I don’t know anything about running a football club, or indeed, any business. The words below are derived from that knowledge.
People seem to consider a club’s previous success as a measure of their due respect. Why is this so, and is it deserved?
Everton last won a trophy in 1995, the FA Cup. I wonder how many people of relevance to that particular success are still at the club? I would suggest the figure to be zero.
So, I ask myself, how would that success have any connection to the current situation at Everton? What is the value of that success in terms of being useful to the club, or is it just a heart-warming memory?
Managers, players coaches and other people in important and meaningful positions come to the club, and all voice their opinions of Everton belonging to the upper echelons of football. Why? How is this opinion formed when the team and club have been in the doldrums for such a long time?
Surely any team is at the level it occupies at present for a very good reason, and history does not enter the equation at all. As is often quoted, the league table never lies (although not quite true for Everton and Nottingham Forest).
Perhaps we should forget our history as a means of receiving respect from the football world, and realise the only thing that matters is where we are now. Of course, there are myriad reasons that affect the fortunes of clubs, but one I think that is overlooked is luck.
Is luck a factor? I think it is.
When Moshiri bought the club, we were all very pleased, and could see ourselves soon dining at the top table. No fan protests were voiced, the welcome mat was displayed, and he and his money became part of the club.
Today, however, we are all gnashing our teeth in fury. So were we taken in? Not really, because nobody could have predicted what would follow next. The results were only known afterwards. Luck was not on our side in the choice of owner, despite it looking very promising.
We based our optimism on very few factors, as in reality, we knew very little about Moshiri, but we were seduced by the size of his wallet. Luck again was not on our side with the effect of the war in Ukraine impacting the club.
The Covid epidemic also put a brake on further improvement, and its effects are still relevant to football clubs today, and many other businesses — but not to the government, of course, who used it to promote themselves and their cronies. These unforeseen events undoubtedly affected the club’s prospects of success and Moshiri’s ambitions were also a casualty of those circumstances.
If luck is to be dismissed as a factor, then why do we lament the seemingly never ending good fortune of the club that play across the park at the Ikea Stadium? I understand there are other factors involved in Everton’s deterioration; many point to our late chairman as one, but that is another matter for debate.
All well and good (or bad…), but how to improve matters from our current situation, and get the team challenging? Not an easy question to answer.The situation for Everton is that they struggle to attract top players for the simple (and only?) reason that they cannot afford them.
The club is struggling to escape from the (spider’s) web in which it is trapped. One process it must embrace is to simply improve in any way possible from this present time, and then build on those improvements, until the time arrives when they bear fruit. This needs patience, lots of patience, which is not a characteristic of football fans. Until this happens, we can support the team, which Evertonians do better than anybody.
In addition to this, the club would benefit from a total change of outlook (or mentality, as Sean Dyche preaches), and in my opinion, this comes from the top. We were unfortunate to get such a poor owner as Moshiri, for which we are paying the price. How can we attract an owner who will lead us to a better future? I don’t know.
There will be no guarantees of success, whoever buys the club. We just pray for people who will know how to run a successful club, both on the playing and the business side, and they can lead us to the promised land.
I would like the new owners to let it be known, and prove with their actions, that they want success, and are not interested in making up the numbers. Nobody knows what the future brings, but let’s be optimistic that the wait will be worthwhile. Let’s hope we get lucky!