When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth!

Dean Adams 11/08/2015 25comments  |  Jump to last

According to Sky Sports, football began 23 years ago with the start of the Premier league. Since it began, this league has been dominated by the clubs with the biggest wallets. The rest of the football clubs in the league have absolutely no chance.

It never used to be this way, every season would unearth a new contender that nobody would have expected. It made the league season unpredictable in some small way, but that has long since become an extinct distraction.

When I was a lad we were a giant in the football world. We actually were one of the big boys and nobody pushed us around. The likes of Chelsea and Man City were “wannabes”. Football was played by men who were happy to talk to the fans; they were down to earth and were paid well, but not the ridiculous wages of today. Fans could relate to their heroes. Today, the money that is paid to players is totally obscene. The league is full of prima donnas.

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It has been so long since we were successful that my son who is 18 next month has never witnessed us winning a trophy. It is his generation who I pity because they have to contend with us “old buggars” constantly reminding them of the “glory days” when we were the biggest beasts strutting about as Champions and Cup winners. That of course was when dinosaurs walked the earth. That was a time when Preston North End were winning the league, even Sunderland, both Sheffield clubs and Villa.

Those days are long gone, but we are still clinging to our history, where others have lost their grip? It is over 100 years since both Sunderland and Villa won their 5th league title, something Chelsea have only just achieved and Man City have only 4 titles to their name.

Our chances of winning silverware have been extinct for years, just as many others from a bygone age. They are like the dodo, just some mythical thing from the past. We cling to our memories desperately, like alcoholics wanting just one more! We tell them that football was so much better before Sky came along and expect them to believe us without really showing them the “bigger picture”.

We are Everton, I hear from our fans. “If ya know yer history”. The problem is, with each passing year Sky are re-writing the history of football, to the point that many now believe that football actually did begin 23 years ago.

Well, if that is the new gospel I have good news for you all. That number is significant to Everton and some fans will already be reminiscing at the thought of what comes next. In my world, Everton win the league every 24 years, or at least we used to when it was the football league and I for one am hoping that the football gods haven’t gone senile watching this boring team in this boring league. ( I know that that all changed when in 2011 we did not manage to add to that run, but it is all becoming clear now. Counting stopped, re-configured, beginning again in 1992-3).

So cheer up fellow ToffeeWebbers, it is in the stars. We will win the league, not this season, but next. It is our destiny. I realise that for many of you out there it will be almost impossible to believe. Of course, it could mean that Roberto is one step ahead and is already planning for next season. It would explain our slow start again and the lack of transfer activity, simply because he is waiting for the stars to align. (Of course it would be useful if we had some!).

Our wonderful crop of youngsters will take the league by storm, Stones, Barkley, Lukaku, Mo Besic, Deulofeu, Browning, Garbutt, Galloway and McCarthy will be awesome! Some cry, “where’s the money gone” but Bill has been saving for our big push! The board have been saving for years to take us to the biggest and best stadium in the land (oh, that was Goodison!). We can all dream, it’s all we have left. Get your singing voices ready, we’re gonna win the league!

1890/91, 1914/15, 1927/28, 1931/32, 1938/39, 1962/63, 1969/70, 1984/85, 1986/87, 2016-17?

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Reader Comments (25)

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Brian Williams
1 Posted 11/08/2015 at 18:06:51
Medication time!
Mark Tanton
3 Posted 11/08/2015 at 18:14:04
I thought you were going to suggest the extinction of Everton. Which would be far more realistic .
Patrick Murphy
4 Posted 11/08/2015 at 18:27:31
Dean, unless the players start showing how good this side could become and continue to struggle against relative mediocre opponents, we may well win the Football League in 2017 or whatever it is called these days as our chances of becoming Champions of England are as remote as any of us winning the National Lottery and the Euromillions in the same week.

We'll still turn up at Goodison in our thousands, we'll still berate the manager or owner or whoever else is in the firing line, but unfortunately Everton and a few other so called 'big' clubs won't be hoisting the no.1 flag over their grounds for a good while yet. It has become a cartel in England, just like it has in Scotland, Spain and other countries if your team isn't a member of the new elite already, the chances are it never will be.

Those of us of a certain vintage can remember the glory days, but the younger element within our support base are highly unlikely to witness anything more than the odd trip to Wembley.

David Sheen
6 Posted 11/08/2015 at 21:06:38
If Everton win the league, then brace yourselves for what will happen.

One time we won the league then World War started. One time we won the league then World War 2 started. And One time we won the league and English clubs were banned from Europe.

So that's 2x we had Championship winning teams that were unable to defend their title. And 2x we had a championship winning team that couldn't compete in Europe.

Then they wonder why Everton fans are pessimistic.

