Nope.@OCST would you still have been as anti-David Moyes a few years ago knowing what you know now?
I’d fly to London on my own dime and drive him there myself.
But the-rot goes deeper.
-Of course it starts at the top. Majority owner Farhad Moshiri seems to mean well, and you have to give him credit for pushing the new stadium through, the most important development for the club's long term health. But the fact that throws lots of money around is not a good thing because he's wasted so, so much of it. He loves the shiny object, threw stupid money at Sigurdsson (54M) and Iwobi (44M, this after his pursuit of Zaha at ~70M fell through and so he seems to have gone for a weak simulacrum),
among others. He will not just let his DOF do his job. Think a less obnoxious Steinbrenner.
-Board chair Bill Kenwright is a holdover from the old days and represent the sentimental streak of “the peoples club"; all well and good but continuing to go to the well on this is not a growth recipe. It's the mentality that keeps Duncan Ferguson on as a permanent assistant coach through successive managerial regimes, and David Unsworth as the U23 coach despite that he has badly underperformed at the remit of that job - converting promising youngsters to reliable first-teamers or profitable sale assets.
-The people who have been responsible for player health over the past several seasons. There have been stupid crazy rates of injuries, especially of the soft-tissue, muscle-pull variety. Some guy just got sacked.
-DOF Marcel Brands. Of these I think he's the least culpable because I don't think Moshiri and Kenwright let him do his job. There have been some excellent acquisitions - Richarlison, Doucoure, Digne, Mina, Godfrey - and most of these I think can be attributed to him. But there have been several bombs also - Bernard, Delph, Gbamin. But he hasn't been able to take the reins.
The worst example of this deadlock - the window where each of these brought in a guy to play the same position - Sigurdsson, the shiny object, who at root was a Big Six reject (we love those) (Moshiri), Wayne Rooney, the old Blue (Kenwright), and Davy Klassen of Ajax, who Brands, formerly of Eindhoven, knew from the Eredivise. For good measure, Ronald Koeman, manager at the time, pushed to bring in Nikola Vlasic from Hadjuk Split, after he impressed in Everton's Europa League tie with that club. Well, that season was an unholy mess, Rooney was increasingly ineffectual as the season went on, Klassen couldn't handle the physicality of the PL, Vlasic forced his way to Moscow out after a year on the bench, and Siggy won the competition by default, having a couple of modestly productive attacking seasons that did not do enough to mask his deficiencies. Now he's out of the club due to an arrest for sex crimes with a minor, which would be addition by subtraction if we weren't so banged up and if not for the fortune we're pissing away on him.
-CEO Denise Barret-Baxendale - whom I’ve met, at a NYC Evertonians event- is the head of the business operation. Kudos for the stadium, which was her job. I can't blame her for the rest, necessarily, if she's the business manager she's not supposed to be involved in the football side, I was very impressed with her when I chatted with her briefly, and she bought a round for the whole bar which is class but let's throw her in there because she's part of the crew.
Someone has to be responsible for this, post-Roberto Martinez, who was the last stable and successful manager:
Koeman 58 games
Unsworth (interim) 8 games
Allardyce 26 games
Silva 18-19 60 games
Ferguson 4 games
Ancelloti 67 games
Benitez 15 games
Each of whom imposed a different style, got (too expensive) players for that style (while Moshiri and Kenwright were buying players for other styles), and didn't stick for too long.
It's a goddamn mess.
-Benitez. After being told that he had no budget he brought in Townsend and Gray who both started very strong, but there were huge holes, especially no backup at the fullbacks - promising academy product LB Niels Nkonkou was stupidly sent out on loan, and criminally, again, no one was brought in to compete with, back up, or replace Seamus Coleman, who played in Goodison's first game in 1892.
