Thoughts of an Anon Blue

Anon Blue 01/04/2016 51comments  |  Jump to last

Prologue

A man walks into the 6/7th best company in the land to apply for the job of Manager. During the interview, he makes a promise to make the company consistently one of the top four performing companies in the land. The Big Bosses are suitably impressed and hire the Manager, making him one of the best paid company Managers in the land.

The Manager is provided with significant resources to further develop the company and, a year later, the company ranks as the 5th best company in the land. All key stakeholders, including the big bosses and company fans are suitably impressed and excited for the future prospects.

A year after this, the company finishes as the 11th best company in the land. There is no official holding to account of the Manager, but considerations (such as the extending of business to additional European areas straining resources) are taken into consideration, key stakeholders are somewhat forgiving and the Manager is kept on.

During the next year the company continues to slip down the best company rankings, with the Manager still failing to adapt to the changing business environment, or admit the fact that competitors are often fully aware of where the company's weaknesses are and how they are to be exploited.

The Manager continues to insist that there is 'no problem' – that the company is just 'unlucky' and that things will turn around soon. Partly due to the nice and likable nature of the Manager and partly down to their own incompetence, the Big Bosses and the Media do very little (if anything) to hold the Manager to account over his performance. This is despite the continuing concerns of company fans, and the opinion of many 'experts' that the company is seriously underachieving.

Then out of the blue, the company is purchased and a new major shareholder enters the story…

Current Status

Whilst the above story was deeply layered in subtlety, the more eagle-eyed amongst you would have put the various elements together through hours of careful thought and realised that the 'Company' I was referring to is Everton.

I was born an Evertonian in the year 1987, and now have nearly 29 years of service to the Royal Blue under my belt (a mere Greenhorn to many ToffeeWeb readers, I'm sure). I have in the past been a season ticket holder, but don't get to the Old Lady much these days as it's a £200 round-trip and there are easier/cheaper ways to get myself into a heartbroken fume.

Everton represent to me the greatest enigma of my life. There is nothing in my life which gives me a greater mixture and span of emotions than those boys in blue (I've not yet had children, but I imagine supporting Everton to be a good 'starter kit' for this experience.) Hope, despair, happiness, sadness, joy, rage, elation and devastation to name but a few, and I generally get all of those just from reading the team sheet each week.

There have been times when I have wanted to walk away from Everton, but it's unfortunately something I'll never be able to do. When they are playing, I need to be watching; when I wake up in the morning, it's the Everton news and gossip I check first before I even do my teeth or hop in the shower.

Those who understand need no explanation, and those who don't, do not matter.

I'm proud to be a Blue for several key reasons. First and foremost, I love the fact that Everton are supported by proper football fans who know and love the game well. I would hate to ever see Everton become a 'franchise' similar to other clubs in the Premier League (pointing no fingers, but we all know who they are) with 'fans' that just buy/wear the shirt because it's trendy, or fans that don’t just talk utter uneducated bollocks about the game, but feel the need to do so by dialling up football phone-ins and embarrassing their club to the nation.

I love the history that Everton have, the players who have in the past put on the blue and the hold that the club gets over its fans. Everton in the Community work is also magnificent and for me sets the standards for professional football clubs.

There really is something just a little bit special with Everton compared to all other football clubs, but it's difficult for me to put into words and perhaps we are not meant to.

What I don't like about Everton is the 'small club' and 'plucky little over-achievers' mentality that seems to be in place at the club at present and for as long as I can remember. Maybe initially under Moyes this mentality was justified. Moyes was a fantastic servant to this football club, and regularly over-achieved in his performance. He was able to do this with limited resources, and build the foundations for Everton to step up to the next level and for that I will always be grateful to him.

Where I think perhaps Moyes came unstuck, is that he was unable to make the transition of mind-set from a plucky over-achiever, to a consistent high-level performer with set expectations. This is maybe why he failed to win over fans and the bosses at Man Utd during his tenure there. It is unfortunately this mentality which also seems to have stayed deeply imbedded at Everton.