Joey Brown
8 Posted 11/08/2015 at 21:58:17
A very good read indeed. You finally brought to light that Sky can reset time itself. Money can indeed change everything.
Dennis Stevens
9 Posted 11/08/2015 at 22:45:41
Ah, but in the old Football League we won the Title in the third season to start that 24 year cycle, we didn't have to wait for the 24th season to do so.
Patrick Murphy
10 Posted 11/08/2015 at 23:11:00
David (6) Armageddon is closer than we believed it to be as this season 15/16 is the twenty-fourth campaign of the Premier League. Champions! Champions! Champions! will ring round Goodison in May 2016 if Dean's prediction proves correct.
Phil Walling
11 Posted 12/08/2015 at 00:38:15
I've just realised that all that talking to himself on the part of John Motson (see the Kenwright thread) is as a result of Everton and Villa's chairmen hiring of the old BBC man to recite those season's of greatness in ancient times in the hope of bringing success back to our god forsaken clubs!

Eugene, I've cracked it!

Bill Gall
12 Posted 12/08/2015 at 01:40:11
Hope you mean we are going to win the Premier League next year and not the Championship.
Jim Bennings
13 Posted 12/08/2015 at 07:06:40
Well dinosaurs still walk in our boardroom!!

Prehistoric men that are happy with our Prehistoric stadium and prehistoric heritage, it's so long since we last won a trophy we are going to become like friggin Newcastle.

The one thing we must do is win a trophy before another 10 years is up, if not then that will be 30 years without silverware.
Winning a trophy seems like such ammonumental thing for Everton these day's and I think just getting our hands on some kind of cup, be it the League Cup or F.A Cup (our only two realistic possibilities) will finally break that psychological hoodoo, it will break that glass ceiling.

I have said time and time again, some fantastic servants have been at Everton such as Osman, Baines, Jagielka, before that the likes of Cahill, Arteta, Yobo here for 8 years but none sadly ever lifted a trophy and had a winners medal to look back on and that's what football is all about.

The 1995 side may have been limited in terms of superstars but each guy can now fondly look back on a winners medal and the day they lifted a trophy in a blue shirt.

Much like the way we still talk fondly of Kevin Campbell being the last hero at Anfield, it's high time that Everton Football Club found some new heroes that are idolized and looked back on as guys who achieved something.

Matt Traynor
14 Posted 12/08/2015 at 08:26:18
Dean is right about the surprise packages under the old 1st Division. Those of us old enough will recall the likes of Forest, Derby winning the league, and even in the 80s when we last won it, the likes of Watford, West Ham, QPR were all capable of top 5-6 finishes. Even Wimbledon managed 7th in their first top flight season.

With that said, I'm a little surprised no-one on here has picked up on Richard Scudamore's recent comments, about English teams needing to get past the QF in the CL, or else we risk that coveted 4th place in Europe's Elite Competition (c) Murdoch Media.

Basically it's in the Premier League's interests to have a locked-in top 4-5, no gate crashers. That way they will be able to continue to accumulate the best players, and challenge in Europe. The other main countries (Italy, France, Germany and Spain) don't have a competitive league outside 2-3 teams.

The next step will be for the top 5 (it'll have to include the RS, it's an unwritten law) to then lobby for an end to the collective bargaining distribution, and skew it in favour of these teams. The RS already tried this with the overseas broadcast revenue (currently £2bn over 3 years, split equally among all 20 clubs) - arguing it should be based on "global profile". That was voted down 2 years ago, but who's to say it won't come back?

I really truly hope that these "top 5" will eventually leave to join a European super league. The fans will soon tune out, and English football will rediscover it's soul.

Then when that house of cards collapses, they can all come back, but restart in the Ryman League 7, or whatever the bottom of the pyramid is these days.

The Spirit of Shankly and Blue Union are all well and good with their "20s Plenty" campaign for away ticket prices, but give us our game back - fuck these wannabe football franchises off to their promised land, and let the rest of us get on with it.

Paul Jeronovich
15 Posted 12/08/2015 at 09:21:13
If the moneybag clubs piss off and form their own league, this could yet be the death of Everton in any case.

In time this cannot be ruled out and imagine the shape of football if that happened?

Dean Peamum
16 Posted 12/08/2015 at 09:35:45
Good article Dean and factually correct as when we won the league in 1970 T Rex were in the charts and a year or so later Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs were Seaside Shuffling.
My point is I hear a lot of fans complaining that Sky have ruined the game with their money (I agree), yet they subscribe to their channels. If you don't like them don't swell their coffers even more. We would'nt subscribe to the RS channel would we?
Matt Traynor
17 Posted 12/08/2015 at 09:49:27
Paul #15, it would have to reset itself. Although we'd be screwed, so would everyone else, and cost cutting would follow.

The point I'm making is that I think we will see the Premier League complicit in the reinforcement of this 4-5 team cartel within the league, and it simply won't be competitive anymore. It's not just the fact that EFC hasn't been competitive at all since the Premier League started (despite being one of the main protagonists for the breakaway). A lot of fans feel football has lost it's soul. Maybe it's too late to do anything. But if that's the case, then building 60k stadia will be for the few, and season tickets will be cut back in favour of "tourist tickets".

The 39th game overseas proposal for me proved that the Premier League now has no integrity left. And they will revisit that within the next 2 years, and offer the clubs more money to force it through.

Shane Corcoran
18 Posted 12/08/2015 at 11:31:52
Can someone explain to me how, in the pre-Premier League era, money didn't dictate largely who were the best teams?

