The Mail Bag
Missing in the Media
Comments (27)
Like many of you, my obsession with all things Everton means that just watching the matches is not enough of a fix. It's also the day to day process of checking any news or rumours related to Everton.
Being based in Australia, I can still tune in to plenty of football shows from the UK and things like Sky updates. Now I know this is something that irks plenty of us but to me I find it simply amazing how regularly the media completely ignore Everton. They seem to forget we even exist at times.
It even happens down here on Fox Sports. I’ve lost count of how many times pundits have been talking about clubs that have or will provide a challenge to the top 4 and left out Everton. Every time Villa, Spurs and now City are mentioned. Sunderland even rated a mention the other day. Yet Everton, despite none of these sides being better than us in recent years, we don’t even rate a mention.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than used to Everton being overlooked in the media but at times it just staggers me. It's as if these pundits have a clause in their contracts never to mention Everton. I’m not expecting us to be talked about like title contenders but it would be a nice change to see a news update actually acknowledge our standards in recent years.
I’ve followed Everton for years now but I’m still a babe in the woods compared to some Toffees on here. The questions I put forward is how long this has been the case and what’s to blame? It's got to be more than the fact that every second pundit is a closet Liverpool fan. Is it the standard of the club’s PR department, our lack of money?
Sure, we have not won anything in some time but our recent track record is still better than the other so-called challengers to the top 4.
Russell Buckley, Posted 19/10/2009 at 23:23:48
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Have a read of John Brennan’s "Lets have a real go" post.
I think he answers a lot of your questions.
The best way to force the media to sit up and take notice is to do it on the pitch, to front up in the "showcase" games against the big boys.
The teams you have mentioned may not have won all of these games, but they have all played with an intent to win.
The best PR team in the world would have trouble convincing the media that Joe Public can ever be interested in a team that continually adopts the safety first approach.
DM’s team is considered grey and dull, dont get me wrong, I think he was the right manager for us when he came in, I’m grateful to him for steadying the ship, but we are at a real crossroads, we dont have any money so do we start to take a few chances ?
IMO we have to if we are ever to become sexy again .
Are we prepared to do that ? more to the point is Kenwright ?
Personally I’d take the gamble and I’d swap managers with Wigan tomorrow
IF (big if) we ever consistently play good football and start winning things our profile will improve.
When we finished 4th we were still getting hardly no press and we were constantly reading the phrase "their bubble will burst soon", that one sentence sums up the medias’ perception of Everton.
We are a half decent side but I don’t beleive it is to do with our "boring" football at all, have you watched the redshite in Europe or many countless Chelsea/Man Unt games, boring as fuck; however because they have won things their 1-0’s are gutsy performances of champions grinding out a result, whilst ours are referred to as a dull affair with no action.
The only teams that are entertaining to watch are Arsenal and West Brom, look where one of these teams are now.
Here’s a fairly positive article about an Everton (3 mentions) player. It is in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:-
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/cahills-strike-rate-rivals-worlds-best/2009/10/20/1255891810326.html
Hope that cheers you up mate!
I don’t read papers, and have no desire for digital or sky. Yet even if Manish on Football Focus introduced a peice on us I couldn’t care.
Today’s media is hardly full of insight.
I’ve got Toffeeweb, I’ve got Everton online and C5 play show us play in Europe.
There’s more to being an Evertonian than having our ego rubbed by Lee Dixon saying some banal about the team.
Do you think a ’half-decent side’ would play 6 defenders at home to Wolves? I have absolutely no complaints about our media profile at the moment. Our low profile prevents the rest of the country from knowing what utter shite we are.
I’m with Tommy, if I weren’t an Evertonian, I would have no interest in Everton.
Our only skilful players are Pienaar, Arteta and Fellaini (contraversial perhaps to some) and two of them were out injured and one recovering from surgery 3 days before the game.
