None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See

He doesn't get us. He lives in a bygone age and in the theatre. He clearly didn't stand with us on Saturday.

How this was released is beyond me. It is perplexing that the club allowed it to be published on its official website.

Unity? There is unity between the team, the manager and supporters. You could feel and see that as they came over to the away end after the eventual final whistle that I thought would never come. We will always appreciate effort, even if the result and performance isn't the one we wanted.

But any unity with the board is gone. It can't be repaired. They are done and they must know it. They have lost us. Stop hiding from the obvious.

As the article says, it should have happened as soon as Moshiri came in. That is his biggest mistake.

The mistakes are so obvious and the list so long, I am increasingly gob-smacked that its been allowed to go on this long.

The desire to stay of course also, allegedly, led to the rejection in 2008 of the investment conglomerate who have gone on to run Man City so successfully.

A few months ago, someone posted on TW the “What might have been” if Kenwright had accepted the proposal and then stepped aside to take up a life presidency role. How things would now be different for him (he would getting all the adulation he craves) and, of course, us. Looking back, he must have regrets over that decision (or reading his response, maybe not given the blinkers that are now obviously on).

Notwithstanding the lunacy and selfishness of the letter, you and Danny hit the nail on the head around the unity now required. The club, in its entirety, must capture the emotional drive from a year ago. We are one against the world.

I believe this game on Thursday needs the fervour, the welcome, the emotion, the unity that was central to our escape last season. I remain in the optimistic camp that the return of Coleman, Doucouré, and Onana – plus Dom benefitting from Saturday – will certainly make us both tighter and more threatening than the last few games (I absolutely sit in the camp of 1 point gained on Saturday).

A repeat of the Arsenal performance can certainly result in a win, against i'm hoping a slightly more relaxed Newcastle after yesterday’s result.

Goodison needs one of its great nights— which will undoubtedly be helped by the continued absence of the Board. Let’s show them, in every way, that they are not needed and that Everton FC has a unity second to none.

So now I just wonder where the Premier league is heading, with players demanding and getting huge salaries non of which are based on any success bases. Our own club despite being in the relegation zone for 2 seasons these mercenaries are pocketing between them 96% of all our income. Even Billionaires cant compete with Nation states taking over football clubs. Well run teams like Brighton and Brentford will not be able to keep hold of their best players as they will be signed by the richest clubs and in the end despite getting huge transfer fees these clubs wont be able to keep finding these gems. We even went down that route under Moyes buying cheap and selling for top dollar, but that came up short.

I think as fans generally we may need to ask ourselves what we want and expect from our club. Most of the claims from the All together now group has been based on our lack of trophies over the last 30 years. So how do we measure the new board when we eventually get one is win a trophy within a timescale or we will be calling for a change of board again.

Just to reiterate I want Moshiri and Kenwright gone, but I worry with the state of football now, will we get the board we want or yet another board who we feel disenfranchised from from like this one.

You are right it is a very complex problem and Kenwright will not go easily and those under his patronage will support and fight to stay with him.

Alot depends on Moshiri, who has opening supported the existing regime.Even a new investor maybe more interested in the Stadium Company, so change on that front may not be as it seems.

Pressure has to be directed at Kenwright

You make some very interesting points and there are elements within your post that the likes of Bill and Daniel Levy et al would use to persuade many of the fans that they should be left in place, because god knows what sort of people you could end up with.

However, we have been saddled with our beloved Bill, for far too long, whether he is a bad businessman with good intentions, or a Machiavellian figure who can't see the damage that he's done to the club, he has to draw a line in the sand and remove himself from his position as the figurehead of the club.

His tenure is tainted and has been for some considerable time, it's tantamount to having an ageing striker in the first team, who is made captain, and plays every game, for no other reason than he once had a great season and saved the club many moons ago.

We may well end up with worse people in charge, but we can't carry on as if nothing has happened either, how can we possibly ignore the financial dire straits that we are in? How can we ignore the fact that we are looking at a few more fallow years out on the pitch? We are not looking to replace a man because we are merely craving success on the pitch, we are calling for the board's replacement because they have put the club in perhaps its most perilous position since its formation - if that's not a reason for a root and branch change I don't know what is.

Moshiri’s biggest mistake since buying the club and retaining Kenwright as chairman was changing his mind about selling out to the Kaminski consortium which would have seen Kenwright’s disastrous reign terminated.