Mediocrity seems to be something that the club are willing to accept and it's why we are not up competing with likes of Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal and Spurs for trophies and players on a regular basis as we should be.

With the players we have, I should be looking at the upcoming away fixtures at Man Utd and that other club on Merseyside and be expecting a performance worthy of a result. Unfortunately I fully expect us to go there and play like we're really happy just to have been asked to play against such great clubs, and maybe scrap a result in the process. What we should be doing is going to these clubs with the mentality that we are here to take three points, and we are good enough to do so. It's all about the mind-set.

This problem of mind-set is coupled with a Manager who seems to be so set in his ways that he would rather watch the ship sink then consider changing the method for plugging the holes.

I should say that I like Martinez as a man, I think he's an absolute gentleman of a bloke. I also think that he is to be applauded for the talent that he has been able to attract, develop and retain at the club in recent years. We all have our favourites, but for me Lukaku, Deulofeu, McCarthy, Stones and Barkley are serious talent that he has bought in and/or developed during his tenure. There have also been games in these last few seasons where Martinez has really hit the nail on the head and we have been sensational to watch.

That being said, his refusal to be anything other than ridiculously positive in interviews – even after we've been awful – is beyond frustrating at times. His inability to adapt his tactics as required for the specific opponent/situation, or for when the opponent quite clearly has us worked out, highlights the fundamental weakness in his managerial style. I very much doubt that 'set-pieces' have made it onto the training regime at all this season despite the fact that even a non-football fan could tell you that we have an issue there at both ends of the field.

New Chapter

The big question is whether or not Martinez is the man to take Everton forward to the next level with the new ownership in place. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure. On the other hand, there have been times under Martinez where Everton have played sensational football, and he has been able to bring in and keep some really talented and exciting individuals. However, the indications are that he hasn't be able to shake off the 'small club' mentality and that he doesn't possess the tactical capability needed to compete at the top end of the league and for major honours consistently.

With the new ownership coming in to place, I would like to see the Everton Manager being held to account for performance. There's nothing wrong with having a target of qualifying for the Champions League and then being held to account if this is not achieved! For any of us who have ever play Championship Manager*, it is one of the key parts of the game.

It's not personal, it's just business, Sonny. From my knowledge of the business world, a Manager that performed as poorly as in the story within the prologue would not be in his post for very long. Premier League Managers are very well paid for their jobs, so should they not be held to account for performance like the rest of us? The likes of Man City, Man Utd, Spurs and Liverpool are never satisfied with mediocrity, so why should we be?

I cannot imagine that a man like Mr Moshiri has been able to achieve all he has achieved and been as successful as he has been by being happy with less than excellence and not holding his people to account for their performance. I'm optimistic that we could be seeing a welcome change in the governance arrangements and culture at the club in the near future.

Evertonians Expect

* For those who have not played Championship Manager, don’t; it will take over your life.

[Note From Author – Thank you for reading my article Blues! I'm not one that usually goes in for the whole article-writing deal, but I hold future ambition on one day having some work published so I thought this a great opportunity to develop my skill set. Any comments on the structure and readability of the article (as well as the content) would be much appreciated. COYB!]

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Reader Comments (51)

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Michael Kenrick
Editorial Team
1 Posted 01/04/2016 at 16:41:00
Pretty well written... although I found the 'Company' Prologue a waste of the first few paragraphs, to be honest. We all know the painful recent history all too well...

One question: Why the need to be anonymous? We don't usually go for that, so this is something of an exception. I don't understand the need if you intend to publish more. At the very least you would have to have a pseudonym. Is your real name that recognizable?

Mike Hughes
2 Posted 01/04/2016 at 16:53:46
Whilst the above story was deeply layered in subtlety ... yes, you got me there.