Look at the Redshite on Saturday, without only two of their players and they get beat by Sunderland (ok they seem to be playing well but a fully fit Redshite side would walk all over them) It sounds like an excuse, that’s because it is. How can a side be expected to create chances when all of our creative players are either in the stands or on the bench.
Tony Marsh would propably, scratch that, he would deffinitely call me an apologist (great derogatory term) but I like to think that I am more a realist, as I don’t believe we are that good a side. We try hard and arre difficult to beat but without our creative players we are an ugly scrappy side missing keys players and with Yobo having his moments again, which unfortunately invariably end up with the other side scoring.
With Fellaini and Yakubu on the bench, Moyes easily had players at his disposal on Saturday to not play 6 defenders but he chose to play it safe and we got our rewards for that. Even with our list of injuries, we should still be capable of beating Wolves and Stoke at home. People moan about lack of resources but we have easily out spent both of those teams put together. While we play like we do and never acheive anything then our media profile will always be crap.
Now they are complaining that DM played these two defenders in midfield. On another thread someone said that we were crap but as soon as we win the "apologists" would claim Moyes as a genius. Personally I think that DM has shown that with enough of his first team available Everton can play good football, but as yet we can’t do it on a consistent basis. I won’t say it is because of injuries because some people don’t think that having your wisdom teeth removed midweek should allow you to start on the bench. They think you should be fully fit and ready to start.
Good call, Fellaini who underwent surgery 3 days before and Yak, a fella who has just come back from a 9 month lay off. Yeah, I would have started with them also.
I know Pienaar (and Bily... WHEN he gets settled, and give this boy time he looks fab from what I’ve seen) are capable of creating something but Arteta is the main man, and on Saturday we were missing Pienaar too.
I’m not knocking everyone's opinion, but give Moyes time to get HIS players back fit when he can play HIS first choice team before ripping into him, then I’m sure we will start seeing the good football played a lot more regularly.
It’s on ESPN and Setanta Ireland...
I’ll be watching on a Hungarian channel..where the presenter regularly wears a liverpool shirt..
I also think Yak should be tried now. He’s nearing 12 months now since his initial injury and has played enough times to warrant a start. I think him being on the bench has far more to do with Moyes’ insistence on playing 451. Again, the same as Fellaini, give him a start and take him off later in the game.
We’ll never know but no doubt the budding expert managers will just continue to say that it is Moyes being a "coward" etc etc and use the "6 defenders on the pitch" speach for a while to come.
The proplem we have with a 4-4-2 is that our midfield just isn’t good enough with just 4 in there. Wolves played us well on Saturday, pushing the defenders all the time, making Yobo see how hard he could hit the ball after doing his usual, push it a little to the side, get closed down and then hoof it.
Moyes is moaning in his post-match press conference about the amount he’s using Rodwell, so why not rest him and give Yakubu a go?
It’s always the same with Moyes. Why does he plough all his resources into signing defenders? How come he’s so quick to sign Jagielka’s replacement but not Arteta’s? I might be proved wrong but I would bet if you looked at the cost of all of Moyes’ signings, his defensive buys far outweigh the amount he’s spent on attackers.
Gray, Lineker, Horne, Nevin, and as he wears a suit on the odd occasion, Big Nev in goal.
We’re not just confined to the 80’s are we?
Lineker, you’re dropped!
There are very few times when playing crap and winning is OK.
1) When you are winning the league or something ( will accept CL ). AND IT IT IS THE ODD 1 OR 3 OUT OF 50.
2) When you play crap and actually WIN! like Fulham Vs Hull (and US and others for all I know.)
We do the CRAP bit ...but for it to be any sort of excuse or consolation...
YOU HAVE TO DO THE WIN BIT AS WELL.
TAXI !!
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1 Posted 20/10/2009 at 05:46:19
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The only time we get a mention is the sort of backhanded compliment way, best pound-for-pound team, plucky over-achieving finalists etc.
All you need to know about the media, especially papers, can be summed up in 3 words.
Tomorrow's chip wrappers. But yes, it does piss you off. No wonder they call us bitter.