FAN ARTICLES

A Change in Opinion?

Some of you may remember the article I wrote around the time of the Middlesborough home game: Just as a memory jogger it featured me, my missus and a lot of daft questions around the fundamentals of the game. I was probably too honest with my article and got slated for taking her the game and told by many to put her in the bin? do you remember it? I haven?t binned her? yet.

Anyway, the real point to that article was a question she asked that really opened my eyes as to one reason why we just can?t break that top four cartel. The question was straight forward? ?who have Everton got? Liverpool have Gerrard, Manchester [United] have that guy with the sun tan who everyone hates??

She was asking me as a wind up because her footballing wisdom clearly doesn?t stretch to the in depth debate that goes on amongst regular fans. For example, she commented on the day that a draw was good because it meant ?no arguing, every one is happy?. WOMEN!

After naming a few ?stars? such as Arteta, Cahill and the Yak, I gave up by telling her to ?get lost?, although it might have been another combination of words meaning the same thing! My final comment greeted of course by smiles and sniggering. She can?t resist a wind up?

When I wrote the original article, I concluded that one of the reasons we ?struggle? is because we are not commercial enough compared with our bigger rivals. Our brand name just isn?t strong and not every kid, wife, girlfriend, mistress, foreigner and non-football lover in the land has heard of an Everton player. Despite my best efforts to educate, we are just not a household name. I am sick of meeting new work colleagues who unsafely assume from my accent that I will be a Liverpool fan, having rarely or not heard of Everton FC.

We have no pin-up type players, no real creative players and no mega stars. We don?t even have a crazy bad boy amongst our ranks to cause boozed, drug fuelled scraps with the paparazzi (although we?ll probably sign Barton). The result is that we just don?t get the press. If league position was based on the number of inches received in national newspapers ? we?d be relegation fodder. We rarely feature?

OR do we?

Here?s the turning point, perhaps. Yesterday I asked my missus (now my fiancée ? yes we are getting married!) the same question she asked me. I was hoping for a good response but expecting something outrageously stupid like ?the guy with the black hair?. What I got was superb from someone who doesn?t like football (especially because it determined the date of our wedding, if there is to be one). She named Arteta, Cahill, Peanut, the young good-looking lad who scored against Liverpool (good looking?) and that lad who scored the penalty [Jags].

She also produced a flag for my car and a tee-shirt that she had bought from the local market stall in Huyton, telling me they were for Wembley. Apparently the stall, by the tanning place (she informs me), is now littered with Everton merchandise from flags and badges to scarves and tee-shirts. She mentioned that there wasn?t a red item to be seen. The stall is normally engulfed in red merchandise, you know the type I mean ? the tacky mirrors, clocks and dodgy scarves. The collage pictures of Torres and the ?almost signed by Gerrard? post cards etc etc... but currently, she explained it was totally blue and even the stall owner was wearing (or modelling) the FA Cup final tee-shirts. (Oh how the bandwagon turns!).

Even my now educated work colleagues, of Dutch, US, Malaysian, French and German origins watch for the Everton result, often starting e.mails with ?Go Everton, Go Screech?. So, with the social experiment again shelved for six months, I ask for comment as to why the Everton brand is on the up.

Is it purely because we have made it to the final of the FA Cup? Or is it something bigger than that? Is the blue machine finally oiled and back up running after so many years of heartache?

The new CEO knows what he is doing and is seemingly open about it. We are signing big deals with global retail outfits, bettering ourselves as a viable business. Could it just be something as simple as having the right person in the hotseat? Has Mr Elstone managed to convince Mr Kenwright that change is required and the way forward is to market the club as competitors to our rivals, rather than underdogs to them?

One thing is certain in my mind and that is that we no longer dive into investment promises with firms that cannot produce. We aren?t trying to find lending agreements or secure our ground as collateral against a big debt (perhaps because we can?t?). Everton FC looks as though it is finally striding forward and making itself look attractive, to me at least. Signing bumper deals can only be appealing to investors (as can the acquisition of planning rights for a new stadium?).

Are Moyes and the ?budget? team finally getting the praise they deserve from the media? Nearly every commentator in the land mentions our shoestring budget and ability to find top players for little amounts of money. Has being able to compete with the top four on the pitch enabled us to gather more media focus? We have given a good account of ourselves against the teams above us this season.

Finally, have all factors mentioned above increased our presence so much that even my missus knows a thing or two about my beloved football club? (Even if she still can?t understand why we don?t consider a draw the fairest result?)

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