Sack Smith NOW!


8 March 2002

Walter Smith should be sacked immediately, today, this minute.  There's not a moment to lose if we are to have any chance of saving ourselves from the humiliation of relegation, and believe me it will be humiliating.  Just think about it: do you want to go into work on 13 May and face the Liverpool fans? — I don't!

What worries me most about this Season's situation is that almost everybody I speak to has resigned themselves to relegation — some fans even accept it as "inevitable" or something that given our recent track record was "bound to happen sooner or later".  Even worse, there is a school of thought that going down "will be good for us, allow us to re-build, etc".

Now, I don't know whether we will go down or not; if it is inevitable or even if it will be good for us.  What I do know is that I don't want us to go down without a fight.  I don't mind if we get beaten every week or if we get relegated every season until we're in the Conference as long as we have a go.  Apart from the odd individual exception, this current team has no fight in them whatsoever.

Walter Smith has ripped the heart and soul of our squad both physically and spiritually.  Just look at the team we had three years ago — Collins, Barmby, Jeffers, Ball, Hutchison, even Campbell was good — and what about Joe-Max Moore's first 6 games until the inevitable injury?  Need I go on?  We even played decent football and, in 1999/2000, I thought we'd turned a corner.  But a mixture of Smith's poor man-management, negative tactics, baffling formations, bad buys and the inexplicable ability to turn decent players into crap has left us in the worst position we have ever been in.

Here are just a few question marks hanging over Smith's reign:

• Why did he let Don Hutchison go and then spend £4 million on Nyarko and £3 million bringing Ferguson back?  When Hutchison was only asking for £10,000 a week more — do the maths.
   
• Why, when Hutchison was sold (and after we'd lost Barmby — I don't blame Smith for that one) was John Collins allowed to leave and an entire midfield broken-up?
   
• Why bring Ferguson back at all — we all know that he is a crock?  Surely £3 million could have been spent on a better striker?
   
• Why, when Thomas Gravesen has publicly apologised for speaking out of turn (such a heinous and unforgivable crime), does Smith insist on keeping him on the bench when he is by far our best central midfielder?
   
• Why was Xavier allowed to move across the park for £800,000?  Furthermore, why was Xavier a) rubbish for us and b) always injured/had mystery viruses?  He doesn't seem to have any problems now either playing or staying fit.
   
• Why does Walter Smith fall out with certain players and yet keep faith with obviously poor players?  And, when he does fall out with a player, why is there never a reconciliation with the said player?  They all end up leaving — Gravesen will go in the summer, mark my words.  Smith is allowed to put his own personal pride over the interests of the Team (i.e. Hutchison, Jeffers, and most recently Gravesen).
   
• Why did it take so long for Steve Simonsen to break into the first team when he is obviously so much better than Gerrard?
   
• Why, when our players get injured, are they out for so long?  And why do so many of our players get injured in training?  What is going on at Bellefield?
   
• Why did Smith insist on playing Steve Watson up front when he had recognised strikers in the squad like Joe-Max Moore and Nick Chadwick?
   
• And when Campbell did come back why play him on his own up front when we have recognised strikers in the squad…?
   
• What has happened to Idan Tal?  I don't blame him if he wants to leave he has been treated disgracefully.  And why, if he is no good (I actually think he looks promising), did Smith pursue him for nearly 10 months?
   
• Why does Smith insist on playing players out of their natural positions — Blomqvist on the right, Ginola up front, Linderoth on the right wing, Pistone on the right and Unsworth anywhere?  He never replaces like with like.
   
• In fact, why does Walter Smith persist with David Unsworth at all?  He is simply not good enough.
   
• Why did Walter flirt for so long with 3-5-2 when we haven't got any obvious wingbacks (Naysmith apart)?
    
• Why do we bring everyone back for corners (oh oh I know the answer to this one — because it something Smith's always done!)?
   
• Why, when we do get forward, do we a) not have enough players in the box and b) will no one have a go?
   
• Why does no one know what to do at set pieces? For example, players arguing over who's going to take free kicks and our poor track record of defending from set pieces.

These are just a few questions, off the top of my head, that raise serious doubts about Walter Smith's ability to manage this great club of ours.  I don't know about other fans, but I am not happy to sit a watch such dross week in week out and be satisfied with Premiership survival every year.  The problem is I suspect that Walter Smith and indeed many others at the club are happy just to cling on every season — after all they still get paid don't they?

Smith only has a year left to run on his contract.  What then?  Extend it because he's done such a marvellous job.  Or bring someone new in.  Just what is going to change between now and next year?  Are we going to get a massive windfall? I don't think so...  The much vaunted "re-financing" deal is set to hand Walter Smith somewhere in the region £10 million to spend.  (Or has he already started spending it? We don't know.)  So what?  He's already spent close to £50 million, throwing more money for Smith to squander is not the answer.

The answer is for Bill Kenwright and the Board to stop papering over the cracks with short-term sticking plasters (Gazza, Ginola and Carsley) and to think long-term about Everton FC.  They can do it.  They have proved so with the Kings Dock.  Why not with the team.  Someone on Radio Merseyside the other week stated that Everton were a club of the past and the future, but not the present.  I think that's true.  But my plea to Kenwright and the Board is to start thinking long-term about the team.  It is no good having a world class stadium in the First or even Second Division.  It is not inconceivable that by 2005/06 we could be hovering between the First and Second Divisions (Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday, etc).

The answer is obvious: sack Smith now.  If we stick with Smith he'll drag us down, if not this year then next (Can you see us beating Wolves and City next year?).  Then what?  He walks away when his contract is over or worse Kenwright offers him a new one.

On the other hand, if we sack Smith now what have we got to lose?  We either get someone in who gives us a boost, plays more positive football, perhaps throws some of the youngsters in and we survive.  Or we go down fighting, and have a new manager to start the painful and slow rebuilding process next season.  Either way, sacking Smith is the only sensible long-term option.  We might as well start now.

I also don't buy the insipid excuse of "who would we get".  In a sense it doesn't really matter, they can't be any worse than Smith and Knox.  But are we really to believe that there is no one out there who is willing and able to manage such a fine club as Everton.  If this is the case, we might as well give up now and go home.  The long-term solution is to go for a young manager someone like David Jones, Gary Megson or David Moyes.

Furthermore, think how much harder it will be to get an up-and-coming manager next year when we are in the First Division.  Our current Premiership status must be an attraction and a relegation dogfight would be a challenge for the right manager (who knows they won't be blamed if we do go down).  Why would a promising young manager swap one Nationwide League Club for another?

So come on, Everton, think long-term, start building a team fit to play at the Kings Dock in 2005/06.  The next few years might be painful (even if manage to survive relegation) but at least we would have hope and maybe even play some attractive football.  Please sack Walter Smith NOW!

John Adlen

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