The Mail Bag

Adrian 'Inchy' Heath

I came across my first ever matchday programme from Goodison the other day. It was from 1984 when we played Chelsea in the league (we lost 4-3).

I started reminiscing and recalled that at that time Adrian Heath was my favourite player. And I thought... why was that?

I was wondering if any fellow ToffeeWebbers with memories that stretch that far can share any memories or opinions on Inchy. Was he a scrapper? A great passer? A scorer of wonder goals?

I am just curious as to why he was my favourite player back then... or maybe there is no logic behind it at all.

Sean Smythe     Posted 22/05/2012 at 09:28:21   Comments (13)

The most underrated

I have about a 45-minute walk home from work. During that time, my mind wonders a bit. Ten years ago, maybe fifteen, my thoughts were divided between sex and Everton. Nowadays it's, well, Everton.

Today, as I faced the uphill march, I remembered a Mountfield goal against Aston Villa. Anyway, who's the most underrated Everton player ever? I mean a player who has had really few plaudits.

Keith Newton? Henry Newton? Tommy Wright? Even...... Billy Wright. For me it is Derek Mountfield. Scored the odd important goal. Pretty quick, good team man, could pass the ball out of defence better than anyone we've had in a while. And, in a different era, like today for example, would have been a consistent international footballer.

Andy Crooks     Posted 21/05/2012 at 23:03:16   Comments (110)

Europa League Qualification

Are Everton in the Europa League??

On the official Premier League website it says:

English winners of the UEFA Champions League who do not qualify through their domestic position go forward as Winners to the group stage, with the team finishing fourth dropping to the UEFA Europa League. In this case, the national association of the title-holder is entitled to one additional place in the UEFA Europa League.

Does this mean we are in? I thought so but am now very doubtful as there isn't any official news anywhere to say yes.

Graeme Dodd     Posted 20/05/2012 at 13:05:51   Comments (105)

Champions League and Pienaar

Just a quick reaction to tonight's result – maybe it will help us to get Pienaar?

Somebody at Spurs must have been watching him play for us and seeing what he could do for them – especially if they got into the Champions League. 'Arry might not have rated him but he's not completely blind, and he did buy him a year ago.

But now, they may not care; budgets will be curbed... maybe Pienaar will be surplus to requirements.

I hope!
Peter Hall     Posted 19/05/2012 at 23:18:27   Comments (17)

The value of goals

I remember an interview with Alex Ferguson and he commented along the lines of:

"I look at each player and know how many each one will score for me, and I know roughly how many we will concede. I can see us scoring 90 and conceding 35 and that's enough for the title most of the time."

Looking at our own Goal Difference this season a few things stood out: ours was +10; Spurs and Arsenal were +25; we scored 50 and conceded 40.

At the start of the season, we weren't scoring and we conceded a lot of sloppy goals until Heitinga came in for Jagielka.

If we carry on in a similar way to how we finished, is it reasonable to expect another 10 goals on top of that next season?

Also, we're very solid defensively now. Can we expect us to concede 10 less?

If that happened we would have a GD of +30. That would be second only to the septic tanks... Who knows where that could take us?

Is it pie in the sky or — with a lucky run and few injuries — could it happen?

Stephen Kenny     Posted 19/05/2012 at 13:43:45   Comments (49)

We are Everton

I am 59 and have been a Blue since I saw Alex Young in 1963. I live in America now (funny, I see more games over here on the TV, than if I lived over there — think global!).

I just want to state that I am so proud of our team, with what happened to the RS this week (oh, by the way, they will fire their Boston Red Sox’s manager within the next two weeks over here, they could have done a twofer at the same time and saved time). I really don’t want to dance on Kenny Dalglish’s grave, but I think it is interesting what happened yesterday.

On this week 27 years ago, me and my best friend were in Rotterdam. Wow, am I old! I have lived through all the pain that we all have had to live through as supporters of this great team, but as I said to my long suffering wife of 38 years, I would not swap the pain for all the glory that other teams have had... because I just love Everton.

We are a special club and at this moment in time I love the way we have Moyes as our manager, Phil as our skipper (I know he is not our best player, but MY GOD did he play well at Manchester United this year and he is the best leader on the pitch) and — am I maybe the first to say this on Toffeeweb — I am so proud that Kenwright is our chairman. I will always be a Blue and, just so you know how misguided I am, I thought Hibbet/ or Gibson was my player(s) of the year in the later half of the season.

I love way the club look after the kids and adults, both players and fans (I wasn’t there, but I would have given my right nut to be at Sunderland away in the cup), and the way the club go about their business. And believe me although I live in the USA, I never, ever, ever want U.S. owners.