With the new ownership coming in to place I would like to see the Everton Manager being held to account for performance.
... makes that results rather than performance. This isn't synchronised swimming - it's a results business going back to your 'Company' analogy.

I should say that I like Martinez as a man, I think he's an absolute gentleman of a bloke
... are you Sylvan Distin?

Patrick Murphy
3 Posted 01/04/2016 at 17:01:15
It seems that many fans have put a lot of faith in the new 49.90% guy, me I'm not that certain that he will be any more actively involved than Mr Earl or Mr Green.

I keep returning to the fact that he didn't buy the club outright and decided to be a major shareholder with less than half of the shares. There may indeed be good reasons for this and in the fullness of time I may be proved wrong – I certainly hope so – but I see no real change in the way that Everton FC will operate in the near future. It was pretty convenient to have Mr Moshiri come on board when everybody believed the US guys were the front-runners to do so.

As usual the manager at Everton FC will be the person who makes or breaks us and we have to hope that Roberto or his successor finds a way of obtaining good results on a regular basis, because there doesn't appear to be any real appetite at board level to push the club forwards on the playing side.

I suppose by this time next year we will know more about Mr Moshiri and his ambitions for Everton FC but it might be a lot more of what we have already seen for the past decade and a half off the pitch and not quite what some fans had hoped for.


Brent Stephens
4 Posted 01/04/2016 at 17:01:49
And the Manager blamed the poor product performance on the reactions of those who purchase the products.
Michael Kenrick
5 Posted 01/04/2016 at 17:03:12
Oh, and from a personal perspective, since you are such a Moyes fanboy, I see a certain irony in your frustration and puzzlement over the 'small club', 'plucky Everton' 'perennial mediocrity' syndrome that indeed holds us back.

The sad irony is that it was Moyes himself who did the most to perpetuate this fantasy about England's fourth most successful club – no doubt as a strategy to boost his personal reputation and keep him in his very well paid job as "knife to a gunfight" exponent when performing so poorly against his peers in the Premier League.

Jamie Barlow
6 Posted 01/04/2016 at 17:51:29
......which gives the whole company and its fans a massive boost. The manager then goes on to make the company the 7/8th best company in the land with an added bonus of becoming Business cup winners, which gets us into the Europa Business cup next year. Something quite a lot of the company's fans and owners would have been happy about 2 years ago.

I wouldn't sack Martinez while we're still In the FA Cup and I think even if we won it, it wouldn't be too much to ask to massively improve our home form in the league. I'd be quite happy with that after the season we've had. I can't remember a more frustrating one. Whether Bill and his buddies would agree with me, I don't know but I suspect they'd be quite happy too.

Having said that, if things stay the same, he's probably in shit street, and rightly so.

Eugene Ruane
7 Posted 01/04/2016 at 17:55:15
"..but I hold future ambition on one day having some work published so I thought this a great opportunity to develop my skill set"

Success guaranteed I would imagine.

Customer: "Do you have any books by that feller..or possibly woman?"

Shopkeeper: "Which feller..or possibly woman?"

Customer: "I don't know, they don't put their name on their work."

Shopkeeper: "Yes we have a whole section of his or possibly her work"

Customer: "Really!?"

Shopkeeper: "Of course not you twat."

Michael Penley
8 Posted 01/04/2016 at 18:05:04
On the subject of holding performances to account, I'm not sure of the logic of Moshiri appointing to the board a man who holds 30% interest in Arsenal. I'm not aware of the details but isn't there some kind of conflict of interest there somewhere?
James Hughes
9 Posted 01/04/2016 at 18:17:06
Michael K. I thought the whole point of the post was to compare and contrast the real world with the cocoon that football seems to operate in.

I think he did that quite well and can't seem to see how you can call him a 'Moyes fan boy' as he apportions blame for Moyes entrenching the small club mentality that is still endemic.

Jim Hardin
10 Posted 01/04/2016 at 18:49:03
Eugene,

Still chuckling at that. Cheers.

