ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Oh to be useless again

Is it just me or wasn't it so much easier when we were actually rubbish? When we knew we had inferior players in the team and had to shop in the next division down for "bargains" like Carl TIler, Mitch Ward, Brett Angel, Paul Holmes etc. Or even when we used to pinch players off West Ham just before they had a career finishing injury like Williamson or Bilic (the latter managing to injure himself despite being suspended continually!) And we've had our share of rough diamonds ? rough being the word ? like future World Cup winners like Materazzi and big league journey men like Dacourt. But, we always knew we weren't that good. Complaints were genuine ? we knew what was wrong, we knew how many players weren't good enough and there wasn't much disagreement.

Then there's now. We've a cracking goalkeeper, potentially a future England left back, an England central defender (or left-back!), the Nigerian captain, one of the best uncapped Spanish players, Australia's best player, an England striker, Scotland's best striker (don't laugh please), another striker with almost as good a record as Henry in the Premier League. Two of the best striking prospects in the league.

OK, aside from Hibbo looking the weak link at the back (as others have improved rather than him being poor) and aside from needing a little more creativity in midfield, what's the solution? We asked Bill to give Davey money to spend, which he has done. I now find it much more difficult though to pinpoint exactly what to complain about!
Mark Pendleton, Shepshed Posted 21/10/2007 at 16:35:24

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Michael Kenrick

Here's a clue: David Moyes and his proven inability to take all the wonderful things we now have, and mould them into a top-ten winning team ? consistently. (Everton are now 11th in the Prem and heading steadily downwards...but it's okay coz he's STILL learning... FFS!)

Barry Lightfoot
1 Posted 22/10/2007 at 08:49:27

That’s utter bollocks Mr K for most of the game when we had 11 players to their 12 we outplayed them, we were robbed of 1 point maybe all 3 which would have seen us in the top 10 and equal with the shoite and al the money they have spent.

Richard Dodd
2 Posted 22/10/2007 at 08:52:29

Thank you ,Mark,for re-iterating precisely what I said last week.The truth is that the majority of Evertonians over 45 are miseable beggars who just refuse to recognise the massive progress made by the Club in THIS century.Brought up watching a domestic league which I suspect was just about on par with today’s Championship, they hark on ad nauseam about the good old days when the reality was half a dozen seasons under Catterick and Kendal when they actually achieved something. Whilst only my grandfather (and David Hall ) are old enough to go on about ’The Cat’,the record book will show just how good Kendal was when he returned as a Premiership manager!
If you want to discover what the fans thought of things for most of the time,just look at the attendance figures-far too often below the 20,000 mark.Why, in the glorious days of 1982,the opening home game attracted all of 24,000.Guess who was manager then!
This weekend I have been slated for daring to suggest that even a 10th position average would be an improvement on any other five year period in our modern history (fact)-the regretable truth is that if we make that average 5th the aged moaners will still find fault. I think they regard the term Evertonian as another word for self-flagellation!

Steve Ryan
3 Posted 22/10/2007 at 10:58:52

So in your opinion Mr. Dodd the great Ball, Harvey, Kendall side and the the outstanding 85 team are on parr with current championship teams. This unbelieveable statement proves beyond all doubt that you have no understanding of the game and that you are a complete cretin. Many posters on this site in Moyes’s defence have said that his greatest achievement is freeing Everton from the threat of relgation. May I remind these blinkered people that we are currently in one of Moyes’s famous freefalls with 4 losses in 5 league games, heading rapidly towards the bottom three.

Iain McWilliam
4 Posted 22/10/2007 at 11:06:54

Phew! Ive still got 9 years until Im officially a ’miserable beggar.’

Anyways, what you say Richard is all perfectly true but you need to put those facts into context. The old division one may well have been on a par with todays Championship (although I dont agree with this cos i dont see too many Hoddles or Dalglish’s down there) and Catterick and Kendall may have only had a couple of decent seasons (although I disagree hugely with this aswell as they did more in a few seasons than moyes has done in...well ever) AND we may have got low attendences in ’82 (can’t deny that but at that time most football clubs where happy to break 25,000) BUT in that respect you could also say...

When Liverpool won all those nice big European Cups in the 70s and 80s, football was dead shite really and they all had big taches and silly perms.
When England won the world cup in ’66 with a full back who only ever used one foot, a dirty short sighted midget in midfield and a baldy fella just next to him who did nothing but kick the ball from long range.
And as for those big attendences of 60 or 70 thousand in the pre war years...well the accountancy practices obviously werent as good back in them days...old people always exaggerate things down the years don’t they.

Part of the reason why a club strives to be successful is that it compares itself to its former self...its called standards :)

Im not having a go at you Richard because if we all said the same thing this would be a boring website, but that is where Im coming from and I suspect that is why fans like me will always disagree with fans like you. .

Tony Williams
5 Posted 22/10/2007 at 11:08:19

Richard, I am confused by you, sometimes I think you are a wind up or an attention seeker, however I fully agree with your post (apart from the 10th thing again, as I previously said, that should be our lowest aim)

I am sick and tired of all the negativety on this board, we could "debate" for hours on end but lets face it there are three types of posters on her, the ones who for some reason really hat Moyes and expect him to be playing like Arsenil every week, the ones who think he is doing a decent job and then you have the floaters who sometimes include the knee jerk reactionists.

The two groups of anti and pro (ish) Moyes will never agree.

Richard Dodd
6 Posted 22/10/2007 at 11:14:30

Having been born about ten years after the so-called ’Holy Trinity’were in their prime,I can only accept that they were pretty damn good-for their era.However,whether they would have had the freedom of the park to display their silky skills in today’s top division is quite another question.
Kendall’s 80’s finishes were 8-7-7-1-2-1,extremely creditable but they have to be sen in the context of a purely domestic competition.When he was tested in the more competitive age,he was seen as a very average manager,indeed.
I still maintain that it has never been harder to win trophies (or to finish 10th!) than it is now.

David Hall
7 Posted 22/10/2007 at 12:52:49

As you have been gracious enough to mention me in your ’Daily Despatch’,Richard,(do local government officers do ANY work these days?) I feel it incumbent upon me to respond.
Yes,Kendal,Ball and Harvey did play in an entirely British competition but THEY WERE VERY GOOD,both as individuals and collectively. In fact,I’d venture to say they were better than Neville,Jagielka and Osman or even Arteta,Graveson and Cahill on whom our season may come to depend!
Your second post spells out for us how effective Kendal was in his first spell as manager and it was a great pity that he was tempted back to the job when distracted by personal problems.But he will always be revered as the last manager with whom we touched greatness.
Thank you,Richard for keeping us old beggers entertained;perhaps one day you will come to respect our sacred memories.Who knows,as you mature ,you may even have memories of your own- a season we finished tenth,perhaps?
In the meantime ,please forgive me for adapting a very old saying-’What do they know of football who only Moyes they know’.

patty bee
8 Posted 23/10/2007 at 15:36:38

Hey Dicky boy, I was a fan of yours, cos I love Moysey too, until you said that the majority of Evertonians over 45 were miserable buggars. Don’t believe it la I’m not!!

patty bee
9 Posted 23/10/2007 at 15:36:38

Hey Dicky boy, I was a fan of yours, cos I love Moysey too, until you said that the majority of Evertonians over 45 were miserable buggars. Don’t believe it la I’m not!!