I have seen Dalglish lose his job twice now because of EFC, the first time in '91. I rejoiced then, but not this time. This is all about money and investment and quick return of capital and because of greedy owners.

I hope one day we get the investment that City and Chelsea have received, but without the stuff that happened to the RS this week. Call me naive , but I love my club for not for buying bad overpriced players and sacking loyal servants. But for playing the game/ business of football the right way.

John Gorham     Posted 19/05/2012 at 01:28:12   Comments (48)

Pienaar

A thought occured to me the other day that if a club was going to take someone on loan with a view to buy, wouldn't you agree a fee on the proviso that it worked out with the club?

I would hazard a gues that the deal has already been agreed. What are your thoughts?
Michael Mcloughlin     Posted 17/05/2012 at 18:43:58   Comments (75)

So Jelavic has decided...

As the title says, and recent articles such as this one, Jelavic has told Davey Moyes that he would relish the opportunity of playing alongside his old strike partner.

Now I don't really know much about the quality of Jelly's former strike partners, and we all know that the SPL is a different animal to the EPL, however what are peoples thoughts on this possible move?

I have a personal reason for sanctioning the idea of a move like this, it was due to the fact that when I played at youth level there was one lad who I was thrilled to play alongside because we complimented each others game so much. We were separated by our team coach, him progressing through to the Cheshire squad whilst I ended up in the B-Team due to 'attitude reasons'.

Darren begged our coach to play me alongside him, we'd already formed a very fruitful partnership and had that understanding. Anyway injuries forced our coaches hand and we got our chance together. Six nil up against Northwich Vic's youth team inside 35 mins, Darren had Four, I had set them all up. I had scored the other two and cracked the bar and the post, him setting me up.

I guess my point being.....is it worth listening to a player when he says "Boss, you've got to let me loose alongside this fella, we're unplayable together"?

As I said, I have personal reasons for this post. What are everyone else's thoughts?
Luke Berry     Posted 17/05/2012 at 15:18:03   Comments (49)

Available for Nothing

The following players' contracts are about to run out and will potentially be available for nothing.

I know, I know - wages etc. But how many of these would improve our squad? Opinions welcome:

Craig Gordon

Dedryck Boyata
Paul Scharner

Michael Kightly
Martin Petrov
Danny Guthrie

Michael Owen
Andrew Johnson
Salomon Kalou
Ivan Klasnic
Hugo Rodallega

Thoughts?

International Quality

Let's imagine for a minute the whole Everton squad was English.

Who is good enough to be picked for the current England squad announced today for the Euros?

There are only two world class players in the current set-up for me – Hart and Rooney – so I reckon a few of our stars would get the call.
Kevin Tully     Posted 16/05/2012 at 16:24:23   Comments (16)

A case for keeping Yobo

There's been a lot of talk on ToffeeWeb about about whether or not we should sell two or three of our big name players or just the one. There's also been a lot of talk about which of the fringe or older players we should sell. One player who has been dismissed out of hand has been Joseph Yobo.

The idea of keeping Yobo and putting him back in the squad occurred to me when I was thinking about what would happen if we were suddenly to sell two or three of our biggest assets on the pitch. There are a couple of reasons why we all think this might happen. It could be the banks putting the squeeze on for cash over the summer. Players could also look to jump ship if offers start to come in for our better players. This is something that we have been dreading for a while and I would not be surprised to see offers come in for the likes of Baines, Jagielka, Felliani and Jelavic. The club, though unlikely, could decide to take some positive action, maintain control of who we sell and sell to cut the debts and stabilise the club.

For me in particular, if it came down to it, I would be okay to see Baines and Jagielka be sold as I think it is in defence that we have the best cover in depth. It is the one area that I think we could afford to lose players.

The key to this for me would be to hang on to Yobo as a senior player who may not have a huge cash value if we were to try and sell him but who would provide cover at the back – a senior player with a lot of experience. I would go all out to keep Heitinga and Distin, leave Hibbert where he is, keep Yobo as cover, and bump up Duffy and Garbutt.

I think that Duffy has shown himself to be ready for first team games. Garbutt has been earning rave reviews all season, albeit in a lower league and I would not pitch him in straight away. Heitinga would be able to talk Duffy through games. Distin has also shown that he can play at left back. Have Garbutt as his understudy and give him game time over the course of the season. With Gibson as a holding player in front of the back four, this defence would be solid enough. A Moyes led team would also be well drilled defensively and this defensive unit would be well drilled during the summer.

The financial benefits of selling the likes of Baines and Jagielka would mean a reduction in our overall debt, some cash to strengthen in midfield and upfront with the ages of Baines and Jagielka there to cover this.

We would also see Duffy and Garbutt develop into first team players which means that next summer we could look to sell again without depleting the squad too much.