Martin Mason
11 Posted 01/04/2016 at 19:28:35
A good analogy but you spoiled it by making the oft quoted but ridiculous insinuation that any Evertonian or anybody associated with the club accepts mediocrity. Based on Everton's finances they have achieved as well as any club could be expected to do. We accepted this because we became a small revenue limited club with no real means of doing better not because we accepted mediocrity.

Where the club is accepting mediocrity but the fans patently aren't is in having a very poor manager. The Company analogy is in this case perfect and whilst I generally support the board, it is unforgivable that we continue to employ our current manager. I'd gladly sacrifice a Cup win to see him sent packing.

Dean Peamum
12 Posted 01/04/2016 at 19:35:42
Your opening line – "A man walks into ..." is usually the start of a joke.

Ah... I get it. Nice one.

Brin Williams
13 Posted 01/04/2016 at 19:39:24
It's difficult to shift 'old stock' and get it off the shelf. There will always be a period of slippage while 'new stock' is identified bought in and put in the shop window – even then having all the items in the right position often confuses and fails to attract the right customer reaction.

The transition from lower quality stock to higher quality can prove cost prohibitive but most businesses agree that quality sells. and that one should only aim for the best.

Businesses going through these cyclical periods need steady management, often allied to new investment and the confidence of their long suffering loyal customers if they are to succeed.
Andy Crooks
14 Posted 01/04/2016 at 19:58:37
Michael, I am very surprised that you put up an anonymous article.
Dave Abrahams
16 Posted 01/04/2016 at 20:31:33
It is well written, Mr Anon, but we all know the story too well; maybe a better title would have been, "Thoughts from Heartbreak Hotel".

Good luck with your future writing.

Michael Kenrick
Editorial Team
17 Posted 01/04/2016 at 20:38:05
Granted, Andy... We don't normally. This one struck me as a little odd. I think Eugene captured the 'moment' — ya wanna be an author and you're 'anon'??? So exactly how is that gonna work for you???

James, yea the business world vs the football world. I geddit, But we have hundreds of posts making that point and struggling to make sense of the comparisons ... and you know what. Football is still its own business, always has been, and it's probably getting more and more unique as the money continues to skyrocket.

Actually, I see the analogy as more focussed on Martinez's failed promises and declining performances. He's still enjoying the 'moment' because one man, Bill "What a Manager" Kenwright won't sack him, no matter how bad it gets (and the Arsenal game was the bottom of the barrel for many). That man is unique to EFC; I suspect most other ambitious football clubs would have sacked him by now.

Christine Foster
18 Posted 01/04/2016 at 20:56:15
As one who has oft written about how the club is run as a business, the post said what it said clearly and got it spot on. Michael, quite right in observations regarding Moyes, but I suspect he needed something for everyone to rally around, and so the People's Club was born. It was a means to an end but the end became the defining point on which we were judged. Now, it's proving difficult to throw off the tag.

Accepting mediocrity was a byline for survival by any means... but that was then, not now. The mentality of the board hopefully will have changed one hopes with Mr Moshiri coming in, ambition replacing mediocrity?
John Daley
19 Posted 01/04/2016 at 21:31:14
Well, I'm kind of disappointed to be honest. The fact the author felt it necessary to post anonymously led me to believe that what I was about to read something controversial and biting.

Instead, it was just a gentle run-through of the club's current situation with a few (hardly libelous) little groans about the manager. Why would you feel the need to hide your identity before doing something so harmless and run of the mill? It's like putting on a boiler suit and a Michael Myers mask before popping to the shop to buy a bag of Minstrels.

No more anonymous articles, unless they're going to leave the reader mouth agog, and the author on the run from a squad of manhunters hired to track him down and say "bit fucking harsh that, mate", before severely reprimanding him and then getting back to their hunt for that bloke who wrote Beowulf.

