Hibbert reveals hurt of cold shoulder from Everton

Bring on the rants of those who think anyone one out there in the real world is treated any different. Get on with it and stop sulking!

Having been a contractor most of my life I fully understand his feelings but he was paid during his injury periods which is more than most contractors get.

It would have been nice for the club to have let him down easier but he has survived a few managers during his time with Everton and he has had a long-term well paid job !!

And I'm glad that 'People's Club' bollocks looks to have been finally binned off.

He didn't ask for a parade, just to be contacted by anyone at the club regarding his situation, which never occurred. Doesn't matter if he was average or poor, that isn't right. None of you would find out that you are no longer employed from your friends seeing it on a website.

I think the difference between Osman and Hibbert was they were hold overs and might have been seen as loyalists to the Moyes era, and Martinez froze them out. A bit similar to how he froze out Mirallas. And remember that Osman had a little bit to say early on about Martinez training methods and lack of effort regarding set pieces.

However ,in view of the fact you are still allowed to hang about Finch Farm going through a rehab program most of us would never have access to, probably for free and giving you a chance to say goodbye to your team mates. I am somewhat at a loss for words. Talk about bite the hand that feeds you...

Good manners don't cost anything - but here's the rub, if Tony and his wife feel so aggrieved by their treatment wouldn't they refuse all contact with Everton FC and is Tony totally unable to find another place to work on his rehabilitation if it makes him feel so uncomfortable when attending Finch Farm?

It's very unlike Everton FC to be so remiss in its treatment of its current or former players and it's highly unusual for a former player to be so critical of the club so publicly. I hope that we are a professionally run club and that we do act as a business rather than a half-arsed social club, but I also want Everton FC to retain it's human touch and be as generous in spirit towards its employees as it is possible to be.

There is absolutely no reason that being business-like and professional should automatically lead to ill-manners or bad treatment of people, it doesn't make sense and it just isn't Everton F.C. and I am sure it was more an oversight rather than a cruel or wilful act towards the three players involved. If it wasn't an oversight then it is a lesson that the club's new regime would do well to learn.

To be fair, I would have felt more embarrassment turning in during the last two years, all the while knowing full well I was effectively getting paid for fuck all.

The situation surely can't have come as a surprise to either Hibbert or Osman, seen as though they'd hardly featured in the first team and there had been no noises about either being offered new contracts.

The pop about 'a new manager' wanting to work in a way at odds with the old 'People's Club' mentality also seems misplaced. Wasn't the club actually between managers at the time these contracts expired? The major upheaval within the club at the time probably played a large part in the very oversight that stung him so.

Think he played around three games in the last three season's (stop tittering at the back). From someone who's approaching retirement having worked since I was 16, and also been made redundant three times, I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for Tony.

He really should be celebrating the fact that he played football for a living, was paid quite handsomely, and now can sail off into the sunset in his mid-thirties, financially secure for life.

I wish...

It's a shame that a (former) cult hero should choose so publically to criticise the club and in a manner clearly designed to cause harm on the brink of the new season.

Everton have given you 15 years employment and paid you very well. Give a little respect to Mr kenwright who gave you a contract into your later years. If he had kept his mouth shut Mr kenwright would have found him a role at the club. Why go to the press? Makes him look like an ungrateful modern day footballer.

The ridiculous 2 year contract Martinez sanctioned was only surpassed in its ineptitude by the Niasse debacle. He, and his wife, should be waking every day laughing hysterically and thanking God that Everton were completely incompetent in dealings with playing contracts. He's stolen a fantasy lifestyle that he was nowhere near close to deserving.

Yes, Tony is set for life having done his time at Everton. But despite being a multi millonaire, he still goes to matches and sits with the fans in the Gwladys street. He is you and me with a bit more talent.

Not the greatest player in the world, no, but not a bad defender in his day either. Solid but unspectacular. That's not a crime is it?

The way some of you are lambasting him for because he would have liked a courtesy phone call is terrible. It's not much to ask for and it's the least he deserved. And it's a lot less than that arrogant, average goalkeeper, Howard, got.

I understand the bit about saying farewell to the supporters, but I feel he has burnt his bridges, with going public.

My feeling is that it's not entirely Tony Hibbert's fault that he didn't get more games in his final few years; the emergence of Seamus Coleman, coupled with Hibbert's own injury problems saw to that.

Some people have cited his limitations as a player. I doubt Hibbert saw himself the same way - which is why he was able to play at the top level for so long. He earned his millions the same way every top modern footballer does, and he's entitled to a point of view. He's predominantly been described as a top professional, and I think he's entitled to have felt a bit let down by the way his release was handled by the club.

I'd imagine some of you criticising Hibbert's ability are the same voices calling for the club to sell John Stones because he doesn't show passion or launch it into Row Z often enough for you...

The fact that at 35 and needing another op after making less than a handful of appearances over the last 3 years and he still thought he'd get a new contract shows how deluded and self-absorbed footballers can be.

On his day, of which he had many, he was a great (old school) full back, sadly for him football moved on to the marauding full-backs of today and Hibbo was found sadly lacking.

I am so sick of people pointing to the salary of a player and using it as an excuse for binning the player as a person. This isn't about how much money he made, as if there is a magic number that once passed, makes everything said to or done to the player, okay. He wasn't even told he would be let go FFS. For the first time since I have been a fan of Everton, I am ashamed of Everton and its lack of class and some of its supposed fans and their lack of class.

Sour grapes, nothing else.

Hibo could and should have been moved on a long time ago as his place had been taken by Coleman, he's never stood any chance of regaining it.

I think Hibo should have left quietly with his millions in the bank, and been greatful.

Very dissapointed he's done his dirty washing in public.

Is everyone (the player included) forgetting that Hibbo had his testimonial a few years ago. Not every player gets a testimonial, but the club felt Hibbo deserved one. Also, Howard was still actively playing when he signed a contract with a team in another country (well within his rights to do so), and, therefore, the club knew that match would be his last. It is a lot easier to give a player a run out on the final day of the season when it is absolutely determined that they are leaving.

The other point that jumped out at me reading Hibbo's quotes, is the fact that he was off in Formby (chasing squirrels?) when he heard the news. I can't speak for Hibbo, but if my contract had expired and I was in a position where a new one wasn't the most probably thing, I would be in the office day and night trying to sort it out before driving up the coast for R&R.

For a professional footballer to have graced the cover of more fishing magazines that football magazines is reason enough for that footballers to count his lucky stars and shut the fuck up. I'm about to retire from rugby after 20 seasons in the sport, and I'm still parting with in excess of $1000 per year for the luxury of playing on 14 Saturdays out of the year. I don't expect a lap of honour unless I'm part of the XV that lifts the trophy - not likely.

Tim Howard got a hero's send off. David Moyes (the most sickening) got one.

Hibbert and Osman didn't even get told they were going! Surely you can see that's wrong.

I doubt it's vindictive but it highlights how rotten the club was last year. How could they not carry out the most basic of courtesies?

And, by my reckoning, if your opinion is that they get paid well to play so don't deserve any kind of respect from the club when they're done, then you're a hypocrite when you demand passion from the team. There's something known as discretionary effort - it's what you put in beyond the minimum required for your pay. If you want it, you have to offer something more than just salary.

Who ever made the decision not to renew his tenure, should have made the phone call. Even a janitor deserves to be told face to face, that he's no longer on the payroll. This has nothing to do with his skill as a footballer.

After that many years of service he certainly deserved a "sit down" and a chat before they let him go - IN PERSON!

It's fucking embarrassing. It really is. You just don't treat people that way.

It's mortifying and we should never, ever treat a player - who's been spotted while injured in a hoodie in the stands with the away support - that way.

Foul. Shameful. Embarrassing.

We're better than this.

Someone from the Club should publicly apologize, invite Hibbo back for a halftime walk-out to a round of applause for his years of service, and make this right.

"Everton are a business..."

True statement. But just because they are a business, that excuses this treatment of a life-long Blue?

That argument doesn't wash.

It's akin to the word "shrewd" which in society means, "one hell of a businessman and a tough negotiator" but in reality actually means, "he'll screw your wife while your head's turned".

There are some businesses out there that actually treat their employees with dignity and respect. They value the job they do for them and value loyalty, and repay that in-kind.

Then there are businesses that treat their employees as cattle. Commodities to be cast off / traded at will.

We just acted like the latter, not the former.

Now which Everton do you prefer?

Shame! Shame! Shame!

Hibbert has been a part of Everton for most of his life, a conversation from the club is the absolute least he deserved. Wages are irrelevant. Wouldn't you be bitter if you worked somewhere for 15 years and nobody told you that you were let go?

As some have said, he likely knew his contract wouldn't be renewed, but that's not the point. The club should have showed some class and at least thanked him for his dedication to the club and assured him that he was always family.