As you know we initially did well with a simple, direct counterattacking approach, D[/QUOTE]oucoure and Allan excelling in midfield, Calvert-Lewin a great 9 up top. But the cracks should have been evident, the back four was wobbly, Godfrey who had been a beast, arguably last season's best player, a shell of himself due to COVID. Yerry Mina emerged as a stud CB but once again got hurt as he does every year, his hamstrings are made of play-doh. Doucoure, who covered the most ground per game in the PL and was second in goal contributions in the league at the time, got hurt. Calvert-Lewin, Gomes, it doesn't stop. Allan fading, he's on the wrong side of 30 and his effectiveness has dropped, without Douc beasting next to him he's ordinary. Townsend has regressed to the mean, a useful piece but not elite. Some players regressing in form, Richarlison and Digne really poor, Coleman just can't do it game in game out, Pool made him look like a traffic cone, Gomes, Holgate and Davies badly off their best form and may not ever be full time PL regulars again or ever, Keane at his best was Everton's best player for stretches in the past two seasons and forced his way into Southgate's squad, but is prone to dips in confidence and has been terrible without Mina alongside him. Etc.
Rafa was winning over the fans when we were a couple of points off the top. When the slide started he was given some rope, everyone knows that our best XI can be very good but the squad quality drops off, the injuries aren't his fault, etc. But the last few games have been really poor from Rafa. He keeps rolling out the corpse of Salomon Rondon, whom he's managed elsewhere but in addition to being over the hill hasn't played since China two years ago and has been abysmal - like, so far beyond PL quality it's impossible to believe and yet he keeps.getting.run.out.there. He's also tried to persist in a midfield two, but Douc is just back from injury, Allan is fading, and any fool could have told you that we were going to get sliced to ribbons by the Reds without another body in midfield. Sure enough they had all day - for the first goal, Henderson didn't have a blue shirt within ten yards of him and had plenty of time to set up his screamer. For a coach with a reputation for defensive solidity it's embarrassing to watch that Liverpool game, the shape and positional discipline is awful. I'm not kidding to say that Sam would be doing a better job at the moment, at least the lines would move as a unit.
-The players. Leading Watford (Watford FFS) 2-1 at 75' and giving up four goals, at home, is inexcusable, full stop. If you want to see what "capitulation" looks like go watch that. When they've gelled they have been capable of hanging around the fringes of the European spots but game over game, season over season they've just not shown guts, leadership, guile, whatever you want to call it. With a very few exceptions, if you have players who have failed to convince under multiple managers at some point you have to move on.
The major fan groups have coordinated this for the Arsenal game on Monday:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-10273505/Everton-fans-plan-walkout-protest-against-clubs-board-27th-minute-game-Arsenal.html
Angry Everton fans plan a walkout protest against the club's board in the 27th minute of their home clash with Arsenal on Monday, as they use their long trophy drought to demand better amid eight-game winless run
- Everton fans will stage a walkout protest during Monday's game against Arsenal
- Frustration has been growing among supporters amid an eight-game winless run
- There is anger at the board for a lack of ambition after 27 years without a trophy
- Chants of ‘sack the board’ were heard in 4-1 defeat by Liverpool on Wednesday
"nil satis nisi optimum" = "nothing but the best is good enough," motto on the badge
View: https://twitter.com/thebullensview/status/1466851499225591808?s=20
(a dozen fan groups have posted this)
Beyond the hiring of Moyes, West Ham are a good comp. Only a couple of seasons, ago, they flirted with the drop and had the same kind of fan revolt in the stadium and on social media. They solidified and look at them now. It's also fair to point out IMO that they have had remarkable luck with injuries this year, they've been mostly healthy, and if you look at our best XI on paper next to theirs, we're in the same cohort. So there's hope, but there's also frustration of looking over at what they've done and realizing that even as poorly as they've been run for the past few years they're doing what we haven't been able to.
The big problem is that firing the manager AGAIN, what's that going to do? More instability. As per my avatar, they all need to go. Or at least, Moshiri needs to get rid of Kenwright, give Brands his transfer budget, let Brands hire the manager that fits his philosophy, and stand back and let him work.
As Napoleon said, five bad generals are worse than one bad general.
Having written this novel, as I tend to do, I have to go earn a living for the next few days. You won't be hearing from me. We'll see what happens.