Andrew James
20 Posted 01/04/2016 at 22:45:43
I've researched this. The writer is nearly 29 or 30. Therefore it isn't:

Seamus Coleman
Tony Bellew
Duncan Ferguson
Amanda Holden
John Parrot
Jurgen Klopp
Eugene Ruane
Andy Crooks
Tony Hibbert
Joey Barton
Eddie Howe

So I've got very few leads. I have to wonder firstly if Richard Dodds is back and just shy or does anyone know what John Paul Kissock is doing these days?

Or maybe it's David Moyes and he's looked at the Villa job and got cold feet while undergoing a mid-life crisis and making out he's much younger.

Unless Anon is actually a name? And he just so happens to have a surname of Blue and we all misunderstood.

Mike Hughes
21 Posted 01/04/2016 at 22:54:11
John Daley #19

It's like putting on a boiler suit and a Michael Myers mask before popping to the shop to buy a bag of Minstrels.

Ha, ha, ha ... RM's comments often reduce me to tears but that's the best line I've read on here in ages.

That reminds me -– I must dig out my old Michael Myers mask from the garage tomorrow. It definitely livens up the morning dog walk and our Dixie couldn't care less as long as he gets out...

Dick Fearon
22 Posted 01/04/2016 at 23:02:41
Anon perfectly sums up what is wrong at our club and, in particular, the manager's position. He does this by avoiding the limelight while dodging any approbation that comes his way. In what is a titanic battle for the club's soul, his article borders on apologetic for daring to put his head above the ramparts.

It is a kind of appeasement that has been our downfall for far too long. The absolute fury of the overwhelming majority has not been reflected in mealy-mouthed questions being directed toward the powers that be.

Unless Interviewers stop their sickening pussy-footing around Martinez and really put him to the sword, or there are mass crowd demos, things will not change.

My advice to Anon Blue is not to join the wailing subservient mob but to expose false gods and prophets.

Sid Logan
23 Posted 01/04/2016 at 23:02:53
Anon.... This could be the start of a new chapter on TW and by the end of it no-one will know who anybody is. Won't that be fun?

Nevertheless it's a good article but with a slightly flawed opening analogy. The reason a football club, generally speaking, can rarely be compared to an efficiently run business is because (as in our case) it has thirty thousand odd loyal customers continuing to buy its wares, week after week, regardless of how good or bad they are.

This customer loyalty is, sadly, also the reason a club like ours can have a Chairman (nice guy he may be) to whom the business is a wonderful hobby which has allowed him to wallow in his boyhood nostalgia for much longer than he should have.

Unfortunately he has failed to show a necessary ruthless-minded business approach which might have afforded today's young supporters a taste of the same pleasures and successes he once had. On his watch, the club has coasted along in a lengthy spell of romantic mediocrity.

Despite declarations to the contrary, most clubs (and ours in particular) don't have to operate in a hard-nosed business environment except maybe during transfer windows. This is why someone as relatively inept as our current manager is allowed to remain in post while continuing to perform badly, and while spouting what amounts to utter shite, week after week.

However, there may be a glimmer of hope that we are beginning to see a hint of real-world business pressure beginning to be applied by Mr Moshiri.

It's surely no coincidence that, within a couple of weeks of him buying to the club, a normally soft-touch Roberto is warning the players that they're playing for their places. It seems like a bit of traditional management speak which would normally never pass through Martinez's lips.

At the same time, he's apparently telling John Stones that he'd better learn from his mistakes. This from the same manager who should, after a couple of repeats of deadly overplaying at the back by Stones, have told him that in times of danger his first priority is to defend and nothing else and that, the sooner he learned that lesson, the better.

We can only hope that Moshiri will ignore some of Bill's over-active sentimentality (which I'm sure he's sampled in bucketloads already) and look hard at our league position and results.

To continue in what might be our newly found clinical business approach he will, hopefully, also tune in to what the customers are saying about the product on sale – which has not looked to be of a consistent and saleable quality for some time!