I find it interesting that many say that Everton is a business - a business transaction took place between Tony and the club, no thanks is necessary. While Everton (and football clubs in general) are businesses, they are certainly more than that. We feel irrational love for our club that we don't feel for other businesses (at least I don't follow GlaxoSmithKline's website and fan forums!). The other side of the same coin is that I expect the club to treat its longtime players with respect. But in this instance Tony was treated worse than many employees in traditional businesses.

Sorry for the long rant. The negativity just bums me out.

He didn't say he deserved another contract, he didn't say they were wrong to release him, he said that someone from the club that he's been at since he was 10, and never given less than 100% effort for, might have let him know that he was being released rather than reading it on a fucking website.

Then they watch Howard get the Royal carpet farewell so they must have thought they would have been told surely to give their farewell too.

No .. Very poor Everton!

I think there are a lot.
He's living in a different world maybe.

Link

What has one got to do with the other? How are the positions of a supporter and an employee in any way the same? A fans loyalty is to the club they've supported their entire life, not any individual player who may be passing through. That still applies even if they pass through at a really leisurely pace, park their arse, have a picnic and become almost part of the scenery before strolling off. Sorry, but the clubs still here, we're still here. They're either off wearing another teams shirt, talking shite alongside 'Thommo', 'Merse', muzzyless 'Beags' and the other boggly eyed 'banter' inflicting Sky twats or taking their dog for a walk and picking up it's turds with twenty quid notes.

That's clearly a concept you struggle with though after spending an entire season attempting to act as Tim Howard's human shield. 

An obscenely paid 'professional' like Lukaku, on the other hand, owes it to his employer to at least refrain from publicly running his mouth off about his hoped for next career move, his many suitors and who his dads got a stonk on for, whilst still raking in his current clubs coin. 

As for Hibbert? Where was the 'disloyalty' on Everton's part? They gave the by then bit part, fringe player, a two year contract. Many were surprised by the decision to do so and plenty pointed out it surely wasn't awarded on merit but rather sentiment. It was a cushy little two year retirement top up. The two years came and went without him being offered a further extension. Even Scarecrow could fathom the writing was on the wall without walking his straw arse to see the fucking Wizard.

People talk about Hibbert showing tremendous loyalty as though he could have had his pick of clubs. Let's face it, loyalty is easy when no one else would look at you twice. It's like saluting saggy jowelled, simpleton lipped, spit sprinkler, Timothy Spall for not shagging about even though he used to be on the telly sometimes.

For comparison, I completed plumbing work for a bunch of arseholes who not only decided not to pay me just over ٠,000 BUT, threatened me into the bargain. What really hurt was that they declined to thank me for my tireless efforts, dedication and professionalism.

However, your situation isn't exactly a complete surprise is it Tony ? For example, was there any indication during the duration of the most recent contract that an extension or new contract was under consideration ?

Furthermore, when you returned home after you had slapped your paw mark on that last contract, did you:
a) laugh your kecks off for hours on end.
b) pop on TW & GoT to express your deep appreciation to the devout.

I am sure Tony, that when you and your millionaires wife look around you at all the fine trappings, when you consider the financial security that you will all enjoy for the rest of your days and when you look back upon your glittering career at the greatest football club in all eternity that you will always think "Everton Football Club and our marvellous fans have been extremely good to me for many, many years and I shall be deeply thankful in perpetuity".

Finally Tony, the deal was .
You scored, we were to riot .

You let us down !

I don't believe the culture at Everton would have changed overnight. From all I've read, it is the manager who informs senior players whether they are needed or not. In the interim perhaps Kenwright or Elstone should have contacted the players as they have been mainstays at Everton for most of Hibbo and Ossies career.

On the other hand, surely the aforementIoned players realised they would not be offered new contracts? Their age and lack of game time for the last couple of seasons should have triggered doubts.
Surely their agents should have discussed the situatIon wIth the club hierarchy.
Isn't that why the parasites exist, to get the best for their employers?

Couldn't Hibbo talk for himself? He's been around the club long enough to be comfortable to ask questions. He is still apparently using Finch farm to rehabilitate himself.
I feel he has done himself a disservice by proclaiming his dissatisfaction in this manner.

Perhaps the club were at fault, but some communication from either Tony or his agent could have resulted in a pitchside acknowledgement of service before the home game against Spurs.

Not likely to happen now though!

Howard's future departure was already signed, sealed and delivered. There was no doubt for the club, the player or the fans.

The decision to retain or release players reaching the end of their contracts would have been up to Martinez to determine and deliver once the season was over. He got sacked. Shit happens.

Not also how the anti-Everton mail, who have been promoting an exodus from Everton for 2 seasons, suddenly give page space to what is frankly an embarrassing sideshow. Oh of course, it paints Everton in a bad light light. . . . . .

Both parties should have behaved better to the other. Fact. And also very simple to do. Lesson to be learned and all that.

How do we know what plans the new incoming manager had for players out of contract, how the hell could we give them a send off when no one knew.

The fact is we gave him an extended contract, when he wasn't even fit to play, he got a testimonial from the club, like other have said, he got a good three year contract, when he wasn't even fit to play, three years,

Now see how many employees would pay a person, three years pay, without doing a shift.

You would be notified and paid up well before three years, I'm sorry but Hibbert got treated more than well by Everton Football Club, the club stuck by him, gave him a few extra years contract, when they could have released him instead.

Hibbert is a very lucky man, nearly every Blue on here were saying get rid of the deadwood.

If Hibbert and Osman would have got another contract, this site would be red hot with wtf.

They should have been notified before hearing it elsewhere, but to slate the club saying they do not care anymore, after how you were looked after these past few seasons is a disgrace Hibbert to go public

It could and maybe should have been handled more tactfully.

But Hibbo has been like Harpo Marx and said fuckall throughout his long career, but when he chose to speak he made a tit of himself.

An honest servant who will now be remembered for three things.

Getting dry bummed in the FA Cup Final.
Failing to score.
Moaning in the national press.

HAT-TRICK !

I think Hibbert is probably aware that he won't be given a contract. But such cold shoulder is not classy at all.

We are supposed to be classy, having started the ex players foundation, Everton in the community.

From the article, it seems that Hibbert has been training for awhile already.

Meaning, all these while, the management never saw it fit to at least say hello or goodbye.

I think the club can do better.

Its more than how Southall got treated after the service he gave Everton, attended a match and the club wanted him to pay to watch Everton, cheeky buggers, he should have got the freedom of Goodison for what he did in goal for Everton.

Clough never got the England job because of not being a yes man, same reason Southall has never been given a media job at Everton, because he's one of us and says it how it is, no bullshit with big Nev

He just expected somebody to tell him he didn't make the cut before he found out from other people. Embarassing from the club. Doesn't cost one cent to do this.

Obviously it was a transition period between managers but somebody should have done it.

It is great that there are diverse opinions and healthy debate on pretty much everything Everton related. Wouldn't want it otherwise.

However, surely the simple thing here is down to common courtesy and respect. It really doesnt matter how long a player has been at the club, how many games have been paid, including more recent matches, and how much the player has earned from the club.

I also get the point made from those who have been made redundant in the past and were treated just as poorly or worse.

No need for big fanfares, but all employees should receive some form of official communication from the club if they are being let go for whatever reason. That's the bare minimum expected of any decently run club.

I am all for becoming a more professionally run oufit. But let's not forget decent manners.

Cream rises to the top. Let's not start getting sour on tbe journey.

Seems odd to me, feeling that was rather sage advice and a truism to live by, that we are using the money earned by Tony Hibbert during his loyal years of service to beat him with like stick.

The Club surely, no matter what he earned, should have had the decency to notify him, man-to-man as it were, that they'd not be renewing his contract!

It's just that simple.

Everton acted like soulless, smarmy, two-bit snake-oil salesmen.

Or better yet a low-level, greasy, fat mafia thug with chest hair you could knit a sweater with and a gaudy gold necklace around a 1/2 buttoned, fake-silk shirt.

"YO! Vinny! Should we tell Ant-nee he's out?"

"Nah! Fuck 'em. He had his ride. We paid um. He don't need no fuckin' parade. We got work ta do."

Nice... class... so proud... that's the way we treat 'em!

Why has nothing been said from his agent, one things for sure, an agent will be in there like a rat up a drainpipe, if theres money involved negotiating a contract, maybe Hibbert was not informed, but I am not having his agent did not know either before the release went on the website.

That is what an agents job is, to look after his player and arrange contracts, if Hibbert has any gripes, he should be asking his agent, not slating Everton off to the press.

To say "my wife is even more annoyed" and "it's hard getting rehab in a top of range facility for free" just comes across as a whinger and he's rightly vilified.

The game is well into the process of a long and disappointing change, and the supporters aren't behaving much better. We should be better than that.

Yes, he was a very average / bad player and yes he was very well paid for his mediocrity. But that does not mean the club should treat him as contemptibly as it did in the manner it released him.

Having said that, he should not have moaned about it to the press, but rather should have taken it on the chin. What does it matter to him now anyway? He has made his money, his career as a top flight player is over, the club is not going to change its mind and besides all that, everyone already knew how his ejection had been handled and had expected him to be somewhat displeased about the manner of it. We would have thought much more of him if he just walked away graciously.