I know that this scenario would depend on where Yobo's head is at. He may not have any interest in coming back into the squad. Also, I have not seen him play over the last couple of seasons so I don't know how much of a liability he would be. I know to a huge extent it would also depend on the club being able to maintain some semblance of control on transfers out during the summer.
Kieran Fitzgerald     Posted 16/05/2012 at 10:30:05   Comments (35)

27 years ago

27 years ago tonight... I was there and am still here. Brian Clough said we were the best team in Europe.

THE best night in the club's history.

Got to go, bit weepy...
Ian Smitham     Posted 15/05/2012 at 23:32:09   Comments (23)

Summer and the Euros

International football and the whole England thing just never quite does it for me! I'll probably tune in to the Euros this summer just to break the boredom.

To be honest, I couldn't give a toss how England get on; I'll only be watching cos it's football and summer sports usually send me to sleep. During the season, international breaks just piss me right off, the papers are full of the same old predictable shite about England's over-hyped elite and what they should be doing to do to the rest of world football just because we invented the game.

This time around, I'm slightly intrigued to see who Woy once of the Weds picks in his squad and whether he has the balls to tell the old guard "Thanks but no thanks". In their prime, Terry, Ferdinand, Lampard and Gerrard have been central to the hopes of the gullable fans at numerous tournaments and managed to achieve what amounts to the square root of fuck all.

Gerrard's even being touted as captain when he can't even manage 2 games in a row for Liverpool. I still don't understand how Terry has the audacity to show his face after the mauling he took at the hands of an ageing Mirislav Kloser during the last debacle versus Germany, Ferdinand's just so obviously past it, and fat Frank is only half as effective as when in his prime.

Do yourself a favour Woy, get shut of the "I wanna be captain" quartet and pick some hungry younger players.

You might still be watching the latter stages in your lounge but if your going to rely on these wankers you definitely will.

Roll on August, COYB
Mark Roberts     Posted 15/05/2012 at 02:15:34   Comments (90)

Gate Receipts and Revenue - Is Elstone Telling the Truth?

Recently, the CEO of Everton has been doing the rounds saying that money is tight and going back to his Blog on the 13 January 2012 Where the Money goes, his own stats say that we are losing £1.5M on reduced gate revenue for the year, well it’s the end of the season and I thought I'd do a little research;

The Accounts and the official site clearly show the following attendances and gate receipts for the last two seasons (09-10 & 10-11);

Season 09-10

19 League Games
Total Attendance: 697,775
Average Attendance: 36,725

7 Cup Games
Total Attendance: 193,414
Average Attendance: 27,631

Season Total Attendance: 891,189
Season Average Attendance: 34,277

Accounts Shown Income: £19,206,000
Income per person per match: £21.55

Season 10-11

19 League Games
Total Attendance: 684,738
Average Attendance: 36,039

3 Cup Games
Total Attendance: 87,253
Average Attendance: 29,084

Season Total Attendance: 771,991
Season Average Attendance: 29,692

Accounts Shown Income: £17,480,000
Income per person per match: £22.64

Then taking the 10-11 season income per person per match, and applying it to this season's attendance, excluding Wembley (as it’s at a neutral venue) suggests the opposite to Mr Elstone’s comments:

Season 11-12

19 League Games
Total Attendance: 631,333
Average Attendance: 33,288

7 Cup Games
Total Attendance: 188,076
Average Attendance: 26,868

Season Total Attendance: 819,409
Season Average Attendance: 31,516

Projected Accounts Income: £18,554,000
Income per person per match: £22.64

If we then include Wembley with a conservative average ticket price of £35 this adds;
1 Wembley Visit 30000 £1,050,000
Total (Inc Wembley) £19,604,000

In fact I’d be disappointed if the accounts are not showing a £2million increase in gate revenue on the season 10-11, thus putting our CEO in a very difficult position on where the money goes.

Don’t get me started on transfers…

Alastair Bates     Posted 14/05/2012 at 13:46:57   Comments (12)

How far away are we?

Since I gave up my season ticket last year, I've had to reign in my opinions this season because I don't feel I can argue with much conviction if I'm only watching 3 minutes of highlights at the end of Match of the Day.

I went yesterday and we played some sublime stuff. We absolutely trampled over Newcastle and instead of those nervous-watching-the-clock-tick-down-while-we-hold-on-for-a-1-0-win moments we're so familiar with under Moyes, I honestly didn't want the game to end.

There's that old sense of deja vu, having finished the season so well again. I'm sure many others feel the same though, if we can hold on to what we've got, buy Pienaar and pick up a handy right winger, surely we could launch an assault on the top 4 next year?!!

