On Saturday, the Premier League released a brief clip of the “story of the season”, oddly omitting any positive Everton contribution to the season, and ignoring their heinous assault on us as a club via unprecedented points deductions for PSR. So far, so Premier League, right?
It turns out, no. Yesterday we watched a 90-minute summary of our entire season. A heroic defensive effort against overwhelming forces, undermined by Ashley Young’s errors and by officiating calamity. There’s some difference of opinion on here this morning as to whether the blame lies more with Young or with Michael Oliver, but that’s by the by.
What’s far more interesting to me has been looking at the media response to the game yesterday. These are all little things, but they’ve added up today:
- The BBC Live Text, while naturally focused upon the title race, entirely omitted any sort of post-match reaction from the Everton perspective.
- Match of the Day saw no real mention of the work Sean Dyche and the team have accomplished and actually saw Alan Shearer try to defend the indefensible in that decision.
- In their highlights video on YouTube, Sky Sports Football completely ignored any sort of controversy regarding the second goal, showing only the most benign angle possible of the handball, and ignored entirely the VAR check (and subsequent skulduggery).
- In their article on the match, the Guardian entirely ignored the fact that the goal comes from a clear handball (this is referenced by a large proportion of the comments section – though, as always, I recommend ignoring the Guardian comments section).
- The BBC released an article about the “ten games that decided the Premier League title”. When they come to our 2-0 massacring of our gobshite neighbours, the first thing they undermine is the joke we’ve held that Liverpool lost the league at Goodison Park. Little, yet again. But was it really necessary?
These are all little things. Inconsequential on their own. But they add up. This summer, the club faces significant challenges. We need to somehow remain onside on PSR without selling our future in Jarrad Branthwaite. We need to build a squad on peanuts.
Off the pitch, we face real uncertainty in terms of who will buy the club, how we will finance the completion of the stadium, and the continued uncertainty on the Premier League’s position with regard to interest payments.
But another challenge we face as a club is to somehow end the constant PR attacks upon us as a club. The Premier League see us as a soft target. It’s why we were used as a test bed for their Carthaginian assault of a 10-point deduction, in order to try and stave off an independent regulator (ha ha, fuckers, it’s still coming).
But it’s clear that traditional media also regard us as a joke, an easy target. We don’t fight back, we don’t defend ourselves, and we delude ourselves into thinking we’re the bigger person by letting things go.
It hasn’t worked. The club and the fanbase need to find its teeth, because this rubbish won’t stop until we stand up for ourselves.