Despite knowing little about them, surely we would not be in the appalling mess we are in now had that deal gone ahead.
.

My friends who support lower league teams seem happier by comparison. One follows Rotherham United and he has been to Wembley several times for play-offs and winning the EFL Trophy.

I understand that the Premier League isn't anything like what we all hoped it might be, and that the Football League has many welcome attributes, but for a club such as Everton, the Premier League is the only league to be involved in.

Of course we may be out of it in a matter of weeks, and it might take some considerable time to get back to the top division, should that happen, but surely our heritage implores us as fans to wish us to have a place in the top flight, or doesn't it matter anymore because we've grown used to being serial losers?

However, I do have one concern were he to respond to calls to leave immediately.

He seems to have been involved in the relevant decisions and discussions relating to sustainability and profitability. As a consequence, he may well be the person best placed to defend us against any charges, and a possible points deduction.

As he quits the stage, our departing Chairman may yet be called upon to play the greatest acting performance of his life. And if it avoids relegation, I really hope he succeeds.

Brian @8 - best summary I have read about the current state of football. As per, the usual suspects look the other way as long the ££££'s keep rolling in.

I have to be honest, my expectations of Everton are always in a state of fluctuation. What, I have been going over 40 years now... was there in the late 70's... 80's... 90s, etc. Around 98, 99 I thought we were in trouble and couldn;t compete with the United of this world. I don't think we had grown the fanbase and exploited our product - being poor for most of the 90s didn't help either. 2 Key relegation battles and general dross seasons but teams with no history (chelsea) signing players like Gullit, Zola, Vialli? Why werent we in for these people? We have never competed for these type of signing because I believe there has never been any ambition to compete.

On the 00's I thought with Rooney, we could have built the club around him. Clearly not. BUT at least we had a good manager - and we did, I don't care what critics say of him. Of course, his duplicitous actions at the end weren't good but we had stable, memorable seasons and we were never in any relegation trouble. Foundations to build on, but we did not.

No matter what history you have, it can become a chain around your neck, you standstill, you die. I don't think there is a fixed 'this is everton.' However, not competing and dreadful recruitment is just abysmal business. Poor custodians of the club.

How do we compete now? A state owned club? It's ridiculous what football has become.

It has become not only a rich man's play thing but also a vehicle for corruption by dodgy government regimes.

There are only 4 teams that can even think about winning it, the rest are cannon fodder. The governing body have created a monster, the sacrifice of the integrity of the game at the expense of everything the game held dear.

It won't get any better either, the old generation is dying out, the new generation are brought up on media led consumerism and would rather listen to some non descript "influencer" than their own parents or even their own opinions and thoughts.

If we take the drop, so be it, the world won't end and I'll still go the game, let's be honest here, we cannot hope to compete at the top table of football and I fear we never will.

What is more important...the game itself or selling your soul to some money merry-go-round for the odd bit of silver ware?

The world is changing... I'm going out kicking and screaming.

Echoes of Nero fiddling, whilst Rome burnt.

He is the architect of 30 years of decay.

It culminates in the ultimate failure of relegation.

At least we saved on the brasso as there no sign of a trophy.

All on his watch.

I'd argue we've gone backwards pretty much the entire periods he's been involved.

Wigan? Rotherham? As Barry says, with all due respect, who are they?

Manchester United and Arsenal. They are clubs I consider measuring my Everton to. Not Kenwright's, mine.

Tottenham, who are they? Newcastle? They can't compare. Chelsea, nowhere near. Manchester City can't touch us once we find ourselves and inner belief again.

As for Lucifer's Children, the thought of them makes me feel unclean.

We don't compare ourselves to Wigan or Rotherham. We are Everton.

Of course what followed presents a very favourable context for Moyes' regime, not least because he didn't have a pot to piss in from a financial perspective. It will be my eternal regret that after decades of being paupers and becoming experts of make do and mend, we finally got some decent funds- and then blew it all and made things even worse.

Kenwright blaming everyone but himself for our horrible plight is proof, once again, that he is oblivious to the real and present anger so badly damaging OUR club.

And as someone a tad more auspicious than me once said, “a house divided against itself cannot hope to prevail “.

Kenwright out, as a minimum!

We are now classed as "consumers".

The game has sold its soul, like I stated in my previous post "the world is changing" look at the world in general, wars, corruption, human rights violations, the rise of the minority groups who "demand" they are listened to and given what "they want".