I understand that there's more money now, but when it was less plentiful didn't the clubs with the most money sign the best players and pay them higher wages thus making them challengers for titles, much like now?

Ernie Baywood
19 Posted 12/08/2015 at 11:43:36
How competitive was it before 92 Matt?
Dean Adams
20 Posted 12/08/2015 at 11:52:05
Patrick 10
I have listened so much to sky telling us that it is 23 years old that I made the cardinal sin and took their word for it without doing my "due diligence". So thanks for pointing out that it is indeed this season.
As you are aware it was a somewhat tongue-in-cheek peice, just to try and provoke some smiles and hope into this transfer window and early season malaise.
Matt Traynor
21 Posted 12/08/2015 at 12:00:21
Ernie we know the RS dominated after the mid 60s, but when you look at the Prem, Blackburn won it once in 94-95 (arguably having "bought it"), but it's been Man U, Arsenal and then - with "new money" Chelsea and Man City joining the mix later.

They, and the RS, have tended to dominate the 2nd and 3rd places. Interestingly in the early days of the Prem, when the TV money was a relative pittance to what it is now, you still see Forest, Villa, Norwich and Newcastle finishing 2nd and 3rd.

Prior to the Prem, there was a lot more "variety" in the top 3 - even Watford finished runners up in 83. Yes the bigger clubs could throw more money at players, but the gap really wasn't that great and signing foreign players was the exception rather than the rule.

In our case Moores never bank-rolled the club, he under-wrote and guaranteed investments - the club still had to run on a sustainable financial platform. A well-run club could challenge the status quo, now the only way a Forest or a Watford would do that is if they were backed with big money - and even that's no guarantee, as QPR discovered.

Was it more competitive? Subjective.. But it was a lot more watchable (in the flesh mainly before the blanket coverage).

Ernie Baywood
22 Posted 12/08/2015 at 15:06:59
I'd agree with that. Even watching a game from 15 years ago makes me nostalgic. The physicality has progressively gone out of the game.

I do sometimes wonder if the view that it was more competitive comes from being a certain age. I remember thinking Everton could win the league each year... in reality it was probably just childish optimism.

Keith Harrison
23 Posted 12/08/2015 at 18:34:46
Let's hope the Awaywinosaurus makes a belated appearance at St Mary’s on Saturday, or Roberto might be going the way of the Dino’s before our first ten games are up.
Ciaran Duff
24 Posted 13/08/2015 at 03:04:47
Just read an interesting article stating that UEFA FFP rules have now effectively locked in the current footballing hierarchy.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/08/13/how-uefas-financial-fair-play-rules-are-destroying-football/

Some very salient quotes for us :-

"For example, a small club (SORRY!!) on the brink of glory is unable to go into debt to purchase the superstar or two it may need to take the next step, with the intention of covering the debt with the increased revenue success brings"

"As Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany points out, these rules simply serve to protect the established order in English football. They are a form of crony capitalism."

"...they actually ensure small clubs remain small. By shackling spending to revenue they effectively outlaw risk-taking behaviour.".

This could go a long way to explaining our current behaviour, lack of major investment and the fact that we seem to be concentrating on a more long term youth/young player development strategy?

Eric Myles
25 Posted 13/08/2015 at 03:23:49
Ciaran, both City and our neighbours flout those rules by also using associated companies and subsidiaries to provide sponsorship money to increase income.

The trend then would be for larger corporations to own clubs rather than the single owner model.

Matt Traynor
26 Posted 13/08/2015 at 04:31:05
Ciaran / Eric, what FFP also served to do was to lock out clubs from benefiting from the injection of capital an Abramovich / Mansour etc. bring. In other words, those clubs spent like drunken sailors to get to the top table, but now, no-one else would be able to. So even if Bill found his fabled investment, we'd still have to grow organically etc.

That said, the piss poor state of the stadium in terms of revenue performance, and the atrocious commercial performance of the club as a whole perversely makes Everton a more attractive proposition - because that could easily be improved to generate additional revenues.

Eric Myles
27 Posted 13/08/2015 at 05:04:01
But FFP does not limit spending on ground improvements so that could be used as a means of increasing income which can be used for squad spending.

In principle FFP is a good idea but only as long as ALL clubs start off on the same baseline but now it has come too late and locked in those clubs with sugar daddies. The next step then is to apply it to make clubs debt free by using their income to pay off debt rather than fund player acquisitions.

Matt Traynor
28 Posted 13/08/2015 at 05:35:43
Eric #27, there's "allowable" expenses and "allowable" income in FFP. Expenses do include ground development, but there's still scope for fiddling the figures.

We all know that the RS have spunked a fortune in the last decade on over-priced average players. Yes, they've got good money for Chewy and Sterling, and raised decent money selling on some of the guff they bought, but even with their stellar commercial performance they should've breached FFP.

How fortuitous for them they were able to sink over £100m into the costs of the failed Stanley Park Stadium - despite never so much as laying a brick. £100m of allowable expenses - more than our cowshed in Kirkby would've cost.


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