All this press story has done is remind us of how non-special a player he really was and bring the club who overpaid for his services into disrepute in front of the footballing world.

However, TH deciding to go public in this way is equally poor. I am certain this was an oversight by a Club that rightly prides itself on its treatment of ex players. In this instance TH has, by his own admission, been allowed to carry on using the facilities to get fit; presumably so his agent can then tout him round other Clubs. I imagine the gates may be locked at Finch Farm come Monday morning.

What I certainly would not do is to bemoan my fate in public.

Slagging off the club who looked after him for so long, paid him handsomely, and sent him round the world on club trips, all expenses paid, in top hotels with good facilities and also still gave him free use of their own facilities... It's unbelievable to be honest.

Anyone in the real world would thank their lucky stars and have nothing but praise for their previous employers. I'm sorry, Tony, but I don't think you're a good judge of whether the club is the People's Club or not. He sounds out of touch with the real world. too long pampered with the rest of the squad.

Let's face it, the club probably only gave Tim Howard a send off because he was a club ambassador and would represent the club Stateside (biggest market in the world); he also has a large profile in America. Tony is out of touch with the average man's reality... terrible bad mouthing the club like this to the press

However I don't get the point about him "complaining" at training at the Club. Surely this is a courtesy extended to him. Of course he can't train with the team...er...he's no longer in the squad or an employee. But he should be grateful that the club allow him to train at their facilities - this is not the mark of a club becoming a "horrible" place or running just "like a business". Doesn't add up.

My contract being up in 30 days and having a 30 day renegotiation / notice clause I reminded them weekly that my contract was expiring and they had made no offer to extend.

The day after the contract expiry I get frantic calls while on the golf course asking why I'm not at work!!

I'm a bit conflicted myself. I was always proud of the "people's club" tag, where we done things the good old fashioned gentlemanly way.
Then this summer my attitude has changed and I've been enjoying (and somewhat impressed by) the ruthless business like approach of the new regime.

I think this change in attitude was required for the club to survive and progress. However, I do think someone at the club should have had the decency to tell Tony that he wasn't being kept on after 25 or so years of service. He may not have set the world alight during that time but he would have ran through brick walls for the club! Plus he is one of us, a true die hard for Everton and that is probably the reason it hurt him more than say Pienaar.

The lads an Evertonian with nearly a quarter of a century service. Someone should have told him in advance what we all "knew" was happening.

I think he just hurts a bit more cause he loves the club so much. Hopefully when the hurt disappears he can see that this new ruthless approach is to save our club.

A player like Hibbert spent all his football career as a loyal servant to us and showed blood and guts.

Himself and Ossie could have been oriented towards coaching roles at the club, in some capacity.

Probably because you haven't been a player for 3 years, Tony.

David Ellis 94 has it right.

My boss went mental when I showed him the message (he was sat next to me) as nobody had talked to him about it and he needed me for another 3 months.

The kicker was, the day after cancelling my visa, HR 'phoned me on the way to the airport to ask me to come back to work.

Obviously the club should have spoken to Tony first before information was released - regardless of job done, money involved, etc that's just basic professional courtesy.

That said, I think Tony Hibbert has been very well served by Everton and should really not have been surprised that he wasn't going to gt a contract. The guy had barely kicked a ball in 2 years and had picked up what I can only imagine is a very generous salary (the sort of amounts that we 'the people' could only dream of).
Also if his contract was coming to an end, surely he or his agent should have been in regular communication with the club to find out what was happening rather than just waiting to be told. I'm pretty sure if my contract was up in June and I hadn't really been able to do the job I'd have a) expected it to probably end and b) requested a meeting so I knew what was happening and could plan accordingly.

I'm sure Everton could be better run (the time it takes us to close transfers compared to just about EVERYONE else is a strong indicator of that, as are some of the commercial deals) but I also think players need to be a bit more savvy too.

This does kind of show just how pampered and out of touch modern footballers are from the realities of work that everyone else faces.

I'd counter that with: "In what other job would someone be paid millions without having to do their job for 3 years?"

Hibbert is obviously upset and angry but don't burn your bridges... the club has made you a millionaire many times over – you should be thankful for the opportunity for such a long time!

If we had given him another contract then most of us would have been on here criticizing the club.

Maybe the club should have handled it better but he was lucky to have been handed another contract last time.

Why wasn't he looking for another club.

Thanks Tony but in the words of Vic Reeves 'Let it lie'

The way Everton handled this simply lacked class!

This is horseshit; he shouldn't have been given his last contract and he didn't need to be too sharp to realise that he wasn't getting a new one,so the club could pay for his next operation.

The club don't owe him a living and looked after him very well, testimonial et al.

Shut up.

Before this week - Hibbert was a long-serving, proud Evertonian, with the admiration of every single other Evertonian (there are not many things I'd say with that certainty but is there any Evertonian who'd say they never had anything but admiration and "love" for this guy?). An average footballer. Paid the market rate. An income most of us would have accepted. Unlucky with injuries. Age caught up with him. It was time for him to go and for this "great club" of ours to inform him in a decent way. Simple as that, for me.

During this week? This exemplary Evertonian learns he's no longer wanted, not from the club but from others. This is no way to treat any fellow human being. Because he had a high income (at market rate) doesn't in my view justify treating him like this. Because some people are treated like this by some employers doesn't in my view mean that we should treat others like this. What a sorry world that becomes, what a race to the bottom that becomes - the sentiment that some are treated like that, so it's ok to treat others like that. And the idea that we can justify it by saying he WAS well paId. And justify it by pointing to what he (and his family) said and did AFTER he found out (and I don't defend for one second anything said or done by them once they found out).

I'm off to the game today but this sours the day for me.

People's Club, my arse. Just another business, eh. Disgusted at them and saddened that anybody can defend that sort of behaviour by the club.

Mind you it is easy to picture the culture change from 'keep Hibbo going we haven't got a spare 㾶million' to ' how much should we spend on a new right back' that happened overnight would cause Hibbo to disappear from managers minds quite quickly.

The possible exception was the very gentlemanly and ever present Kenwright who maybe should have thought about it. The fact it was not done was an oversight, pure and simple. An apology should be forthcoming and that is an end to it.

Provided they'd told the players themselves beforehand...

I don't condone what the club did, but I am even more strongly against what Hibbo just did. He wants the club to show some decency, but is he showing any by going public about this and using some rather strong language. And we are taking about a club that spent a lot of resources to develop him in the first place and subsequently paid him multi-million pounds.

To put it a little more bluntly, no club ever bid for him (I may have missed this), and EFC kept giving him new contracts, has the club shown less loyalty than he has?

Since he was getting many encouraging text messages from BK, I thought raising this issue with the chairman and then just keep quiet would be a more gentleman approach.

I must say I liked the title 'The People's Club' – that's how I will still refer to Everton – we are the people, we are the fans, we are the club.

However, if as Hibbo states it has changed into a 'ruthless, horrible business', could it be that during his spell with us that Everton was seen as a cuddly/comfortable place, where players could text/speak to the chairman when and probably as they liked and the poor old tea ladies would run around and tender to the 'superstars' every whim.

By what he says, things have changed, attitudes have changed, in fact as it says on the tin 'Nothing will be the same' – god, how I love that slogan... and about time too. I for one am over the moon that knife-toting little Everton have become ruthless and, at long last, a business. I am sure that there will soon be many others that see us as horrible – but those we can discount.

However, to go and slate a club, which has loved you every bit as much as you have loved it, in the media is a disgrace. Hibbo is no better than one of those kiss and tell birds now. You've sold your soul Tony...an ill informed decision he will really come to regret! I'd be very shocked if Osman did the same, but then again that lad seems to have a brain.

When all is said and done Hibbert was an employee in a fixed term contract and should have been told he was no longer needed.

All the people crying out for jobs on the couching staff for him and Osman, need to get real; their day is done, get over it, move on.

Don't give me this fucking 'great servant' shite – he was average at best, he got an opportunity most of us would give our right hands for, and was handsomely paid.

And as for his wife getting angry, what's up has the gravy train pulled into the station? Welcome to the real world of everyone else.

Kudos to David Barks, Jamie Crowley, Brent Stephens...

It's not about money it's about basic manners, decency and dare I say it, professionalism. I would love to see the reaction of some on here telling him to get a grip if they got a text in five minutes from a mate saying they'd lost their job after 15 years.

Also, maybe a few thousand fans fancied the chance to give him, one of them, a bit of a send off too?

People who bring things like this down to money know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

As a side note , I have to say that I think the cup semi was the opposite of what most here are saying. Hibbo was clearly unfit having come back from injury, he was outclassed and chasing shadows . But he was the ONLY player who could take kudos from that game. For me that day Hibbo showed he put Everton first, he played like a blue, he chased and harried, he didn't give up, he was screaming and shouting at team mates and was the only one who seemed to care. He stood up and was counted. Hibbo and Ozzie were great servants to the club and he asked for a chance to thank the fans , stroll round the old lady one last time , and a bit of common courtesy.