I'm interested to hear from some of the regular match goers about where we need to strengthen. Are we really that far away from Arsenal or Tottenham?

As much as I've enjoyed our 2nd half of the season form, I'm still left shitting myself that the manager's and team's hard work will be completely undermined again this summer...

Alan Clarke     Posted 14/05/2012 at 09:09:52   Comments (54)

The Death of the 4-4-2

I spotted this interesting article on the "think football" website.

http://thinkfootball.co.uk/the-decline-of-the-4-4-2/

It's a fairly thoughtful piece on the decline of the 4-4-2 formation, and as a consequence the end of strike partnerships. We still get many toffeewebbers criticising Moyes for being defensive (often correctly) and linking this to his stubborn persistence in using 4-5-1.

The article helps explode this myth. 4-5-1 is not necessarily defensive. It simply is a better formation than 4-4-2 given modern fitness levels and the ability of full backs to play the attacking flanking role. Most teams now use this formation. Moyes was one of the first to adopt it – out of necessity as we only had one striker at the time – take a bow Marcus Bent who set us on the way to Champions League qualification. Things got worse when we signed a second striker – James Beattie – who could not make the transition to the 4-5-1 formation.

I wonder just how much of Everton being the strikers graveyard has to do with this transition from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1? Strikers who can play in a partnership up front are not always able to play the solo role. AJ and Beattie both fall into this category and maybe it just took us a while to work out which strikers can fit in with the new formations.

Other strikers have faded before their time during this tactical transition, eg, Michael Owen.

David Ellis     Posted 14/05/2012 at 04:34:03   Comments (13)

Everton In Europe

No matter what happens today Everton will be in Europe next season. The Everton fans that is.

As you all know I have been taking photographs at every Home Games this season – you can see them on Facebook at The Dark House Blues.
They are great.

I think it is a FANtastic record of how wonderful our support is, how great The Dark House is and that Blue Boys are something special and just how handsome and lovely we all are (well some of us).

The great news is that I have convinced an Art Gallery in Koln, Germany to show several of the photos as an Exhibtion of real football fans — that’s us.

The details are:

Ausstellung der Fotografien von George McKane mit Motiven von Fans des Liverpooler –Fußballklubs FC Everton in der Fußballkneipe
“The Dark House”

Naturfreundehaus Höhenhaus, Honschaftsstraße 330 26. September bis 15. November 2012 –Eröffnung: 26. September, 19.30 Uhr

So, if you would like to get on some of the photos, today is your last chance at The Barlow Arms (Barlows Lane) – known affectionately as The Dark House. See you there.

George McKane     Posted 13/05/2012 at 08:40:11   Comments (4)

That Day!

Just clicked on the "Joy of Six" link to The Guardian which led me to another link back here and I ended up reading how TW members recalled the day we beat Wimbledon to stay up.

Every emotion spilled out. It's an absolute must-read for all Evertonians.

I'm not sure how old the thread is, but the relegation issue crops up again tomorrow, it would be a great time to reopen it.
Dave Wilson     Posted 12/05/2012 at 08:05:57   Comments (42)

Who would you sell to raise transfer funds?

If you believe the tabloids, the usual suspects that play for us will be transfer targets for the wealthy this summer. Without investment from somewhere, David Moyes will be trading to gain funds, hopefully to bring back Pienaar and some much needed quality for right midfield, plus a bit of genuine pace up front.

There are fringe players at EFC picking up a wage for very little in return: Silva, Vellios, Anichebe, McFadden, Gueye and maybe Coleman but I doubt the sale of all these players would generate enough funds to buy Pienaar alone.

So, if someone comes in with a £15m to £20m million bid for say Baines (probably our most wanted player), will it be enough to replace him as well as buy Pienaar and find the right midfielder and striker we need?

I doubt there is anything in the transfer kitty so sell-to-buy will have to be the way this summer! Putting to one side the Bill Kenwright and Moyes Out shouts, which way would my fellow ToffeeWebbers go with this summers "horse trading"?

Mark Roberts     Posted 09/05/2012 at 16:08:13   Comments (89)

Earlybird Season tickets

Why is it getting earlier and earlier every year for fans renewing season tickets?

20 April for the earlybird prices. I am sure it was June last year, while corporate seats get till 13 May. It's as if we are the fans with the ready money available...

I sent two e.mails to the club and got a reply after the second one. This was the reply:

Corporate members are given until the 13th May to renew lounge membership as there is no direct debit option available to them.

Season ticket holders can pay for their season ticket in monthly direct debit instalments, the early bird offer was available to purchase over 5 months, 4 months, 3 months or 2 months.

Although the early bird deadline has passed the option to purchase a season ticket over direct debit is still available, if you would like more information regarding this then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards.