it back to Westminster until November. Finally I realised ? it has to be the entire playing and administrative staff at Everton FC.

I remember dutifully turning up at Goodison for the Villarreal game a couple of years back, expecting a bit of a summertime show to welcome the arrival of the Champions League at Goodison. Bill is after all in showbiz. Instead there was nothing special organised, the ground did not appear to have been painted, or even swept, half the TVs were broken and there wasn?t even the usual warm Chang to buy.

This year, this inertia and lack of preparedness seems to have spread to the entire enterprise. Less than a week before the beginning of the season we are apparently only now trying to buy some players ? when anyone who had watched the side last year could easily have spotted that we were desperately short of numbers, let alone class, by the time we finally exited from the Uefa Cup. Instead, since Christmas we have let McFadden, Fernandes, Johnson and several budding young hopefuls slip quietly away, to be replaced by empty slots in the squad list.

Only now, after the departure of the Fat Controller has Mr. Kenwright appeared to be back in the country, presumably after leaving his imprint in a foreign beach for two months.

Only now has the Club woken up to the fact we need to spend money on players.

Only now have they realised that the Kirby home ?n? wear project is never going to happen and that Goodison Park may need a bit of sprucing up. (Actually a few pots of paint and some work experience labour would make a vast difference to the shabby grey concrete inside the main stand, hardly a great expense?).

We couldn?t have had a much kinder opening schedule and the first three games of the season should have been targeted for 9 points. With the threadbare squad we have left, who would bet on that now? Year after year, the Premier League success stories are the ones who have a good start. And the best possible start was made by all the fans who put our hands in our pockets as early as April to provide the club with approximately £16 million of season ticket sales. Where has that gone?

Hope you enjoyed your holiday Everton employees, now, back on your heads.
John Coghlan, London     Posted 11/08/2008 at 10:25:27

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