You work at an institution for 20+ years, regardless of your pay, skill level or title, you want to be shown some respect and appreciation for your life long contributions, let alone an opportunity to say goodbye. To think his handsome pay packet should exonerate any duty to treat him like a valued employee is absurd and reeks of jealousy.

After his latest injury, they offered him the use of Finch Farm so there must have been some dialog. I just hope that the fee he has received for his revelation lessens the hurt.

(b) Some bumptious clown at Everton's HR department didn't see the need to advise him, and Osman, that their services were no longer required.
Who is in the wrong?
Both.

Hibbert for (legally) stealing a living for three years and then squealing to the press when he wasn't contacted. Did he call the club for an explanation or just run to the Daily Fail?

Everton, for not showing the most basic humanity and consideration to an employee who has played his heart out for the club whenever he's been asked to. Some one should be called up for a caning for that disgraceful oversight.

The club screwed up here. You work for any outfit as long as Hibbo's been here and you want to feel that your service was appreciated. He was an iconic player to the fanbase, can't be denied, you can understand if he wanted to at least mark his departure in some way.

The dig here is at Bill and the board funny I thought that would be cheered more on TW!.

He admits he knew what was / wasn't coming but he still got plenty of cream at the end of his career so to whinge it wasn't finally served up on a personal platter...

And say that it's not even the People's Club anymore!.. is hardly the most dignified response to his deemed 'mistreatment', is it?

Thanks for your time at Everton Tony, I hope you enjoy your retirement.

The relationship between them had been up and down, to say the least, and apparently Ferguson wouldn't shake Moyes hand and got off. Ferguson returned to see Moyes after his break in Magaluf to apologise and shake his hand.

There may have been a power vacum towards the end of the season and despite nothing much coming out of the club the dressing room and atmosphere at Finch Farm, at least, clearly just wasn't the same the last couple of years. A departed member of the medical staff had described it as previously being like a family.

Long and short of it is this. No one pulled the players in and told them face to face. Three players that must have played about a thousand games for Everton. And they never had the chance, as others have had recently, to take applause from the crowd and have a moment which, for me, all three richly deserved.

I would make three observations.

Tony Hibbert was an Everton player and a loyal member of the squad. I would add he was a journeyman like player who got to stay at the same club so perhaps loyalty and opportunity determine that to some degree. I do think the club behaved badly from not giving him the common decency of an explanation that he was not to be offered a further contract.

Secondly, whilst I am sure that Tony was not on a mega wage he will probably of earned in a week what many people earn in a year so I can understand the lack of sympathy. Perhaps Tony would have been better advised to keep a dignified silence, take advantage of Finch Farm to get back to fitness, and try to secure one final contract in the lower leagues. It is a little bizzare how footballers fail to appreciate that in any other world they would of been managed out of their job years ago as he was unable to fulfill his job due to health reasons. That's what happens to real people in the real world.

Lastly, I wish him well. I hope my observations adequately reflect the situation of a footballer reaching the end of his career and hopefully having the means to start a new one. It's unfortunate that some people have to be so nasty. It is not just the club who lose grace, but also th fans when they aggressively hit out at an honest man who always tried his best. He may be a footballer, but he is also human and no doubt his feelings have been hurt as we all would in such circumstances.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of the situation, the two players in question are clearly either deluded, detached, or down right clueless as to how to conduct themselves.

And as far as this "People's Club" shite that has been promoted in place of winning trophies, great - I'm glad we are finally showing some professionalism. We are not some non-league "sit in a bath of beans" for 24 hours club to raise money for charity.

It seems we are happy to let boxers and ex-players train at Finch Farm, distracting the first team whilst they fuck about with Tony Bellew.

I hope Koeman puts a stop to all of it, and he insists on a more professional approach. I did hear he has made some changes already in this regard, so good for him.

Obviously, the Money Bags of Everton were too busy loading the wheelbarrow for Lukaku to bother with such niceties !

On the other hand it can't really have been a surprise for Hibbo and the others that they weren't offered another contract. (Unless they thought the Everton charity train was still running and they could squeeze another contract out of the club for doing not very much...)

Okay, they have both been paid well, but I guess they have saved the club a lot of money in transfer fees by staying so loyal.

Would go a long way to solving the problem.

Good luck with the fishing Hibbo.

That said we had no manager at this point and the previous buffoon had already frozen Hibbo out.

That said we had no manager at this point and the previous buffoon had already frozen Hibbo out.

That said we had no manager at this point and the previous buffoon had already frozen Hibbo out.

The above statement is laughable. We all know how Moyes looked after "number one" and his cronies (Hibbert and Ossie for example) and had no thought for the greater good of Everton and it's fans when he left.

I seem to recall Osman receiving a nice extension to his contract from Moyes as he left for Man utd even though he been next to useless for a long time and contributing nothing.

Regarding the "People's club" slight from Hibbert It's in the interest of the "People" ie the fans that our hard earned money does not get wasted on players contracts when the contribute nothing (like you for the past few years). It's also not classy at all to go running to the Daily Mail (of all newspapers) to slag off an former employer who rewarded you very handsomely indeed. As for your wife well she would be disappointed that the gravy train has come to a sudden halt wouldn't she?

There was one fella on the Besic thread saying he was ashamed to be a blue sometimes as, in the aftermath of his injury, some posters were saying Besic may not be that big a miss and didn't necessarily rate him. Seriously.

Some of the comments on here certainly don't make me ashamed, but are pathetic.

It wouldn't have taken much for someone at the club to give them a call.

Yet we were lead to believe that all was sweetness and light after The Dour One left Stephen (#168) and everyone had smiles on their faces and Martinez even knew the name of the tea lady.

Sounds a completely different story now, what with all those departing backroom staff?

"Dear Sir or Madam,
Reports in today's press suggest that one of Everton's most loyal servants,Tony Hibbert, has seen his services dispensed with without the courtesy of, at the very least, a phone call or letter from the club. Leon Osman also appears to have left the club with little or no fanfare. Hibbert, and Osman, both deserve to be treated better from a club which likes to regard itself,with some justification, as the "Peoples Club".I hope that the Club can find a way to show some respect to two fine servants of our great club and allow their many fans the opportunity to thank them in a fitting manner, possibly by inviting them onto the pitch at half time during next weeks match or sometime soon.

Regards,

Ray Roche

Season Ticket Holder."

People wonder why there is no loyalty in football? It's always been dog eat dog, and full of flavours of the month. The money now involved will only make things worse

OK it could have been handled better, but as has already been pointed out, the club was in a state of flux. Hibbo has been offered the run of Finch Farm to get fit, he should really just bite his tongue and count his blessings.

Can't really believe that this non story has generated a 170 post thread.

But Peter (#155) if Martinez hadn't already made the decision to release Hibbert, Osman and Pienaar, in which case there was ample time for them to be told and participate in a lap of honour, then who had authority to decide to release them before Ronald rocked up??

Whoever that was needs a rocket up their arse, not for releasing them, but for the negative publicity this is bringing in not having common courtesy to let them know before an official announcement.

This non-story is all about common bloody decency and whether the club we support still has the capacity to show it.

I'd be disappointed if it wasn't something that was still an important talking point for us.

Why shouldn't he be able to use Finch Farm, he suffered the injury while on club duty.

However much he earned in cash is irrelevant, he was a loyal bloke that should at least have been given the courtesy of a meeting with Bill to thank him for his service and say goodbye.

Those above bringing their rather I'll founded assessment of his talents or what he earns into this.. completely miss the point.

A decent fella treated abysmally by his employer.

We've been tinpot for years so I see this as a good sign. Sentiment doesn't get you anywhere in sport, and we've been innocent bystanders for 25 years as a result of our insistence on relying on our 'istory.

I love Hibbo, and wish him the best, and agree that he should have been told in a right & proper manner - but the overriding thing here is the above. Forwards not backwards.

To be fair every employee should be notified by their employer if their services are no longer required - unfortunately the world we live in is not always what it should be.

He was out of contract and to expect another one when he's contributed nothing for 3 years is idiotic. He should've went to the club before his contract ran down.

I've been a contractor in the past, and you know exactly when you're going to be out of work, so you go to your employer and you talk to them about it - what about the agents? Surely they know when their clients deals are expiring so it gets talked about?

I find all this to be a bit unbelievable if you think about it this way.

What did Hibbo and Ossie do, just go to training every say and say nothing to anyone? Just trained in silence? It doesn't make any sense not to speak to someone at the club about it.

Shane - read all of my post 189 again.

BK: "Hey...and what about that lad? (begins to weep). Hibbo - one of our own. A real true blue, been with us since he was 2 years old, he bleeds blue, you can't buy that (places string of onions round neck) Legend material, a local lad made good. From the terraces to the first team, stuff of dreams...small boys isn't it...carp for goalposts...mmm?" (wipes tears with flannel, rings it out in bucket) continues in this vein for another hour

2016.