Football and sport in general is an indicator of how the world is changing, its all about power and money for the few, not the many.

Coming back on the train from Fulham game, I was chatting to other blues and I was lamenting the poor recruitment. Why haven't we been finding the players like Brighton, Brentford. Villa? They seem to have been very successful at this. Of course, players may have turned us down, but we can't be that unattractive... can we?

Ok well I asked this the other day but am still wondering what the answer is - IF we get relegated and go into administration, will BK and the current board be moved on by the administrators? And - would we be dumped to the bottom tier?

No one has the mentioned that strategic review for a while have they?

Danny your drifting off into the realms of fantasy again mate, we were at the top table at one time and we may be again, but its going to take a few years to get back up there.

Some might argue that many people have been falling for it for well over 30 years.

I am fairly sure that this wouldn't happen in this case, but I have seen disaffected people leaving organisations having tried to apply a scorched earth policy. After all these years, he must be pretty bitter at being prevented from attending home games. And there is a tad of bitterness in his statement.

We may still need our Chairman for a while yet if there is a need to recount what was said, promised, and confirmed, and by whom.

As for him feeling bitter about being prevented from attending home games I think he has been the author of his own misfortune in not going to these matches in making false allegations about Everton fans which were confirmed by the police who stated that no allegations were made to them.

He also just recently said he doesn’t run the club the CEO does, maybe we need that great acting performance from Professor Baxindale.

"Football and sport in general is an indicator of how the world is changing, its all about power and money for the few, not the many."

Being changed.

You're right, Dave... but it's moved on. No longer just about certain factions having it, it's now about everyone else not having it.

I hope more people will start to see how this is manifest in the current presentation of life, and perhaps consider the implications of accepting digital IDs, 15 minute cities, endless immigration, climate penalties and digital currency - to name a few.

I know where you're coming from. Hard not to speak out and discuss things of this importance.

However I wonder the effect on Bill had his statement been met with total tumbleweed. The old puss is probably loving the drama.

It’s either testimony to Moshiri’s absence of leadership or it’s testimony to the notion that it hasn’t been Moshiri’s money all along, but one of the enduring mysteries to me, of this dark episode in our club’s history, is how Moshiri hasn’t rang the changes in the boardroom.

One would like to think that even Usmanov, stroking his cat in an armchair in the shadows, would be calling out this mess.

There are non so blind as those that cannot see

They look at me in disbelief on many occasions and shake their heads at the older fool of the family.

My middle brother. You just need to keep him away from the subject of the 39. He gets quite emotive about that and will go into social media rants. He was only 10 when we last won the league, so remembers.

We are a very mixed bunch. The older idiot. The middle twisted and the young sensibles.

it's all about two things. Where one looks, and choosing to not deny what is clearly seen; hard steps for many.

The last three years has seen the drivers of all this basically abandon most previous attempts at obfuscation and switch to a method of pushing the boundaries to see if there even will be any meaningful resistance. Hidden, mostly, in plain sight.

I think they'll be delighted with the results so far.

They are taught that what is "not real is real" if they want to believe it to be real if that makes sense.

I don't get the obsession with history - what has history done for us in the present, and what will it do for our future? Zilch.

Everton is a relic of a bygone age, and will soon drop down to the second tier for a big fat dose of reality-checking. Even our fans songs are from the bloody 80's.

All we do is harp on about the past, and how we're such a 'big' club. What a crock.

I'm sick to death of supporting stuffy little Everton - it's become a curse, a millstone around our necks and we fall into Bill's trap of celebrating past glories every time. He's a soppy old fart who drags every Evertonian down with him going on about how we're 'chosen' and 'the people's club' and all that bollocks. All that stuff has held us back for years and finally it's coming home to roost.

Sentiment has been our downfall. Kenwright out.

If yer know yer History, it's so embarrassing there aren't words.

The only Everton manager I've truly disliked was Koeman (couldn't stand him). But the one thing he said I agreed with was he stated Everton are stuck in the past.

Apologies to older fans ( but I'm 53) who may disagree.

The only example I'm going to give is we were all crying out for at least two decent strikers to be signed in the summer. After selling Richy this was essential.

And with the season already underway the only forward we brought in was Maupay.

We then waited for the January window thinking we will have someone lined up as soon as the widow opens. But nothing happened and then we brought Simms back only to let Tom Cannon go out on loan. Then we let Rondon go and sold Gordon.

