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Apathetic? Disillusioned? Tell Me About It!
Comments (27) : Before I start, this isn?t a rant about investment, Moyes, Kirkby, or Bill Kenwright, just my current thoughts and feelings as an Everton fan.
I work with loads of Manchester United fans and they often take the piss out of my passionate loyalty to Everton FC. None of them are from anywhere near Manchester which does annoy me somewhat. However, when it comes to a debate their standard line is, ?When was the last time Everton won anything??
I know the answer (and so do they) but it?s a putdown that I have to let go.
I?m so proud to be a supporter of our great club but I do feel an increasing amount of apathy towards it all!
I honestly thought at the end of last season we were on the verge of a return to the big time. Four high-quality players ? that was all we needed! More fool me. 11 games into the new season and Moyes is already talking about a complete squad rebuild. I can?t believe last year?s better players are all under-performing so much now.
The investment (or selling out) debate is another thing. Surely without investment we will continue to go through the motions for ever more, a good run in the league, plucky but inevitable defeats against the Big 4, hoping for a decent cup run. No trophies for another year! It?s all becoming the same ? year after year. Sure, no one wants Everton FC to lose its identity and spirit but there have to be some huge positives to being owned by a super rich person(s). People who would allow us funds to compete (genuinely compete) with top clubs for top players.
I hear rumours about Randy Lerner supposedly wanting Everton more than he wanted Aston Villa. Yet he was given no-encouragement from Kenwright to follow up his interest. If this is true, how can Kenwright ever say he is a fit and proper person to find us a new fit and proper owner, especially given the sterling job Lerner has done so far at Villa? But Bill is looking 24/7...
I read some posts on this site yesterday too about the state of the playing team and people holding Villarreal as an example of breaking into the top 4 with limited budget. To be honest, this isn?t a realistic example. They made the massive leap by making the most of their first Champions League campaign by buying quality players. We didn?t (because we didn?t have the funds). Villarreal were than able to maintain their momentum and continue to push for top places for following year. Even during this summer our budget was half that of Sunderland?s. Yet we expect the club to compete with Arsenal and Liverpool.
Sure, the Villarreal story is an inspiration for any club that has ambitions to compete at the highest level. However, it?s amazing they are still there now. CD Alaves, a club who "did a Villarreal? 10 years ago spring to mind. They soon imploded when their big names started to move on.
I guess I?m just fed up. I still go the games and I still get disappointed when we lose but every time I hear another Kenwright ?watch this space? quote, or another class player evade our grasp because we can?t afford him, or another reference to Kirkby being our only salvation, I just feel a little more disillusioned by it all.
Here?s hoping for Randy Lerner II turning up before January and giving us some real funds to spend on quality players. Otherwise the best we can ever hope for is top 6, a cup run, none of our better players being bought by ?bigger fish?, and a new low-value stadium in a retail park out of the City boundaries.
Reader Comments (27)
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2 Posted 22/10/2008 at 17:59:18
I can’t even get excited by the thought of Everton being bought by a Super rich Benefactor. All it will do is line Agents’, Players’ and Managers’ pockets with even more unjustified cash.
If every Premier League Club has an ’Investor’ then that is all that will happen. It does not mean that there will be any more trophies ( there is only 3 + Europe in any season so that leaves 17 clubs at least disappointed ) and it won’t make the football any more entertaining. Chelsea played boring method football all last season and the year before hundreds of millions to play with. The quality of football in England is way behind La Liga where you could name Barcelona, Real Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal, Deportivo La Coruna all as teams that have challenged for the League in recent seasons. A truly competitive league, not a Sky-fed junket for 4 tarts like in England.
Money is the root of all evil...... too bloody right!
3 Posted 22/10/2008 at 18:15:00
It?s all become ?so what?; there?s no crisis at Goodison, but there?s no hope either. After bombing out of the UEFA cup (How did last year?s quarter finalists manage to draw the Champions League rejects ? the ones who should have beaten the RS reckoning on my observation?) there was no chance of us winning anything. We all know that we simply don?t have the resources to overcome tiredness, injuries and dubious refereeing toward the end of the season and therefore have no hope of winning the Premier League, or even getting into the top four, so why should we care.
Last year I was planning several visits to Goodison and trying the get tickets for London games. I won?t bother this year. In fact as soon as I post this I?m cancelling my Sky Sports subscription.
Frankly, the Premier League is a crap competition, with run by and for the benefit of a four-member plutocracy. Actually I can?t even remember who won it last year, was it ManU or Chelsea? Who cares?
4 Posted 22/10/2008 at 18:20:31
I too am a bit pissed off at the moment though and for the first time I can remember will not be going to Goodison this weekend to watch Manchester's finest celebrating on our patch! It pisses me off no end that the club puts up prices for this "privelige" too, so I have decided in protest not to bother going to games against the Sky4 - The other games at least are competitive and if fans of other clubs did the same at least it would make the powers that be sit up and recognise what is happening in the Premier League.
5 Posted 22/10/2008 at 18:58:36
6 Posted 22/10/2008 at 19:05:08
I have seen several postings on here recently saying that a mid-table finish with exiting football would be preferable to another ground out 4th/5th place challenge. I couldn?t agree more. We are awful to watch, the atmosphere is poor, the kick-off time ridiculous and, to cap it all, parking is worse every week.
Anyway, got the afternoon shopping with the missus to look forward to (And I?m serious)...