SFX: "Deedle-ee-dee, diddle-ee-dee, diddle-ee-di dooo deedle-ee-dee, diddle-ee-dee, diddle-ee-di dooo (Nokia ring-tone)

BK: "Don't answer it Jenny, it'll just be soft-ollies on the ear 'ole again."

Who was the coward who couldn't tell Tony and Leon face to face that they were not being offered another contract, pathetic.
Anyone sticking up for the club on this one, needs to get a grip.

But, I hope everyone knows the C.E.O, Robert Elstone, is at FF nearly every day. Why didn't they approach him directly and ask him what was going on? Or ensure their agent made their position clear 6 months before their contracts were due to expire?

Taking the interview into consideration, it just sounds like they turned up for training and didn't ask anyone what the fuck was going on. Incredible.

Do you think it's better practice to release the information on the website before telling him???? You actually advocate that approach? Disgrace.

Why should Tim get a send off and not Tony? It lacks class, we're supposed to do things better.

Shitty employers act like this, and it should be condemned by all right thinking people.

Anyway, now off to clip Bill around the ear before entering the School of Present-Day Capitalist, Managerialist, Neo-Liberal Bullshit.

I read a while back that Hibbo has never had an agent and always accepted whatever deal was offered to him. Still, he didn't need to go public with this and should've gone fishing instead. Naughty Hibbo.

What did he think was going to happen? A statue? Name a stand after him? He's been a professional footballer for a lot of years. He's seen many players come and go at Everton without any fanfare. Why did he think it would be different for him?

Didn't score a single goal for the first team. Coleman eclipsed him years ago. Never got a single England call up. Even Osman got one of those. He was a bog standard squad player yet the club turned him into a multi millionaire. So what does he do? Bites the hand the fed him, and fed him well, for all those years.

He was earning more in one year than I've earned in fifty years so you can imagine that I have very little sympathy for his complaints. He can swan off to France and live a nice comfy life. Pension sorted. No worrying about bills. Busy doing nothing. If he wants to swap lifestyles with me I'm more than willing. I won't complain about how hard done by I am either.

Agreed. It makes them seem pretty arrogant if they assumed they'd get new deals. You'd think they'd question it before checking the bank account and realizing the direct deposit had stopped. That said, we should have handled it better

2. Hibbo has said nothing for a decade, so why now? The article says 'told Mail online'. I wonder whether he knew he was talking to Mail Online?

3. His comments about 'The People's Club' are valid, in that they paint a picture of life at EFC under Martinez, and how that compared unfavourably to the club under Moyes. We need to know about that.

4. Many times under Moyes, we got wins or ground out draws, because of that very 'togetherness' that Hibbo talks about. If it vanished under RM, then it probably had a direct effect on results.

5. Football in 2016 is simply a [not very attractive] business. I'm not sure that that is necessarily a good thing.

6. If being 'The People's Club' ceases to matter, and doing things the 'right way' doesn't bother anyone, then I'll revive my Lancashire membership, and watch cricket.

7. We must never forget what makes us different.

8. On the other hand, if Hibbo and/or Ossie thought they would get new contracts, then despite their long service, I'm afraid they were living alone on the planet 'Delusion'!

Strange this. Has he done it off his own back or been advised by somebody? Why would the 'Mail' even run this story?

Struggling to understand what Hibbo is trying to achieve here other than stirring the pot...? Another PR masterclass!

I wondered that too but based on the fact that RM said Hibbert only "started to talk" in April I doubt he sought out the Mail. Dominic King formerly of the Echo is there and has a tendency to to produce Everton hit stories. I imagine he had one of his buddies seek out Hibbo. They probably asked him a bunch of loaded questions then picked out the worst bits to produce this story.

He wasn't sacked he just wasn't given a new deal but it's a conversation both he and the club should have initiated before his deal expired.

MATE!!! (I do love using that word, it's so foreign to me) What the hell are you on today??

And as far as this "People's Club" shite that has been promoted in place of winning trophies, great - I'm glad we are finally showing some professionalism

It's professional to not call in a player who's been with you since he was 10 years old and tell him man-to-man that it's time to move on? You just bin him off in the scrap heap of former players - the cattle butcher's pile of carcasses?

Everton conducted themselves in a pitiful manner and our treatment of Hibbo was the furthest thing from professional that could have been.

Embarrasing and wholly awful way to treat an incredibly loyal man and employee. Nay, downright shitty.

Professional???... you're havin' a laugh Tully!!

You surely mean PAID ?
Earnings and wages are most definitely NOT the same thing !

Anyone who is, or has been, self employed will rapidly explain the differences. Mr & Mrs Hibbert have grossly benefitted from one or many more of these differences.

In his absolute pomp, Tony was a "decent" squad level defender, but never ever more.

Let's (for sake of illustration) say that he was PAID 㿈,000 per week by said Everton Football Club Company Limited.
I select this figure simply because it broadly equates to the national average annual income for an able bodied person (note, able bodied, it is important here).

IF, Mr Hibbert was paid 㿅,000 each and every week, then in a single year, he would have received 52 years pay at the national annual rate. In other words, the same amount as an able bodied person would during their working lifetime.

A single year !
A working lifetime !

If a taxi driver picked up a fare (let's say a Mr & Mrs Roberts) in a mad rush to get to John Lennon Airport for a swanky cruise to celebrate multi-millionaire "Mr Roberts" recent retirement (at the grand old age of 35). In the rush to get booked in, "Mr &Mrs Roberts" omit to tip (not pay, but tip) the cabbie. How would you view the cabbie, if, he/she subsequently toddled off to (shall we say) "The Daily Mail" at the behest of their spouse telling just how hurt they felt at not being thanked/ tipped ?
Yet, the cabbie had been told that they were free to use "Mr & Mrs Roberts" private gym and swimming pool at their leisure ?

If Mr Hibbert now feels "hurt" then he has already been more than amply compensated for his honest, loyal and dedicated contributions to the most fucking boring and sterile period of Everton Football Club Company Limited's entire history.

Should Mrs Hibbert feel so aggrieved at the manner in which her husband's contract was not renewed, then I suggest that she book them a first class flight to reality.

I do feel that Hibbo, Ossie and 'Nuts should have had the chance to wave goodbye, I'd have liked that. But at least Ossie and 'Nuts didn't go "Carping" to "The Daily Mail" just 'cost their missus threw a hissy pissy.

When you go to work and do a job - never bitch and give your all to the employer...

Do you EARN the money or are you PAID?

I mean you - Tony Draper - are you paid or did you work hard and earn it?

You're falling into, dare I say, a thoughtless trap. It's not about how much Hibbo made. If you put that into the equation you're falling into class envy / warfare.

Rise above that Tony. Just forget, for one second, how much Hibbo was paid.

Did Everton act with class and dignity?

Another way to look at it...

Suppose a kid started aged 16 or so as a janitor at Everton. Came and went, loved the Club, worked hard doing what he does to keep the place running and tidy. At aged 55 after a working-lifetime of service he decides to hang it up and retire...

Should Everton recognize him before he exits? Or at a minimum should someone pull him in to an office, have a word, and thank him for his loyalty and what he'd done for the Club all that time?

The answer, Tony, unless you've been raised by wolves, is yes.

Thank you so much Tony, if more players acted like you have throughout your career football might not be the laughing stock of sport like it currently is.

Still a poor way to treat any player, and a public apology should be issued.

P.s.

Do you ever go on price comparison sites to get a cheaper energy deal or cross your fingers when the motor goes for it's MOT?

Welcome to the real world Neo.

Times when I have drawn nothing.
Absolutely Zero !
Fuckall !

Not because, unlike Mr Hibbert at Wembley, I genuinely deserved fuckal!
BUT, because I went unpaid.

Sometimes, as I referred earlier, not only have I not been paid but I have been threatened, indeed I have had tools and materials stolen /removed/not returned/damaged in addition to the labour not paid for.
When I say threatened, I mean a knock upon the door at 3am by 3 big blokes in ski masks kind of threat. After that, I didn't resubmit my 3 month overdue invoice.
These are the harsh realities.

Still, I choose to be self employed, therefore I select the lifestyle (it means that I can take time out when needed with my elderly parents, albeit at some cost to my earnings. Flexibility and continuity in balance. I have chosen this, it's good. Not incredible, but best fit).
But £28,000 a week ? Erm, no.
40 minutes work in 3 years on full pay ? Oh tickle my cock.

For Everton Football Club Company Limited not to have invited Messers Hibbert, Osman and Pienaar for a farewell cuppa and a bourbon biscuit, custard cream or even a choccy hobnob IS remiss.
I would NEVER fail to do that I may not have the money available to buy the teabags, milk n biccies, but a fond and genuine handshake and a look in the eye as I was saying "thanks, best of luck" costs nothing. Undisputed fact.

However, Hibbo's tale of woe DOES sadly display what a bunch of fuckin mollycoddled, namby-pamby, jessies the modern day footballers portray themselves to be. Their choice.

Frankly, after his sad, pathetic admission of henpeckerry, I'm bloody glad that our ex-right back isn't being paid to go fishing in France any longer.

I thought that Hibbo was one of the lads, he clearly isn't. Does he really expect us all to swallow this cock n bull story, which effectively hinges upon the fact that his fixed term contract was running down like the "Countdown Clock", came as a complete surprise ?

Bollocks, utter and complete bollocks !

That only suggests that the full time carp fisherman "assumed" that another couple of years malingering on the annual national average income per week was even likely !

2. It's the Daily Mail ferchrissakes ... ignore #1 above.

Yes, I was brought up on Young, Vernon etc. Great days, John! Oh for a few like them, eh.

No Frank (#209), it seems all he thought was going to happen was to walk round Goodison Park one last time waving to the fans.

It seems hard for some on here to actually read what Hibbert said doesn't it. He just thought someone from the club might have actually contacted him at some point. And he's personally upset that he wasn't able to say goodbye. Not sure why that's so controversial to some.

What a load of bullshit Tony, no comparison at all to a loyal employee completing a long service at his club.

Footballers can be very expectant- Keegan said in his book that he was appalled that Newcastle didn't give him a big ex gratia payment when he left after all he had done for them, totally disregarding the handsome pay packet he had. No mention from Hibbert about the testimonial we gave him and how we continued to pay him handsomely when he barely kicked a ball for 3 years.

I would love to hear from Mr.Elstone about his views on this but if what Hibbert says is true then yes we could have had a quiet word with him but for him to whinge about the club treating him badly is outrageous - he has done better out of us than we have out of him as he was never more than a mediocre player who somehow became a cult figure in some people's eyes for being too poor to ever score a goal.

We're obviously going to have to agree to disagree.

I believe Tony Hibbert was entitled, under the guise and parameters of employer decency, to have been given an audience after years of employment to inform him of his pending exit from the Club he was a member of since he was 10 years old.

You believe he's entitled to no such action. He's been paid a king's ransom (and he has...) and therefore due to the exceedingly high compensation can be let go without notice.

I think that's a fair summary.

I applaud and more importantly respect your self-employment. I, too, am self-employed and have the highest degree of respect for anyone who does the same.

We have something in common - we both know how incredibly difficult that can be at times.

Cheers.

So why did't this multimillionaire ex-Everton right back pop a piece in "The Liverpool Echo" at his own expense ?
Surely he must be able to afford that for less than the price of a pair of "Jimmy Choo's" or "Manolo Blahniks" for the deeply offended Mrs Hibbert ?

One in which he expressed his gratitude, admiration and eternal loyalty to his boyhood club, friends and hundreds of thousands of fans and followers ?

He didn't.
Never bothered.

Apparently, Everton did fail to terminate the association between Everton Football Club Company Limited and Messers Hibbert, Osman and Pienaar with the style and panache that was the hallmark of "The Millionaires Club" of the heydays of the 60's, 70's and 80's, that's disappointing, truly it is.

However, the millionaire's of those bygone times were the owners, not the artisans.

The very moment that Anthony James Hibbert decided to go slagging off Everton in the press was the very same moment that those of us who PAID to watch him throughout the years of sterility have the right to play our "JUST FUCKIN' HOLD ON THERE SUNSHINE !" card !

Anthony James Hibbert ?

Millionaire because he did something better than any of us, in an entertainment business that people obsess over.

Imagine if you had been in a company for 20 years, your CEO organised a party, as big as those annual dinners and invited the suppliers and some important customers to the event to show appreciation of your long term service and dedication to the company in the past 20 years. The company also raised some funds from the dinner and donated the proceeds to a charity that you specified, and put your name down as the donor.

Fast forward 2-3 years, the company has a power struggle and the CEO has just been ousted and replaced (ok, this part about the power struggle is not really an important part of my argument, but just for the sake of trying to paint the same picture as what happened in EFC). At the same time you have been on contract after the dinner event and your contract ended yesterday. You didn't care to check with the HR whether you were going to get a new contract (ok, I made this part up). Nobody came to say good bye to you, your HR didn't send you a thank you email, etc.

Do you get very upset and go on social media to blast your company?

If your answer is yes, then my opinion of you is that you didn't worth and didn't deserve that party that your company organised for you at your 20th anniversary in your job.

The more I think of this, the more I feel Hibbo is the unappreciative one.

Envious of Peinaars talent ?
Too fucking right !
Oh for just one afternoon to be Stephen Jerome Pienaar wearing the "Royal Blue Jersey".
Feet that could glide hardly touching the hallowed turf of the Kings.

Leon Osman ?
Fast feet, bloody hell !
I'd love to have been Leon, even as a last minute sub, just once.
A courteous gent beyond all question.

Anthony James Hibbert.
Cult, Gwladys St hero, who pissed on his chips. Shame.

Eric, you have the freedom to read whatever the fuck you wish to read into whatever you wish.
But,
That's you.
You're doing the reading.

Leave me to express my own opinions for myself, ta.

In any kind of business, that's unprofessional. We recently let a contractor go but he was told 3 months before he left he wasn't being kept on.

The torches are lit, the monster's on the loose, let's get the (see 231) 'spoilt overpaid shithouse.'

(Hibbert a 'shithouse' - really?).

Once again, hell hath no fury like a TWer spurned.

"Rooney, what a twat, see him kiss his fuckin' Manc badge when I was bellowing red-faced at the top of me lungs that his wife is slag and likes it up the arse! The nerve of him!"

Link

DD (212) Is Tony not allowed to process his thoughts? He was annoyed and maybe just wanted to communicate this. He isn't employed by the club, so can say what he likes.

@Eric Myles. Didn't he do that at his testimonial?

The instant that he went moaning to the press, HE opened the gates.

Excessively paid ex-employee etc.

Eugene that link is a crowded place full of blinkered people. I couldn't find my space :)

If it wasn't for a chance meeting with a community volunteer who worked for an advice centre, no one would have known of his plight: they contacted the authorities and he received all his due pension money. He never had an agent, accountant or lawyer to represent him, and was too proud to air his problems with the public.

This begs the question: did Hibbert's agent tell him his Everton career was over? If not, and his representative's let him down, is he not intelligent enough to visit the ground he's been working from for 15 years, and ask for a meeting with the CEO? I'm baffled that he's only just realised he doesn't play for EFC anymore.

All I can say to any of you who:
a. Couldn't care less
b. Think he didn't deserve a conversation
c. Likened his situation on pay/ earnings to their own (get real)

Hibbert and Osman were paid employees of the club who did not know exactly their employment position as both contracts drew down. They OBVIOUSLY did not or could not get answers to any questions they had or were fobbed off with a "wait and see".

They didn't get a heads-up before they were let go. Irrespective of who earned what, how lucky they are or whatever... they were employees that were let go by press release.

You really think that's okay? Really? No wonder we get the tag of bitter blues!

We will never, ever, know the internal workings of our - or any - football club.

And one could on many occasions be forgiven for thinking that, on par with players' wages, they are crazily out of kilter with every other commercial enterprise in the country right now.

So this sort of apparently ham-fisted end to a long-serving player's contract could, on the face of it, have been handled better? Certainly, Mr Hibbert seems to think so.

However, let's stop and think a bit...

Here's the situation as I see it:

Tony Hibbert had a contract that he knew expired this Summer.

Presumably he was made aware of the expiry date when he signed it?

Presumably, he and or his agent will have made a note of that date in their diaries?

Presumably, as that deadline approached, one or both would have made enquiries with the club about whether it was going to be extended?

And presumably they will subsequently have had the joint wit and intelligence to realise that it was not?

Instead, we are asked to believe that Hibbert woke up the morning after his last pay day and was completely horrified to discover there wasn't going to be another. And no-one had had the decency to tell him!

What?

Really?

It may well be that the club did not send him a hand-crafted, wax-sealed certificate, in finest linen, beautifully concealed inside a Faberge Egg and delivered by a coach and horses to break the news to him - but are today's footballers (including the likes of our consistently average, if loyal former-fullback), so deluded as to think they deserve some sort of fanfare and 'apology'?

I would be amazed if the club's HR department had not fulfilled all their legal obligations and notifications to the letter, especially when such large sums of money are involved.

Yet here's Hibbert wanting us to believe that one day, without warning, Everton simply stopped talking to him.

Personally, after he and Osman got whipped in the 2009 cup final, I think he was extremely lucky to get paid for another SEVEN years.

He's been a crock for the last three, so even during that time he will surely have earned in the region of two million pounds or more for doing sweet FA.

Even if the club had been neglectful, who is he to complain after earning a genuine fortune and not having done more than a few days' work in the last 1,000-plus alone.

On that evidence alone, I would say the club have gone overboard to look after him.