At 10pm on the last day of the January window (the last not the first) Kenwright is frantically trying to find a striker for us using his last day cheapskate trick he has used since Moyes and Dyche thought I'm off, I'm going home, this is folly.

The guy is completely incompetent, and was when half of Goodison applauded him, on another dark day some years ago.

Right now it is Moshiri who needs to recognise that he is incompetent and tell him to go. It is best for the club and his health.

As for me all I want to do now is back the team and manager as much as I can and pray Dyche can keep his head and do all the right things.

Get ready for Thursday, get all the players motivated for the game, 451, strong midfield, keep it tight no matter what the score is, try to nick a goal.

COYB!

The problem comes when it's pushed as a mask in lieu of the present, as you-know-who is apt to do. Ironically, apart from adding to our time in the top flight, we haven't "made" any history for 28 years – and that's history!

The History song I could live without but Z-Cars – never! Sacrilege!

He will be hoping for the same this time via the joys of relegation avoidance. He will know better than any that the days of NSNO are over – him being joint architect of the descent with Moyes.

He also knows a goodly portion of fans accept such stultifying mediocrity as long as we are in the top tier.

So his bet will be – survival equals "forgive and forget".

The gloriously staged entrance he doubtless has planned for the new place will fulfil his dream of once again acknowledging the grateful applause of the "real" fans.

Survive and he stays; drop out of the Premier League and he goes.

The club somehow needs a new generation of fans and it's hard with Liverpool winning everything of course. I actually like the Z-Cars theme, it's just that it reminds me of Kenwright as he was in it.

When the day comes and he's gone, I'm sure I'll like it again when we come out onto the pitch in the new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. I don't know what league we will be in though.

I despise the man and, 20-odd years ago, I wrote articles on this site disparaging the man. He is a disgrace and has no shame about what he has done to this club. I hope he goes away and we get a competent board without him and his acolytes.

For God's sake, go! Give this club a chance.

Danny - Wigan, Rotherham? - To their own supporters they are what Everton is to you and others, just as the supporters of Wrexham (what a season their fans are enjoying compared to us lot) and all of the other 100 odd clubs without a snowballs chance of "silverware" who might indeed ask "Everton? Who (or what) are they these days?" Sadly outside our 4 blue walls, floor and ceiling we do not mean much to many these days, just as Wigan and Rotherham don't to you.

Each to their own as you often say. However, I don't think anyone is actually comparing us to those clubs you mention, just using them as reference points.

The PL has without doubt become a less enjoyable source of entertainment for the reasons others, particularly Brian, cite above. Watching our own team is a given, a must, on every level for me, but the PL is NOT the holy grail of football just as The Euro Super League or whatever it was going to call itself was not, and I shall continue to support Everton wherever we find ourselves, hopefully with the opportunity to enjoy entertaining and competitive games for a change.

It actually saddens me that we have evolved a board that we cannot be equally as proud of as the 'Club'. A board who are digging a deeper and deeper hole for themselves and potentially EFC itself with sanctions lurking.

Speaking as a supporter of a lower league team before I became a naturalised Evertonian I can honestly say that I enjoyed matches just as much following that club as I do Everton nowadays. One nice thing about being in the top flight is that you do get to see the country's top clubs and players when opportunity presents - something that would only happen with a tasty cup draw. TV these days does satisfy that but back in the day the chance to see a Best, Ball, Greaves and co. was pretty rare. Well it was for me.

We live in a world if distorted values now and although I would not welcome it I could endure life after the drop if it happens. There would need to be some pretty serious financial fire fighting and I would hope that a totally new regime would be up for that task.

I know little about this mooted 777 outfit, for example, but they do sound pretty switched on in footballing circles, unlike our present amateurs.

A few very random thoughts of my own:-

History is important to me. I was brought up on tales of W R Dean and Tommy Lawton, and was fortunate enough to see the success of the second half of the 60s and the mid-80s.

I have brought up my family accordingly. But we must not live in the past: the last 3 decades have been very poor with only a very few moments of joy, and change is essential.

Z-Cars still brings a tingle. “If Ya Know Yer 'Istory” makes me cringe. Recently, “Spirit of the Blues” and “Goodison Gang” have been battle hymns.

Brand loyalty applies to many things in life. I always liked particular football boots, running shoes, cars. It simply doesn't apply to your football club. You stick with it.

