On Open Letter...
...to Ken Rogers at The Echo

7 March 2002

Ken,

It is painful to see how low my beloved blues have sunk.  When we are relegated in May, and make no mistake it is a matter of when not if for a team with 1 win and 6 goals in 13 league games, it will be no worse a fate than Everton deserve.  Arguably only Leicester play football as unappetising and indigestible as the Toffees.  The School of Science has finally produced a class of dunces presided over by a master who has long since lost any direction and purpose he had.  We can't pass, we can't move off the ball, we are slow of limb and brain.  I don't know if we can shoot because we never try.

Much has been wrong off the field for 20 years or more but at a time when the club is attempting to rediscover direction and ambition the failure of the club on the field threatens to leave future plans in tatters.  Of course EFC lack money but so do most other PL teams.  We still have a squad packed with experienced internationals and a wage bill that exceeds the PL average.  There is no doubt in my mind nor I suspect for many other Evertonians that it is managerial failings and the failings of key players that risk bringing us to the unthinkable — Nationwide football from where we may never return.

The bottom line is simple.  Walter Smith has had 4 years and his teams still serve up turgid drivel.  It isn't just a question of our league position — I think many of us would find our meagre 30-point hall easier to bear if we played football that even remotely approached the quality of our fellow strugglers Ipswich and Blackburn but we have neither the shape, pattern, belief, technique or confidence to aspire to even passable passing football.  Smith is an honourable man and it is past time he did the honourable thing now whilst there is still time for a caretaker combination of Harvey and Holden to attempt a rescue act.  If Smith will not take responsibility for the shambles over which he currently presides then the Board must act swiftly and decisively to give the club a chance at survival.  The fans who gave up half a day at work to make the 400-mile round trip for the West Ham game deserve better than crossed fingers and mumbled prayers.

As for the players, the choice they face is equally stark.  Put simply, they have 9 games to rescue their careers and prevent their names going down in history as the men who got Everton relegated.  Given the perceived lack of effort, desire, bottle and heart from many of them I doubt if they would be either forgiven or forgotten for inflicting such a disaster on Everton's massive but disillusioned, despondent and defeated support.  On too many occasions this season, our team has disgraced the royal blue (with pointless white side panels) shirt and we cannot afford even a single repetition of such incompetence from now to season end.  

Even as we rolled over and died at West Ham tonight, the fans sang for the shirt and for the club; it is time for the players to show a little of that pride and defiance.

Regards

Neil Wolstenholme

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