Mediocrity is a disease at Everton… Fans aren’t allowed to think big

, 9 May, 17comments  |  Jump to most recent
Former Everton chairman John Moores once said: "Everton expects success. We've a very good crowd and our crowd are very loyal. But, of course, they pay money and they expect to see us do well. If we don't do well then something should be done about it and something will be done about."

"This is no longer the case," writes Elliot Bretland. "Nothing is done about it. Nothing is said, no action is taken."

» Read the full article at GrandOldTeam



Reader Comments (17)

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Paul Hewitt
1 Posted 09/05/2016 at 21:51:19
No other club in the PL would have put up with this rubbish. He would have been gone long ago at Spurs, Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd. Generally any so-called big club.

But we are Everton, so the board just puts up with it. Staying in the Premier League is good enough for them.

Thomas Lennon
2 Posted 09/05/2016 at 21:56:26
Mediocrity was our disease. Now we don't have to worry about the odd £10 million loss times have changed. Snag is there is a LOT to do to get us back to the top, it will take time.

However it will not take much more of Mr Martinez's time. No way.

Colin Glassar
3 Posted 09/05/2016 at 22:04:15
We need a board, a manager and a team who will excite us. We've stagnated for far too long, time to wake up Everton!!
Dan Davies
4 Posted 09/05/2016 at 22:06:05
A very good article which I totally agree with. The picture of Goodison at the top also very apt at the moment.
Alan J Thompson
5 Posted 10/05/2016 at 04:59:39
I sometimes get the feeling that Everton's board think that the longer they leave things the cheaper they will be.
"You don't need 5 million pound......"
Dave Abrahams
6 Posted 10/05/2016 at 09:28:11
Read the article, every word is true, we have been in serious decline for a long time and there is nobody at the club doing anything about it. Mr Moshiri, are you the one to eventually shake the club up? Or are you just an investor giving Billy Liar another lifeline to run the club.

I long ago stopped listening to club puppets like Sharp, Snodin, Ratcliffe, Horne etc, Southhall is a breath of fresh air who tells it like it is.

Come on, Mr Moshiri get rid of the imposter and have a go at saving our club, at least breathe some life back into Everton.

Charlie Burnett
8 Posted 10/05/2016 at 09:35:45
To be fair this is negative talk but does anyone one know the reason why he left Arsenal? Sold up because by the looks of it the Russian billionaire controls Arsenal and maybe he didn't get a look in and he come to us. And by the looks of things even now he's not the main guy. Bill is calling the shots.
Paul Andrews
9 Posted 10/05/2016 at 09:37:01
Dave,

Kenwright has strangled the life out of mine and your club. The fans have been repeatedly taken in by the sentimental crap he spouts. I have friends who are lifelong home and away fans. The majority saw right through Kenwright very early on. It amazes me that one or two still consider him to be of any benefit to the club.

Until this con man is out of the club, we will not progress. If he told me 2 + 2 = 4, I would get a calculator to check. The club is suffocating under his control.

David Greenwood
10 Posted 10/05/2016 at 09:54:04
Great article. Bang on the money.

At some point in the near future Mr Moshiri will have to start showing his intentions. Manager, stadium, players, Kenwright, commercial department and so on.

My guess (or is it hope) is that an announcement regards the manager will be made on Wednesday night, Thursday morning. I can't see the club putting him or his family through Thursday night and Sunday afternoon.

I'd also guess that Mr Moshiri is saying nothing at the moment as he does not want to be associated with this season's shambles and will want this season to be seen as Kenwright's mess.

He will want to be seen as the new broom sweeping out the rubbish and as the man who ushered in change, positivity, success.

Rob Halligan
11 Posted 10/05/2016 at 10:10:11
Agree with David #10. Moshiri only bought into the club at the end of February, so he couldn't plough any money into any new signings.

Give him a couple of months to take stock of things and we're pretty much bang up to date. Can only think this is the reason why he has kept quiet?

As David says, it's kenwrights mess which will be cleared up come Sunday evening at the latest when Martinez is on the first plane back to Spain.

Jim Bennings
12 Posted 10/05/2016 at 10:57:13
We can't just blame Martinez for something that has existed for nearly 30 years.