The average attendance of my other team, Marine, has risen from around 250 five years ago to over 1,250 this season. Maybe that is a very eloquent statement of a growing disillusionment with Premier League football.

For now, there is only one priority – Thursday evening. We desperately need a “Goodison under the floodlights" night.

Agreed, we have a proud history but to have only that is not enough.

As Peter said above, three poor decades, change essential. Can't win 'em all but, with such poor operation of the club, we win nothing.

Indeed we are all (long-suffering Evertonians).

Gotta admit I also don't know about the candles in the Goodison Gang song? Surely you want it to still flicker? I dunno.

- the stadium is from the 1980s

- the running of the club is from the 1980s

- the team has been very consistently poor since the 1980s

And we really need to move past all that, pleasantly nostalgic though some of the memories are.

I don't think fans of other clubs are fooled into thinking we're still a genuinely big club by some old songs etc (although the fanbase is certainly recognised as befitting a big club).

In fact, other clubs see us for what we are: a boring, traditional club that hasn't done anything interesting on or off the pitch for 35 years – and has completely failed to embrace the golden opportunity presented by Premier League status every year since 1992.

And unfortunately, the fanbase that does make us a big club will dwindle if we keep living in the past.

He was given credit for saving the club for a few very short years when the alternative to his illegal dealings was insolvency.

Can we please have some facts here and not just repetition of Goodison myth.

It's obvious Kenwright needs to go, whether he wants to admit it or not. But I think we're unlikely to find a decent new chairman and or owner until our status is certain for next season.

Get behind the team for the next six games and hopefully cheer them on to survival, after which it should be easier to attract a new chairman and or owner.

If we get too caught up in Bill's nonsense right now, it could start to suck the life out of the ground and of course it will play into the hands of Bill's sycophants who will say "We got relegated cause you were being mean to a lovely, sickly old man instead of supporting the team."

We've had several months of protests and 90% of fans seem to be in agreement on the problems at the club, and even some of the media have flipped the script. Let's have a month off from the battle and focus on the bigger one, then deal with Bill.

Sorry mate, not aimed at rational people like you.

Me arl fella seems to recall the candles refer to the blackout during the war.

You can hear it being sung in The Golden Vision from 1968. Maybe someone in the TW community can date it more precisely. I'm guessing the candle had something to do with blackouts well before 1968.

Don't take this as gospel, but I was told that the “Put the candle out” was in reference to the blackouts during WW2. Police, or wardens, would be walking the streets and shout “Oi, put the candle out” during periods of blackouts.

If you've ever seen the video of Everton fans in London for, I think the 1966 FA Cup final, then don't forget, it's only 21 years after the end of WW2, so I guess it was just a song made up with rhyming words in it. No doubt Dave Abrahams or John Snr will come on and put me right with this.

That's rich given the number of Evertonians who had to endure the years 1973 to1983 living and working in the city. How come we've retained so many supporters, regardless of the trophy droughts both then and now? Why are we even contemplating building a stadium larger than Goodison Park?

History is part of Everton's rich heritage as a major English club; it's a club I feel privileged to support and I really can't understand all the issues so many fans seem to have with almost every facet of the club – nobody forces anybody to support Everton; you either do or you don't.

If you want the experience of a non-league outfit or a second- or third-tier club, by all means trot off and support one.

History is there to use as a standard that can be met; the club has met it on more than one occasion. If we don't attempt to aspire to meet it in the future, we will continue to fail. Oh and every time one of your red mates puts up six fingers, they're using history to annoy you.

My feeling is that 777 or MSP will either buy outright or take a share as soon as our status is clear. The investment could still happen if we are relegated but at a revised amount.

As soon as this happens, it's a new start, with professionals who (hopefully) know what they are doing. Essentially the investors have to stipulate the chairman – who fully represents our demise as a club – must step down.

Crucially, immediately, and not after another 18 months so he can linger on to claim that the new Everton Stadium at Bramlley-Moore Dock is his legacy. This will be his game play, and the investors must resist it without negotiation.

Only then will all aspects of Everton FC snap out of its decades-long strangulation by amateurism.

We now have nothing to fear, could anyone do any worse than Bill Kenwright's journey from mediocrity to existential threat?

He's taken us to the crumbling cliff edge, now it's he who must jump, not our beloved club.

