ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Think Hard, Think Deep

Until recently, I have been 20% for the ground move and 80% against the move. Then I heard the club's point of view and it made me think even more on the subject. "If EFC leave our beloved Goodison and move to Kirkby we can take on Real Madrid, etc" Join the elite!

Think about that sort of statement. Think hard about it. What has Everton's history been, past, recent and present? Yes we have had short spells in our history (5-10yrs) where we have been top dogs in England but never in Europe. Everton has mostly been about being in the top 5 or 6 with a good chance of winning something.

If it was that important to us to win or at least challenge for the Euro Cup/Champs League, we could easily support the other shower or even another close club. Is being super rich, etc, what it is all about? Being an Evertonian is much deeper than just being the biggest, richest club in the world. The reason my 12- and 5-year-old kids love EFC as much as I do and walk around with their heads held high and proud to be Evertonians is our history, our heritage, our culture.

Going to Goodison knowing about Dixie, Young, Ball, Harvey & Kendall, Sharp, Tricky Trevor... Bayern Munich, Rooney at Leeds... knowing we will win something again. They know about Tiger Darracot ,Big Mick Lyons, Jim Person, Brett Angel, FA Cup Semis at Main Road, getting knocked out at Shewsbury coming home on the coach after getting wacked at Boro. But, no matter what, they always have not only their club's history to fall back on but EFC's & Goodison's culture. They know that even these 100,000 seater stadiums cannot generate the passion of Goodison on vital match nights.

They know they can tell their mates in school that they would rather be in the 4th division, than have their club hawked around like a prostitute. First the Arabs, then the Tia's and Finally the Yanks. Do we want a foreign manager and staff ? not to mention half the Spanish team. We going to throw all that away to cling onto the tails of Real Madrid.

We can well make Goodison a 55,000 capacity. What's the big thing about more corparate facilities? Most of the money comes from TV etc. Once it's gone we can't get it back. To move we have to be certain it's for the right reasons and to cling to Real Madrid's shirt tails is not one of them. We're more than that, we're deeper than that. Remember there's no going back.
Gary Rimmer, Liverpool, Merseyside Posted 01/08/2007 at 22:04:49

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Comments

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Phil Smallwood
1 Posted 02/08/2007 at 08:36:40

Sorry but history and emotion do not pay the bills,sad fact sorry

Greg Callaghan
2 Posted 02/08/2007 at 08:59:20

Gary, you’re gonna be met with a lot of comments like Phil’s, I’m sad to say. I’m afraid that words like "history" and "emotion" are no longer the lingua franca of the footy fraternity; instead it’s "bills", "revenue streams", "corporate x, corporate y and corporate z". It’s all about heads and not hearts. You can’t blame Phil and those like him (because he is actually right, I suppose, "here’s a prefect’s badge") for forgetting what it’s like to be a football fan. Because football has forgotten what football is. And within that, many Evertonians have forgotten what it is to be an Evertonian. You haven’t. It’s really depressing though, innit, when a passionate piece like yours is met bluntly and glibly with a robotic answer about "bills". Gawd. Bit like walking full-nose-ahead straight into a patio door. You thought you could see straight ahead but then: thud. And it hurts.

John Welsby
3 Posted 02/08/2007 at 09:14:43

I want Everton to compete on the pitch first and foremost

I want Everton to play with verve, swager, skill and commitment

To do this we need the best players and to get these we need more money

What interests me most about Evrton is what happens on the pitch rather than off it and therefore I support Kirby because the move represent the best method of having a great team

I THINK THIS ARGUMENT IS EFFECTIVELY SPILT BETWEEN THOSE WHO?S 1ST CARE IS ON THE FIELD (PRO KIRBY) VERSUS THOSE WHOSE PRIORITY IS OFF THE FIELD (ANTI-KIRBY)

SIMPLE

And I want what?s best to produce a great team on a Saturday at 15.00

Art Greeth
4 Posted 02/08/2007 at 09:19:47

Gary, your passion and concerns for the club are self-evident in your words. Read this and other Everton-related forums any day of the week and you find many soul mates equally passionate about the club. I would hope to number myself amongst them.

However, in spite of our shared passion that does not automatically mean that we all agree. And I cannot agree with your piece at all. I am very well briefed on my club?s history ? the highs, the lows, the awesomely great players that have graced Goodison down the years, and the comical dross that we still take to heart and remember fondly.

I am also well aware that, until very recently, Everton FC has been a great power house in English football and more, a great innovator in the game. That is currently no longer the case. I wish it to be so again.