We've got used to the likes of Ronaldo being a prima-donna. And even Yaya Toure's recent 'unhappy birthday' outburst wasn't completely unexpected - so cosseted are these vile, vain, greedy, self-centred people we invest so much of our hopes and money in.

But a second-rate fullback, who no-one has seen hide nor hair of for the best part of the last three seasons?

Hibbert, you should be ashamed of yourself - not sorry for yourself.

You have gone from being one of us, to a complete gobshite.

Unlike most people, it's a pity he had to sully his Everton career crying to the papers. All those in sympathy with him should have a collection as him and his missus must be under severe financial pressure.

I doubt very much the miners, ship builders, steel workers etc got a personal call from the boss.

Up until he left, ticket prices were not cheap, but reasonable. Now ticket prices start at 㿐 for any Premier League game, that's why I have decided not to attend any home games this season. There's no need for ticket prices to be that high considering the TV deal, why not just set a maximum price of 㿊 for adults and 㾶 for kids and concessions? It means that different elements of the local community can attend.

I also don't agree that we should've sold 32,000 season tickets leaving only 5,000 tickets, half of which are restricted for those who can only afford to attend the odd game.

Even though I don't agree with all of Southall's views, it's disgraceful that he was given the cold shoulder by the club. The way Osman, Hibbert and Pienaar were treated this year is disgusting. Yes, it was time for them to go, but it could have been done in a better way.

The reality is we're becoming just like the RS in the way we treat fans and employees which is utterly disgraceful. I will always love the club but I don't like the people running it.

Let's look forward to what we can achieve rather than look back on what passed for achievement.

So now, why not go: shopping for shoes with the deeply offended Mrs H? Or carp fishing with multimillionaire Mr H? ou can trade your stories of your Everton goalscoring exploits with either on a quid pro quo basis!

I don't think Hibbo is so completely dense as to wake up one morning and all of a sudden realise he isn't an Everton player.

To a point, both parties are at fault. Yes I think the club should have had a meeting with him and his agent in May at the end of the season and told him his contract would not be renewed. However for him to speak out in the press in the manner he has is distasteful at best, and at worst will forever tarnish his relationship with the club and fans.

As hundreds here have noted, Everton (and the fans) have given Hibbo riches which most fans could only dream of as he packs his fishing rod and rides into the sunset into early retirement.

You got players Lakaku talking crap regularly and Hibbert has always been loyal until he was let down by the club.

Obviously the RS were formed purely for profit and have continued that legacy as the devils club. I think it's wrong to abuse a ex player just for stating their opinion on a subject. I personally just feel with haven't really moved forward since 2013, so like you I don't understand we're all this optimism is coming from.

Paul Tran, I don't disagree with you, I don't know how we're are going to get the Nil Satis Nisi Optimum mentality back. While I was never Moyes biggest fans at least the players worked hard and largely gave 100%. Even our better players like Stones and Lukaku rarely perform very well.

Tony 257, I'm not pretending that Hibbert was a legend, nor did I state Everton will be bothered by me not attending. My personal view is just we shouldn't become like the RS, we should make tickets affordable, continue with our community work and treat ex players with respect.

Yes, I want a slicker more professionally run club which can seriously compete for titles and trophies, but that can be achieved alongside and not at the cost of simple basic courtesies.

I take a great deal of pride in how my club conducts itself and is a world leader within the ranks of professional football in such initiatives as EITC and the Former Players' Foundation.

How Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman discovered from friends and family their long association with the club was over, rather than being told face to face by someone of standing at the club, is at odds with how I expect Everton conduct their affairs.

I expect better from my club.

Hibbert has been content to draw a wage yet contributed nothing to the youth development. He could have got his coaching tickets. Nice work, £20k a week to swan around and do fuck all.

Frank #245, no he didn't say farewell at his testimonial, that was in 2012, and his contract was renewed since then, it's now 4 years later when he's being released.

Hibbert deserved to be told he was leaving, to hear from a mate shows the club can be pretty shambolic.

Didn't expect this reaction on TW.

It also wasn't Hibbo who decided how much he should get paid - he was fortunate enough to be around when the money in the premier league when stratospheric.

Hibbo didn't decide what his level of talent would be or what injuries he might suffer. The only thing he was in control of was the effort he could put in on the field - something that I never saw to be lacking at all.

Like the thread about Osman merely talking about Martinez on the radio, I just don't get the savage reaction. All he's saying is it wasn't a nice way to learn that the club he'd been at for years were letting him go.

He has a diary, and maybe even a wall calendar I would wager?

Is he not capable of using them?

Hibbert's ill-advised decision to complain about his 'treatment' – after receiving an ill-deserved contract extension well beyond his value to the club – shows what a pampered, out-of-touch-with-reality bubble the modern-day footballer lives in.

When, with all due (now lack of) respect, a quite ordinary full back who has never made a mark outside Goodison seeks to publicly promote how sorry he feels for himself, and how Everton have 'let him down', it shows how ridiculously entitled they deem themselves to be.

This particular man has long survived on a sympathy vote from club and fans alike and been handsomely paid for doing virtually fuck-all for at least the last three years.

Hard done by? Upset? Angry?

How dare he, when many of us now gasp at the cost of a matchday ticket.

So get some sense of perspective all those who are sympathising with him.

These players think they are demi-gods. And your blind sycophancy fuels and sustains that belief from the moment they wake up on a morning, check their bank balance, go training for an hour, and then back to sleep again.

I have no problem whatsoever about what money he was paid by the club, that is the market he works in. If you are a professional footballer playing in the Premier League or even the Championship you are going to be a very wealthy man.

I have always liked him, a decent player but not a world beater. I liked it that he was one of us, as I do when I hear any of our players are true blues. I liked that he appears down to earth, watching games with the fans & preferring to go carp fishing rather than falling out of Spearmint Rhino with a bottle of Courvoisier in his hand. I for one wish him the best for the future in whatever he does.

However, in my eyes he has scored an own goal by going to a shithouse right wing rag like the mail to air his grievances, he ended up coming across rather bitter, whether he intended to or not.

Taking away the ins and outs of whether or not he should have been told and questioning the club's professionalism and decency, he comes across as a spoilt, petulant brat with incredible double standards.

I' very disappointed with him, falls just short of YaYa spitting his dummy out because he didn't get a birthday cake.

Sad sign of the times, I suppose.

It was bad form by EFC and should be put right, and not happen again – business or no business, respect is something which a club of EFCs tradition and stature should show to all players. Just cause some of you didn't receive that respect or wage does not mean Hibbo & Co don't deserve a bit of common decency.

I always think that before complaining about what you haven't had or got, you should think a minute about what you have and have had.

As a footballer, with their unique, ivory-towered, privileged, idolised lifestyles, this need for a vital pause for thought is even more acute.

But here we have a multi-millionaire having the audacity to seek sympathy in the national press for how he has been 'wronged'!

Prima facie, how anyone of us who works 9-5, five or more days a week to earn a living can support that, beggars belief.

This failed right back wouldn't even lend anyone in this thread a fiver if you asked him for it - yet many have expressed compassion and would doubtless dig into their pockets for him if he ended-up skint in a few years' time.

Wake up.

It's we who are being insulted here. Not the club.

And least of all Tony 'I love me, who do you love' Hibbert.

Even I knew his contract ended, but apparently, it was a shock for him that he was no longer an Everton player, so, why didn't he a) phone his agent and ask him when his contract expiry date was or, b) go to the buildings that he's been attending all his working life and ask someone in authority about the situation, instead of blabbing to the media, giving our club a bad name when he's has years of not having to get up and work 9 to 5, for a meagre wage, with no job security, worrying about paying bills and receiving no applause for the job he does

I agree fully and hereby promise not to personally extend this particular thread any further.

Everyone in employment irrespective of how much they earn, is entitled to be treated with basic respect and decency by their employer. If you reached your annual pay review, heard nothing from your employer, just got your next pay slip with no pay increase and then had to ask your manager why no increase or pay discussion? only to be told there's no pay rise this year, would this be ok? Presumably it would for some, sadly.

The game's evolved over the last 20 years, if you don't like what it now is you have a choice, but it's pointless complaining about those players who are fortunate enough to benefit from the financial rewards funded by us fans. Good luck to them.

'Tony Hibbert signs new two-year contract to keep defender at Everton until 2016'

You did ask.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2677102/Tony-Hibbert-signs-new-two-year-contract-defender-Everton-2016.html#ixzz4GfI9n6ls

Tony has shot himself in the foot over this and the club were stupid for giving him the opportunity, as well as the way they treated Osman and Pienaar. Yes, they had contracts extended past their sell-by dates; why? Who knows... but that has nothing to do with the lack of PR logic shown by all concerned. Made even more obvious by the quieter style of his two colleagues.

What price good management eh!?

The vast majority of cash that the parasites in sport are feasting on comes from 'every' person in the world, whether they like sport or not.