However, Brian, I would point out that for the two excellent organizations you called out, Brighton and Brentford, the inevitability of losing their top players actually became part of their business models some years back. They built their plans around that circumstance and leveraged terrific advance scouting to replace their lost stars with inexpensive young talent. Even Fulham, with decades of failure behind them, has learned to shop for value (I give you our old friend Antonee Robinson as an example).

That's where we've gone wrong – a lack of organizational planning and an inability to construct a business plan around player value and the vagaries of the current insane marketplace. We got it wrong in every possible way. And the responsibility rests with Moshiri.

In faint defense of Bill, he did vehemently argue against Moshiri's worst move of all, the hiring of you-know-who as manager. But to my mind, the blame extends throughout the executive structure of the organization and all past managers going back to Moyes.

Pete #52, you forgot the big 'un when it comes to our Marine boys – silverware! We've got a Cup to pose with, right?

They've just sacked another manager.

It's my understanding that it was the duty of the ARP to ensure that the blackout was observed by shouting, "Put that light out" I suppose that in some instances candles may have been included.

I do remember talking to Mike Trebilcock in the Broadway on the Tuesday or Wednesday after the final.

The important thing from here is that we modernise the look and feel of the club.

The stadium will help, player development and recruitment needs to modernise and the commercial side needs to modernise too.

"He was given credit for saving the club for a few very short years"

Kenwright's consortium bought Johnson's shares in 1999 and Goodison was still clapping him in 2011 – that's over a decade you confused little man.

But keep up the stalking and I'll keep knocking you into Row Z with "facts".

The key question is: Can the present incumbents fix it?
I doubt it, I'm not sure they even see anything that needs fixing.

We have to deal with the short-term on-field problems first – the next game and the other 5 after it. All else flows on from that.

It gives me absolutely no pleasure in the observation of so many supporters who now see the damage caused by the man. I have no more words of condemnation to waste on him, I just want to see the back of him and for the club move on. We never will until that happens. I never will. For nearly 20 years, I have accurately summed up his incompetence despite many on here backing him and ridiculing my take on him oh so many times.

It wasn't just the incompetence, but the associations, the offshore loans, the lies, the interactions with supporters. If ever there was a two-faced fraudster, then we found him and many took him to their breast as one of their own.

This club is great. I don't mean it's a good club, I mean it's an icon to us all. It means everything. I have followed it since I can first remember any memory. Weddings, funerals, life, all fitted in around Everton FC. It's my very fabric, my left foot.

Now are dark days but dawn is coming, we will have a new stadium, I will sit in it and cry. It does not matter to me what league we are in, but my anger and disgust for the way fans have been treated with so much disdain is crass. I am sure Bill Kenwright loves this club, but he loves himself and money more. That's the difference, we don't.

6 games. That's all. I will fight and cheer you on. Reach down and lift my fellow boys in blue no matter what. I look forward to 2024-25 and god willing, be home again to sit in the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and laugh, raise a glass to all those along the way who would have given so much for a day of glory.

Today is Anzac Day here in New Zealand. A day when so many are remembered, for fighting for what we believed in, for the love of a country, for who we are. Today is a day to give thanks to all that went before us and remember them, thank them.

So to each and every one, I do so, but I will add a side note to each and every Blue no longer with us, who longed to sit in the new stadium, to see a trophy raised over the Mersey.

It will happen because every week there will be 50,000 people cheering them on, and a hundred times more than that, like me, in some far-flung corner of the world, listening, hoping, cheering and urging them on. We will succeed. Clear the decks. We're coming!

I wasn't around then but, having watched Dad's Army re runs enough and Bill Pertwee chastising Captain Mainwaring for not putting his lights out, your explanation seems entirely logical.

When it was originally announced that Everton had to go before a Independent Commission, I speculated on a thread of that time that other Clubs would have similar problems, though not yet at the commission stage . Acvording to your post this was not wide off the mark.

I was listening to the car radio reference the Spurs problems and the explaination of a explayer now living in Lisbon was right of the Everton script of : the Chairman,the recruitment., poor Club Management over years, and player attitude.

There seems to be a epidemic within the Premiership of Evertonianitess.I come to realise how insular my views had become, thinking only of Everton.

As you describe there is a template for the Premier League, based on access to finance and working the Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules.The top Clubs are more sophisticated at it since they have to work the FFP Rules as well.On top of that will be added the Government Rules in the near future.