Much is made of the club?s motto. Unfortunately, it does tend to get misappropriated in my opinion, but I feel it is appropriate to apply it here. To imply that you and others would rather the club languished in the fourth division to demonstrate how ?True Blue? you are than strive to compete with the best in Europe is to be completely contrary to the words ?Nil Satis Nisi Optimum?.

And as for Greg and your comments, being a passionate football fan whilst simultaneously being pragmatic and realist about the finances of modern day football are not mutually exclusive as you wish to imply. You can be both.

Paulo
5 Posted 02/08/2007 at 09:41:15

Gary

Ideally we would all like to stay at a re-vamped stylish government. The point and ultimately it seems to have escaped you is that we cannot afford to renovate it or add in more corporate facilities.

Your attitude although commendable is one that shows no understanding of the hard facts that we are broke and need to move before Goodison falls down around us.

Paulo
6 Posted 02/08/2007 at 09:54:36

Government?

Sorry i meant goodison! Too much newsnight last night!

Greg Callaghan
7 Posted 02/08/2007 at 10:56:21

How’s your neighbout, Art? Gotta hand-it to "Paul" yesterday; that was a very funny response! Good to talk, Blue.

Brian Waring
8 Posted 02/08/2007 at 11:17:46

We all know we are skint.And I’m not having a go at any fans.But,The attitude seems to be, that being skint is just one of those things.And if we move to Kirkby everything will be fine.But, for me it’s fucking embarrassing.

Dan Mckie
9 Posted 02/08/2007 at 12:46:12

Its the present that counts,then the future so if the club believe that we will progress with the move and one day be able to compete again then thats what we should do! The history of Everton is brilliant but the best parts of that history are getting further and further away! In 50 years time I dont still wanna be thinking back to how great we were in the 1980’s and how we won the fa cup in 1995! Lets move forward :)

Art Greeth
10 Posted 02/08/2007 at 13:21:54

So Brian, if you also recognize that we are skint and that you feel embarrassed by it, what solutions are you offering?

Without a future, Everton’s history will be forgotten. I personally can’t square the argument some are offering that BK and KW have failed to find investment in the club when they have potentially tied up a very advantangeous deal with the UK’s biggest retailer, without selling the club out, whilst still maintaing control.

Or is that what sticks in the throat of some? That BK retains control?

And please, don’t fire back that you don’t trust them or that they are incompetent. The Kirkby deal on the table shows their competency and the fact that they are allowing the Everton family a vote shows their integrity.

King’s Dock was a missed opportunity for which the club was ill-prepared. It did not happen on KW’s watch, nor did the ntl sponsorship deal which fell through which others - inclduing yourself, I believe - offer as evidence of BK’s lies. My memory of that is different. It was not a lie by BK. It had a helluva more to do with the stock market crash at the time with the bursting of the dot.com bubble. ntl got badly burnt in that one at a time, if you recall, that they already had interests in such clubs as the barcodes, Leeds and Celtic. Unfortunately, EFC were victims of bad timing and extenuating circumstances - not lies and deceits by BK.

It is the same with the FFS. Was it really a grand deceit perpetuated by BK as a means to retain control of the club in the face of Paul Gregg’s challenge? From all the evidence I’ve seen its collapse had more to do with the elusive Mr Samuelson than any alleged pantomime by BK.

But such a view doesn’t get as much mileage as simplistic tabloid conspiracy theories, does it...?

John Coyne
11 Posted 02/08/2007 at 13:48:30

Gary, I tend to agree with you. Of course we want to compete, of course we want to win things but if they were the only reasons to watch Everton we’d have given up a long time ago. I go the match because I want to meet the same people I have done for the last 20 years, drink in the same pubs, take the same walk to the ground and then do it again a fortnight later. For me the heart rules the head.

Allan Hobbs
12 Posted 02/08/2007 at 14:13:40

I find this post embarrassing to be honest. If all we have to ’fall back on’ is history then I want no part in it.

Its about the future not the past - time to let go Gary. You’re setting your kids up for a life of footballing dissapointment with that attitude.

No offence.

Martin Roberts
13 Posted 02/08/2007 at 14:17:51

Just think Gary, in years to come your children can have their head held high, knowing their history. Knowing that at one point in their history they moved out the city and claimed their independence and became THE club to be rivalled.

That in modern age the club left the city boundaries and again claimed their independence and moved on to better things.

Imagine your kids telling your grandchildren about the Dixie Deans, Labones, Balls, Kendalls stories, and then telling them about the new era, the legends of recent days (whoever they may be). Telling of great nights in Europe, the best entertainment at a new lavish stadium, and Still a club that stands by its values and is still something to be proud of.

I am proud to be an Evertonian, have been since birth. My children are evertonians and any future children will be too. My grandchildren will be evertonians and they will all know of the great story of the club.