Anthony Dwyer
24 Posted 02/04/2016 at 00:45:30
FFS sack the clown!
Andrew Oxton
25 Posted 02/04/2016 at 01:23:31
Anon. I enjoyed your post, most of which I agreed with. I found myself nodding whilst I was reading. I don't care a jot if you want to post anonymously, your choice. Good article, cheers.
Eric Holland
26 Posted 02/04/2016 at 02:12:08
Anon could be ToffeeWebs answer to the Stig.
Brent Stephens
27 Posted 02/04/2016 at 07:49:48
Article posted 1st April... Missed an opportunity.

I wouldn't want anonymous posts but I wouldn't be surprised if the way we respond to comments on threads often depends on the identity of those we're responding to (attacking the message because of who the messenger is).

Jack Mason
28 Posted 02/04/2016 at 07:55:05
Have to echo Michael's comments, publish and be damned.

If you mean it, feel it, stand by it. Any constructive criticism will make you a better writer anyway, so there's nothing to be feared publishing under your own name.

As for the meat of your article, you're voicing a lot of supporter frustrations and the hope that Moshiri will step in and change the aspirations of the club. We all hope that, mate, and a cursory glance at the postings even during the last two weeks will tell you that.

ToffeeWeb sets the bar for matters concerning Everton, take a leaf out of its book; don't just copy, find your own voice.

Dennis Stevens
29 Posted 02/04/2016 at 09:35:44
Perhaps it's a typographical error & the author's really: Anton Blue!
Eugene Ruane
30 Posted 02/04/2016 at 11:38:48
I think Anon Blue is Andrew Oxton – 25 (or 'Nodder' as he is probably known, for his inability to read something he agrees with, without nodding his head).
Laurie Hartley
31 Posted 02/04/2016 at 11:50:45
Dear Anon,

Go on – give us a clue.

Ian Robert
33 Posted 02/04/2016 at 13:25:50
Is Anon Blue actually a French name?
Andrew Oxton
34 Posted 02/04/2016 at 13:37:57
Ah, I see what the problem is...Y

ou need a name so you know who you are picking on.

Okay, use mine. I'm a big boy.

Colin Glassar
35 Posted 02/04/2016 at 13:41:23
Sorry, Anon Blue, I only read as far as the bit where you say "I've supported Everton for 29 years". I only take notice of fans who've put in 30 years, or more, of loads of pain and little gain. Come back next year and I might read the entire piece.

I really do feel sorry for these, what I call "in limbo fans". Fans who started watching us after our last golden age and have only seen us toiling for survival for too long. They deserve all our respect.

Sid Logan
36 Posted 02/04/2016 at 14:06:11
You see what's happening here. When you post anonymously the debate eventually moves away from the point made to who you are. Next time, post under your own name and your points will remain central to the debate.

Colin, you're quite correct: I feel sorry for those fans (my son and daughter among them) who remain supporters but have never really seen the team win anything meaningful. They do deserve respect. But, then again, we all do.

We really need a new start under Moshiri and the first step would be to replace Roberto Softollies with someone with a track record.

Bill must be kept out of it because he will always take the easy option then play up as the correct and only logical choice!

Brian Williams
37 Posted 02/04/2016 at 14:14:59
I was online the other day looking to buy a pen from www.penisland.com when I happened upon the highlights (on YouTube) of the semi-final second leg of the Cup Winners Cup v Bayern at Goodison.

I watched it all the way through for the umpteenth time, and was lucky enough to be there at Goodison for the game itself, as well as the first leg 0-0 draw in Germany. I then watched the highlights of the final.

After watching them and then having to return to the present and reality.... I felt fucking awful! That's it really.

Tony McNulty
38 Posted 02/04/2016 at 15:00:52
Enough of this anonymity. I thought we all used an alias on here anyway. I'm really Sylvester Stallone. Who are you?
Niall McIlhone
39 Posted 02/04/2016 at 15:03:04
I think the opening bit about the Evertonesque company was a little bit overlong if I'm honest, Anon, and it's been done before on TW I think? Still, you've called in nearly 40 responses on this thread so consider it time well spent, and good luck with your endeavours.