There is value in Everton as a Club with a Traditional Brand and a new Stadium, so sinking without trace will not necessarily be a option.The main reason Moshiri got involved in Everton was that it was the Financial game he was in anyway.There is still road available and it is obvious that the Club Management are woeful and can be replaced by better. The Premier League is in the same game. The days of the Domanent Chairman are gone, not just a Everton.

Fortunately the days of the loyal fan are not and never will be .

On the songs, I too wish we would scrub Grand Old Team. I am not sure I've ever liked it. I'm probably in the minority, but I'm on the fence with Z-Cars, although when I do get in on time, I admit, it still sends the odd shiver down the spine.

Spirit of the Blues is fantastic and never seems to stop. Before my time, but I like Marching Down the Goodison Road and its resurrection. I love Forever Everton. That goes back to my early formative years. I think it must have been about 1977?

They are original. They are Everton.

Leading onto the comment about needing a new generation of fans. Well, standing amongst them, there is a new generation. And they keep going and believing. They are the ones belting out those songs. They didn't give in on Saturday, just as they haven't whenever I've stood amongst them and some of us older ones are doing the "shite Everton" thing!!

Like Christine, there is little else to be said on the current board. Change is long overdue.

In my living memory, the decline started after we last won the League Championship. A more senior generation have pointed out it was after the 1970 league triumph.

Regardless, this current board has failed. Change is needed.

Anzac Day. A poignant day for Australia and New Zealand, Christine. I will raise a glass.

Remember the past, but look to the future.

Add to this the bent referees who clearly align with the money clubs and themselves allow cheating. Linesman are merely there nowadays for throw-ins and appear useless for anything else. The VAR has made things a lot worse.

The new rules around what is a penalty are a joke which leaves fully grown men terrified to make a good old-fashioned challenge and having to run around with their hands behind their backs. Ridiculous.

Commentators who seem to have forgotten their playing days when spouting their bullshit on TV with words like “he was entitled to go down” and “There may have been slight contact.” All of it just makes me sick.

Those days when I watched footy in Walton Hall Park seemed a lot better except of course it wasn't Everton so I needed my weekly fix of the Blues to make me happy.

I'm sat here right now watching Aussie Rules on TV. Pre-game was a tribute to the Anzac soldiers lost in the Gallipoli campaign which was beautiful. The players in this game are truly exceptional athletes and they earn their money with blood and guts every game.

How I got into this game was due to my boy playing a couple of games for his school. He got smashed by another kid in a challenge but just got up brushed it off and then 5 minutes later he smashed into the same kid in a challenge. They shook hands at half-time and I began to enjoy the game from there on. It's taken 25 years for me to look at it.

I also now enjoy the Rugby League so there's two sports that have not yet been corrupted. I can sit and watch and not be screaming at the players, refs or commentators for spoiling my entertainment. Being neutral helps of course.

Everton are in big trouble right now but Football in general is in big trouble too due to greed on both accounts.

On the subject of Kenwright. He's exploited the club and the money coming in from the Premier League. The split in the fan base has allowed him to retain power because, for me, he should have been run out once he banned the AGMs and he became unopposed. He's been exploiting that split ever since but hopefully the end is nigh for him.

'Forever' was our 1985 Cup Final song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZhRGul4nPY

I'm glad you began to let your anger towards Bill Kenwright leave you half-way through that absolutely beautiful post, girl! It was then that you reminded me of what Everton Football Club is all about and the reason why it should truly exist.

“Raise a glass to all those along the way who would have given so much for a day of glory.”

Those words were sad, beautiful and so true, Christine, and also explain why we have fallen so far behind.

"We have had some good times" was all about one man letting his guard down and explaining his own glory but thankfully soon that curse is going to be removed.

The whole issue of finances in football and the Profitability and Sustainability Rules need looking at in depth; change is needed. How about a salary cap for all Premier League clubs of £2 million a year, £40k per week? Is that not enough?

That would automatically stop clubs overspending on wages. Also, making it a pre-condition that all player contracts must include relegation clauses so their wages are reduced proportionally, it could save a club from going bust.

I'd like to see some changes to the financial playing field that benefited all clubs equally. At the moment, the rules disproportionately benefit the top clubs and are interfering with sporting fairness.

If something is not done before the distribution of TV and streaming money is on a club-by-club basis, the huge gap that is there now will become a gulf. The sport will become even more of a football version of Formula 1.

I'm by nature an optimist, but I think the way the game is travelling, it is a financial freight train that cannot be stopped.

