A post I saw early this morning from Nick Page got me a bit worked up:
Once you realise it, it’s hard not to see. Liverpool “created” a football club (and mentality) in the ’60s; Everton let it happen through arrogance.
Overhaul the entire club; the backslappers, the hangers on, the Kenwright lovers, all of them. You know who you are.
Everton as a club is completely spooked when it comes to Liverpool. It is barely a rivalry anymore.
At some point, I’d say around the late ’90s to early ’00s, in the face of the challenge in this city and nationally, the club more or less quit. It has completely lost its identity. It doesn’t even know what it is anymore. How do we play? What are we looking to achieve? How do we get there? Our raison d’etre? We have no idea.
I’m 48 years old. After we folded twice in three years against 10 men at Anfield in the mid ’00s, and then basically surrendered the ’09 semi-final (they had Jay Spearing in midfield and were a bang average side), I finally realised Everton Football Club had a serious problem regarding the fixture and had developed an extremely unhealthy and quite honestly weird attitude to it.
No one appears to have twigged that the ’09 defeat appears to have irreparably damaged morale regarding the fixture. We have barely won one since, even at home where we are 10 years without a win. Home draws are now celebrated like a win. It’s pathetic. And it needs saying.
The Anfield derby is the most pointless fixture in world football. The faces change but the performances remain depressingly consistent. The players arrive defeated and play in a zombie-like manner and go through the motions until the inevitable defeat. Why?
Because the problem – an embarrassingly fatalistic loser culture – runs so deep. The problem, inherent defeatism, is ingrained in the club and fan base itself, which has become weird and perverse. It’s in the staff. It’s in the carpets. It’s in the curtains. Changing this mindset – which some “fans” revel in by the way – is a monumental challenge that requires something more than just signing better players. It requires a complete overhaul in culture and mentality.
After the Pickford derby – one of the few decent Anfield performances this century (this century, Jesus Christ) – I saw a quote from Pickford that was extremely revealing. Apparently he said “It’s the Everton luck at Anfield.”
Now firstly, there was no bad luck about it. He screwed up. Secondly, you tend to make your own luck in this life and if you routinely approach a fixture like a trip to the dentist, then you won’t get much of anything. Thirdly, I think I’m correct in saying Pickford had only been at Everton for two seasons at that stage. He’s from the North-East. What does he know about “the Everton luck at Anfield?”
I will tell you what he knows: what club staff and probably fans are telling him.
“You’ll never get anything there.”
“Best of luck lads, you’ll need it.”
“Everton that.”
We have even managed to turn a quote from one of our greatest post-war players into a put-down. You frequently seen it on social media. “Once Everton has touched you…” to accompany virtually anything that doesn’t go quite according to plan. It is tedious and self-defeating.
However, as I say, some fans revel in it.
It is Sunday morning and I have things to do, so won’t bang on any further other than to say that to remedy matters, I’d like to see a systemic change in culture across the whole organisation along the same lines as the England cricket team.