COLM'S CORNER, #1

The first in a new series of comment and analysis by Arklow newsagent, Colm Kavanagh

 Still Dining At The Big Table?

Our decline seems to accelerate with each season.  We move further and further away from those at the pinnacle.  As the countdown to the season gathers pace our aspirations for the season dare not venture past survival.  (And a cup run would be nice!) Is this the Everton we came to know and love? Be you an Evertonian since the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s the state in which we find our Club currently lurching is barely recognisable with the Club you first walked into.

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum once really meant something to the residents at Goodison Park.  It separated us from the rest.  Winning was nice, but to win in a manner which befitted such a Club was always deemed 'the Everton way'.  Gone but never forgotten are those glory glory days.  And hope it is that keeps us clinging to the faint possibility that perhaps one day the name of Everton Football Club may rise above the mire and reclaim what we consider to be our rightful place at the summit of the English domestic game.

We've long been called a Big Five Club.  Saying that, it has been a long long time since we lived up to such a reputation.  Clubs we considered to be of a lower standing than ourselves now look down at us, reveling in our apparent demise.  Is it the ultimate insult to such a big Club that we cannot even offload our players to such clubs, as in the past?

From living on Millionaire's Row for so long to trawling through football's bargain bins doesn't exactly smack of the practise associated with a Big Five Club.  What happened? Where did it begin to go wrong? Can it ever be fixed?

Yes it can.  Football, like most other sports, has the uncanny knack of humbling even the mightiest.  Every dog shall have its day.  We look on with envious eyes at the development of clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds United.  We must look around and see what other clubs are doing in order to compete with today's top teams.  It's frightening to think that we're competing in the same league with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United.  They're playing with millions of pounds as though it were loose change. When they spend it, they rarely spend it unwisely.  Which is something you could not apply with Everton.  Until the financial malais at Everton comes to a satisfactory conclusion we'll be forever the family pet at the dining table, awaiting the crumbs that fall from the top table.  And as long as this scenario persists, the danger of falling through football's trap door to the darkened corridors of Nationwide Football and trips to such outposts as Grimsby and Crewe Alexandra shall remain a very distinct possibility. How Big Five is that?

The sooner a proper, professionally run structure is placed within Goodison then the re-birth may begin.  The support for the Club will always be there, in terms of the numbers who attend matches.  The Club must mirror the achievements of others, Manchester United in particular, and tap into the wider support that lies untapped, in many parts of the globe.  The oft criticised Megastore should be maximising revenue, which it isn't.  If it were a business independent of Club backing it would have gone to the wall a long time ago.  An overhaul badly needed, as to many neutrals who pass through its doors it is the public face of the Club.

But it is the thorny subject of ground redevelopment that needs most attention. Goodison Park is no longer suited to the modern needs of the football fan. That isn't necessarily my own opinion, it may not be yours.  However, it appears to be the general consensus, as football has been 'invaded' by a new breed of football supporter, who expects more than poor football and watered down tea and a dodgy pie to constitute their weekly diet of football. 

We need to see Goodison redeveloped to the highest standard available.  To once again see Goodison Park lead the way, as it did in the past.  To not even be considered as a possible venue amongst England's venues in the last European Championships rubber stamped exactly how far we have slipped behind.  Will we ever see another International match to rival the dramatics of Portugal and North Korea back in 66? Believing in those few words - Nil Satis Nisi Optimum - we'd like to think so.

Until then we shall be a Big Five Club, if that, in name only.  With its glory days well and truly consigned to the past.