When you see Sky Sports and all it's adverts for credit cards, McDonald's burgers etc, plus the boards they interview players, coaches etc in front of, that's where the bulk of the cash comes from. Without any consultation, every Mars Bar bought by a consumer helps to make these greedy sods richer. And if you think that doesn't affect you, the taxpayer loses out as this 'benevolent' advertising is tax exempt.

We exist in a media world dominated by Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The coverage they receive - particularly our neighbours, who they need no excuse to go into a masturbatory frenzy about - is truly nauseating.

Working on that profession, I know that headlines are there to sensationalise and copy is very often written to suit the author, not the subject.

But even allowing for an element of misrepresentation and misinterpretation, Hibbert has still marked himself as the most surprising of prima donnas.

For that he deserves no sympathy whatsoever.

He's received 'special treatment' almost throughout his career and especially since 2009.

He should have been shipped-out before the players even returned for training after his typically inadequate performance in the cup final, yet we paid him millions of pounds to stay with us for another seven years!

And he now has a problem with that?

And it's not about how much Hibbert earns per se – it's about his lack of gratitude and appreciation. Plus the fact he feels he is still owed something.

He'd make a brilliant Judean People's Front committee member, discussing tactics with with fellow long-standing under-performers, Osman and Pienaar (he was head & shoulders a better player than both of them): "Right lads, what have Everton ever done for us...?"

I'm saddened at the personal vitriol in this. It demeans us as Everton fans. Once a blue, always a blue, and all that.

Remember though that EPL teams are playing to packed houses and away tickets almost impossible to get. I think what these thick young men and their agents get paid is obscene but how to stop it? The answer is nothing because it's a simple matter of supply, demand and free trade which I fully support. I won't go and watch a game live any more but it doesn't matter, the damage is done by my Sky and BT Sport subscriptions without which I can't watch F1, MGP, Cricket and Rugby. I get the football whether I want it or not.

Don't you find it a little incongruous David (#125) that we are happy to let a defender that can't defend go for 㿞m, but criticise a defender who knows how to defend??

Where has Hibbert ever questioned what Everton has done for him?? Have you ever heard a bad word from him before now?

It does portray him in a slightly ungrateful light. I wonder if that is what he wanted or has this been skewed by the journo, I wonder?

Seeing as he's been with the club since he was 10, could the club have offered him some sort of role, even if it was teaching kids how to defend?

Not only that but you'll never go to a cinema again to watch those overpaid prima donnas? And miss out on the daily dramas of Coronation Street and Emmerdale too??

As far as I'm aware, we have categorically stated we are not happy to let him (Stones) go.

But I'm not criticising Hibbert principally for his defensive qualities, although I have never been consistently impressed by his ability to do so.

His shamefaced, 'woe is me' crocodile tears are the issue here?

If he was daft enough to 'forget' his contract had run out by himself, who's to say the club hadn't, indeed, confirmed that officially and he'd missed that as well?

I would find it staggering if they hadn't and just deleted him from the 'current employees' HR file without any form of official communication.

So who's to say he's even presenting a true picture?

So it's not a case of his footballing skills, or the size of his pay packet here.

It's that after contributing nothing for three years, he has had the front to claim he's been hard done by.

For me, it's the audacity and questionable validity of that that irks.

Looks like he's petulantly aggrieved because he didn't get a Hollywood send-off.

Perhaps Spielberg could be persuaded to produce 'Tony Hibbert: the movie...'? Maybe that would placate him?

I wish all Everton players showed the commitment on the pitch he did.

He's basically been picking up more in a week than most of us earn in a year for fucking off to France fishing. Cry-arsing to the press (a rag as well) was probably not the best idea.

And people have mentioned his 'loyalty', well I don't recall him turning down potential moves to stay here. I don't recall anyone even being linked with him.

He was very limited player who did a good job for us. The club should put this to bed by getting him and Osman on the pitch at half-time in the Spurs game.

I imagine someone at the club, responsible for that sort of stuff,has fucked up. It shouldn't too hard to put right.

I don't get, though, what he earned has to do with it. What level of pay must be reached before being disregarded doesn't matter? When you are a mid table club getting the little stuff right makes a huge difference.

Bob #1: Tony Hibbert.
Everton Mgmt: Who's he?
Bob #2: You know, squirrely looking guy, mumbles a lot.
Everton Mgmt: Oh, yeah.
Bob #1: Yeah, we can't actually find a record of him being a current employee here.
Bob #2: I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago and no one ever told him, but through some kind of glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck.
Bob #1: So we just went ahead and fixed the glitch.
Everton Mgmt: Great.
Everton Mgmt: So um, Hibbert has been let go?
Bob #1: Well just a second there, professor. We uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it will just work itself out naturally.
Bob #2: We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem solved from your end.

Office Space

People who believe it's justifiable to treat him in a disrespectful way simply because he earns much more money than them are the ones who have the problem.

Bitterness, jealousy, false sense of entitlement, who knows why some folks feel this way.

Gotta be double that.

Can't remember anyone bidding for him - or ever having been likely to - never mind those football Monopoly players at Chelsea and Man City.

Stones meanwhile, would become the country's highest-value UK defender if he moved right now. So irrespective of our respective opinions, there is no comparison.

Different era and far different players. And no real relevance in this thread?

You're straying from the point here: which is that Hibbert feels sorry for himself, after earning millions for being retained well past his point of usefulness.

I would suggest part of the reason for that unmerited extension was Evertonian sentiment - the exact quality he is petulanty claiming he hasn't had quite enough of!

And (302), 'justifiably'?

Do you seriously believe for one minute that he received no notification whatsoever from the club prior to, or on expiry of his contract?

Even if that were the case, more fool him and his agent, for not checking well in advance - when, logically, the date would have been re-confirmed?

It would be very interesting to hear what the club had to say on this matter, wouldn't it? I am sure they would confirm that he had been informed the same as every other player who comes to the end of their contract.

I'd happily swap our niceness for some trophies that eluded us through the Herbert years. May be he could limp on at half-time at a match for some appreciation off the fans.

However, I am a little confused and surprised it has yet to be questioned, if he hasn't been in touch with the club or the club with him, how has he been told he can still use the facilities and hence his subsequent embarrassment (presumably due to once being the main man and now yesterday man)?

Of course two perceived wrongs don't make a right. It's a great book anyway and shows how far the balance of power has shifted as well as the game itself.

I don't see Hibbert's confirmation of Osman's previous comments on the running of the Club to be a 'woe is me' complaint, more a 'woe is Everton' in that we are turning from a loyal family club with values and decency into one that represents everything that we know and love about our neighbours over the park, or the chavs from London.

However, if you genuinely believe Hibbert was better than Stones, I rest my case on that one! Out of form (as every post-Martinez player), the latter may be, but come on, you're playing devil's advocate and seeking to divert the discussion there I suggest?

Meanwhile the fact that Osman too has been lamenting the fact that 'fings aint what they used to be...' just reinforces the ludicrous nature of his fellow whinger's subsequent sob story.

How interesting that the two chief architects of Everton's recent mediocrity, who have enjoyed a cosseted, favourite sons' lifestyle while contributing naff all for years and being well-paid for it, now see fit to moan when they've been dispensed with.

Some gratitude for a club who has bent over backwards to retain them, pay them well and extend both their contracts way beyond their validity and usefulness.

For them to criticise Everton for not continuing to fawn over them any more is vain and immature beyond belief.

Talk about biting the hand that fed them...

Welcome to the real world you hypocrites.

I just do not believe that any of these players were expecting new contracts, in Hibbert's case, there isn't a supporter that I know who wasn't amazed that he'd been awarded a new two year contract last time.

Hard to judge whether the club could have done things differently because they haven't said anything or responded to Hibbert's comments. Either way, the lad has had a profitable career with us and I imagine will be offered a free seat at our new dockland stadium any time he wants one.

Some of the vitriolic comments on here towards Hibbo are way over the top. I've never met the lad, maybe some on here have and can justify descriptions such as 'shithouse' .

Bottom line here - simple, timely and respectful, communication from the club should be the norm.

I'm pretty certain the club's solicitor would have put down a date. And didn't he get a testimonial, awarded to him by this nasty club, who should have allowed this ageing crock to play in the last game v Norwich – at the expense of Coleman – even though he was injured?

I've never heard Hibbert come out in the papers and complain about the problems at Everton, ie, the lack of investment, the aborted ground moves, the mismanagement by Martinez etc. But as soon as something upsets him, he puts the boot in, to embarrass the club that he should have been honoured to play for (and be well paid by) when no other Premier League club would have been interested in this player of limited ability... thanks for the gratitude, Tony.

Any employee - from the best paid player to the tea lady - should have been given the simple respect of a well communicated exit process.

Two reasons - one, every employee is entitled to that respect; two , it protects the reputation of the club from poor publicity / attack .such as this one.

It's simple and should be the norm.

I think we should chant their names at each game until the club bring them on the pitch at half time to enable us to say goodbye – and thank you – in a proper manner. Come on Everton – you are classier than this.