Everton stopped thinking like a big club from 1990 onwards, give or take the odd exception, but even when we have achieved something like finished 4th its been tempered by the "little old Everton punching above its weight" line endlessly dragged out.

The club has been drowning in a mediocre mentality and small thinking one for years now. Kenwright has been fortunate that for 11 years Moyes habit of turning water into wine kept the wolves away from his door; whilst we achieved nothing major under Moyes he brought about respectability after a decade of relegation battles (again with one exception in 1995-96).

Now though is the biggest test in Everton Football Club's recent history and will the board come up with the answers to the higher expectation levels?

Or will the... "Let's be happy we are a Premier League team and don't dare to dream in case it sinks us" mentality simply win over – like it has for three decades.

Steve Bingham
13 Posted 10/05/2016 at 11:43:01
I just hope and pray that Mr Moshiri truly understands how hugely significant he is to the future of our club and desperately wants to build a lasting legacy that starts with dragging the mindset of our board into the modern day.

This coming summer is so huge for EFC and unfortunately the responsibility rests entirely on his shoulders as we all know that the other "gentlemen" of the board can only be described as utterly spineless and totally uncaring about the club at all. There is no other conclusion (except possibly that they are only there to line their own pockets) we can arrive at by their lack of design,decision and action these past umpteen years.

Yes, most definitely Mr Kenwright should be lauded for saving us from the hamper king clown all those years ago BUT now is most definitely the time to let go and allow the biggest decisions to be made by another. We know and accept that this utter debacle cannot be solved over a few summer months but please please give us a bit of hope by showing true intent, drive and ambition and bring in a manager who at the very least will strive to shed this horrible "plucky Everton " tab and make us competitive on the park which then will give us all a bit of pride in the badge back. Over to you, Mr Moshiri!!

George Cumiskey
14 Posted 10/05/2016 at 13:16:10
Mediocrity is a disease at Everton, but it has made good old Bill a hell of a lot of money. He has kept it mediocre and the costs down so that, when he does sell all his shares, he will make a packet; then he can tell everyone that he saved the club and kept it afloat because he's a true blue and loves us all.
Milo Gould
15 Posted 10/05/2016 at 18:47:42
We as supporters seem to forget the great history of our team and I include our chairman in this unfortunately. There is not another club in the Premier League that would have accepted this decline over the last two years.

I confess that I have bored people to death with wanting to get rid of Martinez from December 2014. Twelve months later, supporters in the main were still happy with Martinez. It took until the game at Anfield for people to feel the man had to go.

I put this down to accepting that we are a second-rate team, and the board has carried on accepting a second-rate team.

Kenwright came on after the Chelsea cup win, saying how good Martinez was; we won a cup tie against a team in the bottom half of the Premier League!

Now we are so bad with a poor ageing squad that let's not kid ourselves we need major surgery to avoid relegation next season. Yet Martinez is still manager having bought badly over 18 months, not replaced the ageing ones, and he believes we play the right way... tell that to Leicester City!

Martinez should have gone a long long time ago and many fans must accept as well as the board the blame for this. As for Moshiri, he should have insisted on firing the manager after the Liverpool game even though this would be 18 months too late... Is he here more for property development of a ground than our team, I do worry.

Dan Davies
16 Posted 11/05/2016 at 00:10:41
Milo if the new ground goes ahead with a retail park surrounding it, there's a killing to be made by somebody. You might not be far wrong there mate.

I also think a new ground and the development's around it might also have been a big reason why the Americans were so interested.

They new the money to be made by building something similar in the USA.

Denver Daniels
17 Posted 11/05/2016 at 09:57:00
We had 11 years of glass ceilings, plucky little Everton, knife to a gunfight, lucky to get out there alive, etc, etc under the previous manager. Martinez is just carrying on from where Moyes left off.

Jay Woods
18 Posted 11/05/2016 at 10:07:07
Everyone is missing the point. It would be "Un-Evertonian" to demand success. That's the kind of repulsive behaviour we leave Kopites to indulge in. Rather, we prefer to "rise above" our on-field mediocrity. We bask in the warm plaudits of the media and fans of other clubs for being so tolerant and non-militant.

And so we get what we deserve.


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