My own take on this season is that it's just bonkers, not only Everton's enigmatic showings, but the startling metamorphosis of Leicester City, the implosion of Chelsea, and the emergence of a vibrant young Spurs side.

It sums it up that we could end up winning the FA Cup, and having a big say in who wins the Premier League or qualifies for Champions League, yet it might still seem like a big fucking deflated souffle of a season.

William Cartwright
40 Posted 02/04/2016 at 15:07:19
I think Anon Blue is really a porn star hiding his (her) light under a bushel...
Sid Logan
41 Posted 02/04/2016 at 15:13:37
Is Anon Blue a pseudonym for 'a non-blue'?
Eugene Ruane
42 Posted 02/04/2016 at 15:31:05
William (4), when did you last look at Frankie Vaughan?

There haven't been 'bushels' for years.

Sadly.

Ian Burns
43 Posted 02/04/2016 at 15:57:24
Anon Blue - I have my had work published under a pseudonym but I use my real name on TW out of respect to every other contributor to the site.

A well structured article. However, if you are going to grab the attention of the reader, you have to write something which is more than regurgitating a subject which has been done to death on TW and will continue to be so until this manager is replaced or the penny drops that set pieces and defensive structures are all part of being a top manager worthy of EFC.

I suggest you tell us the future instead of something we already know!

Dennis Stevens
44 Posted 02/04/2016 at 17:41:13
I think it's really: Aloe Bunn
Rob Hooton
46 Posted 02/04/2016 at 00:12:32
Well, I'm going to start by saying my name is not Rob Hooton, that's my dad's name and he couldn't think of anything more original so I ended up the same. I've supported the Blues slightly longer than 'Anon' and just about remember the glorious '80s but have not had much to cheer since then. I read the words of wiser Blues than I and of course Rob Snr and am stuck at a crossroads – give Roberto more time or say "Sod this, I've seen enough."

Not sure if we will know if he is up to it this season and have a feeling the board will give him a couple of months next season to prove his worth. I would really like Martinez to get it right but there is a massive niggling doubt that he will.

Si Cooper
47 Posted 02/04/2016 at 00:18:06
Don't mind either way about the author being anonymous but I would call him/her to account for using an analogy that doesn't really work.

Sure there are aspects of running a football club that need to be treated exactly as you would any other business, but to suggest that fashioning a winning team is just the same as making any other product is a gross simplification.

Even sticking to traditional manufacturing, making some products is a million miles away from making some others and quality can be a matter of perception as much as being tangibly demonstrable depending on how / if the industry is regulated.

Of course, Evertonians deserve to have a board who hold the manager accountable to the highest expectations (as well as his own promises) but I personally hope Roberto Martinez is judged by the results of his team(s) and not by his fashion sense, perverse optimism, over-use of superlatives in his second language, taste in music, reluctance to air his grievances in public – all of which are too eagerly seized upon in my opinion.

John Daley (#19) "...and then getting back to their hunt for that bloke who wrote Beowulf." – If you mean the stuff on ITV and not the original (they were anonymous weren't they?) then join the queue.

Tony Cheek
48 Posted 03/04/2016 at 10:06:14
I thought it was very well written, whoever you are. But it seems that the fact you put it out anon, was more important than the contents.I usually get pissed off half way through really long posts, but this kept me interested to the end.

I couldn't agree more about the "mind-set" problem. This is surely a major priority for our next manager. Martinez has only succeeded in carrying on with Moyes's "little brother" attitude. It will probably be on show today at Old Trafford!

Tony Draper
49 Posted 03/04/2016 at 10:35:36
I find your decision to write anonymously a cowardly one. Stand by your own words, have the courage of your convictions; good people (clue: Evertonians) respect those who speak from their heart and do so in plain sight.