Moshiri has been a disaster. The only good thing about him has been his ill-gotten money, which he has used to bring us to our knees by buying dreadful players and breaking financial rules, while – on the positive side – raising the new stadium.

The latter is our future, though let's hope it's a phoenix rather than an albatross, but I'm afraid we have to hit rock bottom before we start to recover.

While Moshiri is in charge, we will remain a basket-case, no matter who is on the board. He's clueless, an oligarch's bagman who got lucky, and yet Bill still boasts about snagging a billionaire. There are billionaires and there are billionaires, Bill.

I dread to think what next season will be like – either in the Championship, or bottom of the Premier League again, and possibly with a points deduction.

The only good thing about this season is that we haven't had to watch Liverpool sweeping all before them, while we crumble to our lowest point in decades.

My daughter lives in Adelaide and told me that Anzac Day was coming up. She knew a bit about it.

I told her it was like the Charge of the Light Brigade and was an ill-fated mission which Churchill spearheaded. After it, he resigned as First Lord of the Admirality, being the scapegoat for the incompetence and hesitancy by military commanders.

He then joined the Royal Scottish Fusillers as a infantry officer, fighting on the front lines in France, 1915-1917.

He was haunted by Gallipoli for decades. His opponents kept baiting him with 'Remember the Dardanelles'. Churchill reckons it was the single most important event that had turned him into the leader he was.

He later wrote "All my past life had been a preparation for this hour and for this trial." Churchill was restored as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1939, his return from the Wilderness Years.

I told her to find out about what was going on in Adelaide on Anzac Day. She said she would do a study plan out for her class.

Sorry but it's nonsensical drivel (and yes, I know what the candle reference is. Grand Old Team is okay pre-match but nothing beats a good old Everton! – What's our name?

I don't mind the Spirit Of The Blues as it loudly proclaims "Everton", and I like Forever Everton, but The Goodison Gang gets on my tits.

UTFT

Sent you a message.

Surely in the first line of that song, it should be “ We know our manners” instead of “We have no manners”

That's the way people from Holy Cross parish, near the city centre, sing that song from long ago.

We are the Holy Cross boys
We know our manners
How to spend our tanners
We are respectable wherever we may go
And when we travel on the railway line
We open our windows wide
We can dance we can sing
We can do the Irish ring
We are the Holy Cross boys.

The 'no manners' line is written in the TW link below:
Fans In Verse

Yes, I thought that is the way Holy Cross parishioners sang their song. The other version could be right though because, to some of us from other parishes, Holy Cross is known as Double Cross!!

I'm going into hiding for a couple of weeks now!!

Cheer up the Friary you’re noted everywhere
We’ll knock St. Francis( SFX) flying through the air
And if they ask for mercy
Mercy won’t be there
So cheer up The Friary
You’re noted everywhere.

Short and sweet and put the fear of God into other parishes. Erm I think!!

This is the question I would have asked William next: Why did Farhad the billionaire want to keep you on as Chairman?

Whereas on my office wall is our starting lineup as Subbuteo players in the '95 FA Cup Final, when our club won a major piece of silverware with billions watching, a day of absolute joy and revenge for '85 as well.

Big fucking difference, Chairman Bill!!!

One of the best articles I've read on ToffeeWeb, thanks.

Danny O,

Forever Everton is from about 1972 – me arl fella bought it for me.

I don't like Grand Old Team either but Johnny Todd / Z-Cars is still a brilliant tune.

Thousands of hard-working loyal supporters do not deserve to see this club relegated just to punish incompetent stewardship of the club.

The supporters are the backbone of the club and deserve better, and there is a better chance of a takeover if we stay in the Premier League.

I have experienced having to follow Everton from afar in places where there was no immediate access to social media. Waiting for news and scraps of information, sometimes on a crackling radio transmission. I'm in a more fortunate position now and get to watch Everton like I did as a teenager.

Like you and many, I've followed and watched through an all too brief successful period. But, for most of my life, it has been a story of a nearly team, struggling to preserve our proud top-flight status. Mediocrity, the glass ceiling being viewed as success, and we're expected to be grateful with our lot.

Attempts to beat down our expectations. They have taken on the wrong fanbase. Let's get this done and then surely this board is done.

They can't demonise the supporters in the way they have and remain. The point of no return has been reached. Them or us? I know who will be here next season and beyond.

I've not been to Canada as much as I have been to the States, Bill. I did like Kingston, Ontario. Very nice place.