7 Posted 22/10/2008 at 19:08:25
We have the best of the rest. Now Moyes has started to be positive again, it's just a matter of time and our team WILL perform. We have a good honest chairman and a good but self-pitying boss and some fantastic players that should invite a 2nd Randy. Us blues can be pessimistic bunch at times but in a few weeks it will start to turn watch this space... Bill Kenwright, only kidding.
8 Posted 22/10/2008 at 19:31:20
As if our limitations and problems are not enough we face a side high on confidence that have three or four match-winners and arguably at least 2 world class players add A manager who hates to lose and knows how to win against any team in Europe and the situation seems hopeless.
At any other period in our history the manager would be facing the axe if the outcome of Saturday?s match goes to form. But this is 2008 where supporters? voices are lost in the media driven hype that is the Premiership. This result isn?t just likely it?s almost a cast-iron certainty as our record during David Moyes tenure against the sky 4 suggests P52 W6 D11 L35 GF41 GA98 Pts 29. Add another 6 Cup matches where we have drawn one and lost five games and that amounts to 6 wins in 58 games.
I only wish that I could have let my head rule my heart during this period of time as I could have made a few bob at the bookies! I would place a fiver on us winning on Saturday but as some wag said this would probably be seen as an unorthodox betting pattern and lead to the suspension of all premiership games at the weekend.
If our record against the Sky 4 is typical of the other clubs vying for CL football such as Pompey, Villa and City, the game is even less competitive than I had previously thought.
However, I am not interested in those other sides, I am only concerned about Everton and how they fare in every game they play and given this shocking record against the chosen ones is it no wonder that our style of play or lack of it is under so much scrutiny at this moment in time.
So when Lawrenson Shearer, Hansen et al proclaim the virtues of our Manager, remember that he is doing a good job if you support one of the Sky 4.
Remember too there is nothing worse in sport than a Four Gone Conlcusion.
9 Posted 22/10/2008 at 19:33:26
10 Posted 22/10/2008 at 19:55:34
Exciting competition the Premier League...
11 Posted 22/10/2008 at 19:53:45
Hull have spent £6M and Spurs a stunning £74M since Jan 2007 ? so it all ain?t about money is it! People should stop blaming the bloody obvious, money, Kirkby, Kenwright etc. English football is the way it is and will always be that way until it is reformed and regulated? top four with the odd surprise team like Everton, Hull etc who pop up and down every now and then, get used to it or even better take up another sport which is less tainted that English football.
As for Randy L wanting to take over Everton, it?s amazing that people on this forum seem to have the inside track into the high powered business world, although Bill Gates and Warren Buffet where seen at Goodison yesterday so.....
12 Posted 22/10/2008 at 20:23:03
13 Posted 22/10/2008 at 20:10:57
Now obviously, you can't be certain the figures being reported now or then are accurate. However on the surface it does look like we have another owner that's funding the club?s ambition through debt and not their own money.
14 Posted 22/10/2008 at 21:59:25
15 Posted 23/10/2008 at 01:37:36
COYB
16 Posted 23/10/2008 at 02:54:16
I too have lost interest in the ?race? for the title. The only joyful experience is seeing what?s happening at Spurs, which honestly is quite sad.
17 Posted 23/10/2008 at 09:09:14
18 Posted 23/10/2008 at 09:22:24
19 Posted 23/10/2008 at 09:53:48
It is not the practice of these tycoons to just ?gift? money to their clubs as I am sure much tax relief accrues from the ?loans? they make to them.
20 Posted 23/10/2008 at 10:24:16
Sinead Jakes. I think money does have a massive impact. Every manager makes bad signings - Wenger: Jeffers and Wright (£17M combined) SAF: Kleberson, Taibi, Djemba Djemba, Jordi Cruyff!
Will Hull be 3rd by the end of the year? I doubt it! Will they get relegated next year (second season syndrome)? I would say so. They are punching above their weight currently (like EFC to a lesser extent last year). Spurs are like Newcastle and just a joke. Had they stuck with Jol I think they wouldn't be doing too badly now.
But my post was more about the complete lack of excitment/interest surrounding EFC (and football) these days. From BK's incomptence and lack of real investment. From the poor standard of football (partly due to lack of investment), to the dour proposal of a Kirkby Bowl, its all rather un-inspiring!
At this moment in time we can only realistically hope for top 6, cup runs, and a new low-value stadium in a retail park. Surely this isn?t the vision of Everton?s future we want to see?
21 Posted 23/10/2008 at 11:12:25
Don?t give me the "we don?t need supporters like you, blah blah blah" as I've still paid for my season ticket, as had my cousin next to me, but why bother our arse when the club isn?t reciprocating? When the manager sets out his stall so poorly? When there is absolutely nothing entertaining about watching a side that genuinely fought hard for a decent league position last season compared to the shite we have now?
23 Posted 23/10/2008 at 13:31:01
24 Posted 23/10/2008 at 16:29:00
Coupled with the loss of wise heads Stubbs and Carsley, we’re a bunch of lost, unmotivated kids.
25 Posted 23/10/2008 at 17:44:26
Looks like the club are getting a bit worried. Have a look at this link: http://www.evertonfc.com/news/packed-to-the-rafters.html?comment_page=4#comment_start
26 Posted 23/10/2008 at 18:23:36
27 Posted 23/10/2008 at 19:07:31
28 Posted 23/10/2008 at 20:21:23
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1 Posted 22/10/2008 at 18:00:13