Everton as an organisation deeply frustrate me and have done increasingly so for a number of years. We weren't in a good place when last our captain held silver aloft and we hadn't been for a few years. But we had a fierce passion and were unafraid of any opposition.

I recall being on Wembley Way with my Dad the afternoon that we won the cup in '95, our fans had a fearsome "Braveheart" attitude which clearly terrified the "Almighty United".

Far too many years have passed since without success. I do blame the dithering Moyes for his deliberate tiny mindedness when glory beckoned. He bottled out and failed us. Despite his upbeat early years quotes, he ceased believing in us. He became tiresome, sedentary and utterly unimaginative.

Roberto Martinez arrived with his sunny, upbeat philosophy of encouragement and praise. And the football was (and still can be) interesting, fascinating and positive. Yet all too quickly this began to evaporate and it seems to me that if he were to stay (let's say for a decade), then he too would become tiresome, sedentary and utterly unimaginative.

Perhaps it isn't these managers who are turning from "young tigers" into lazy fireside cats?

Perhaps it's that they aren't required to be anything more?

Jay Wood
50 Posted 03/04/2016 at 14:13:11
What a curious thread ...

There seems to be two issues here. First, the author's decision to post anonymously. And second, the actual content which Anon Blue invites others to critique and comment on.

On the first point, it seems a tad harsh and a wee bit of a contradiction for the editor to admit TW doesn't usually post 'anon' articles, but for no particular reason made an exception in this case, and then goes on to criticize the author for submitting anonymously and challenging his/her content.

On this point, all the more so given the author's stated ambitions to get his works published, surely a simple request from TW for him or her to put their name to the piece, or it would not get posted, would have resolved this.

The author him/herself if they truly do have ambitions to be published should have the courage of the conviction of their opinions and proudly lend their name to the piece.

As to the second point, I'm sorry Anon Blue as well written as your piece is, I found it rather bland and long on familiar rhetoric. It really isn't a particularly original or insightful piece.

As others in this thread have suggested, posted anonymously I anticipated an expose of some sort into the deeper workings or thoughts of the likes of Kenwright, Matinez or Mr Moshri.

It was nothing of the sort and certainly didn't merit the mystery of anonymity.

Tony Woods
51 Posted 04/04/2016 at 17:50:12
Good comment, Si (#47).

I'd just like to ask Anon about his admiration for Martinez in bringing on and developing 'serious talent'.

It begs the question as to why we are languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League.

Barry Jones
52 Posted 05/04/2016 at 02:25:12
Colin, us fans of thirty years plus have more pleasure than pain stored in the memory banks. My dad first took me to a match in 1965 against Aston Villa. I saw my hero, Alex Young, in the flesh for the first time. The following year, we signed Alan Ball. From that moment through to the Kendall days of the mid eighties, we were always there or there abouts.

Now, we are considered the under achievers. I still believe though. With the right leadership, from boardroom to management to the pitch, we can still be a force to be reckoned with. The supporters are immense and always will be, and they can drive this dream forward as much as anybody.

John Newman
53 Posted 06/04/2016 at 11:44:52
John Daley, you blew Mr Anon out the water with that. I'm still laughing.

To be fair, our wonderful club has the best fans in the world. We've been through it all over the years and yet we can still have a laugh, we can still have the banter, and yes we don't agree with each other all the time over everything but that's life and Everton is a big part of that. Long may it continue... "COYB"

Lee Hind
54 Posted 06/04/2016 at 14:21:23
Anon, I don't know why you chose to post anonymously – perhaps it was your first article and you aren't quite confident enough to put your name to it, perhaps some other reason. Regardless, it was a well written piece that summed up your position and your hope for the future.

One observation – if contributors to the site are going to be insulted by the editors (anyone who has read this site even slightly will know that MK means "Moyes fanboy" as an insult) then the trend of anon submissions may well continue....


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