All Change!
You go away for two weeks and your football world falls apart!...

26 March 2002

As I left to jump on a plane two weeks ago, I was for once not disappointed to leave Everton behind.  After weeks of seeing me getting ever more depressed and ratty, the wife had requested that we leave football behind with the wind and rain and try to remember how to smile and enjoy ourselves again.  I agreed! (Yeah right!)

Armed only with my mobile phone's text facility and warnings to the lads to ensure that any major news was immediately dispatched to me, I set off.

Never has my phone been so busy.

• Sunday: 3-0 awful.  We were crap.  Definitely going to be relegated.
• Tuesday: Smith's gone.  Good riddance.  Moyes or Megson ?
• Wednesday:  Moyes it is.
• Thursday:  Gazza gone, Ginola to Disneyland.  Moyes has £10m?  £5m?
• Friday: "People's club"!  Reds going mad!! Well done Moyes.
• Saturday: Unsworth!  2-1 — safe?  Gravesen — mad dog?  Just plain mad.

Silence then emanated until I returned on Thursday evening in time to destroy all the work that a nice calm relaxing holiday had done by having to go through that match against Derby!

Just a basic fortnight at Goodison then?

I have to say that, after supporting Smith for longer than most, even I was left with a feeling of complete disillusionment after the game against West Ham.  The fact that he has had his hands tied financially, the fact that players have had to be sold to balance books or because they insisted on it, the fact that injuries (caused how?) dogged his tenure, all come to naught as excuses when it becomes obvious that the players are simply not playing for you anymore.

Smith may well be castigated in the future.   To an extent this will be unfair.  Signings of quality world class players such as Materazzi (the Italians certainly think so), Dacourt and Collins; the inspired signing of Campbell; the great value for money purchases of Weir, Naysmith, Stubbs and Gravesen.  Will all be forgotten in the mists of time.  As will his resurrection of Barmby's career and his nurturing of Jeffers — both of whom then categorically stabbed him in the back.

Prudence and cost-cutting is not how other teams have survived in the Premiership but Smith has managed it.

BUT, with one brief, delightful 12-month exception, the teams have been dour, dull, one dimensional and incapable of scoring and providing genuine enjoyment.

All this may have been forgiven — and was in large areas — as long as they showed passion and as long as survival was likely.

I'm afraid, Walter, this all went.  The gambles on Ginola and Gascoigne never really came off.  Spates with Gravesen backfired and the form of Alexandersson reflected poorly on the coaching team.  Even Campbell went backwards and the constant injuries moved from "bad luck" to "poor training methods".

The win at Anfield when Campbell scored and we simply outplayed them moved us up to 5th and 6 points above the Reds.  This was 3 long years ago.  In the next game we drew at home to Coventry having taken the lead.  We never again looked like a top table side — even when we started this season well.

Walter, I hope history does not treat you harshly.  I hope people realise that you stood at a very difficult time in Everton's history and always held yourself with great dignity and composure.

I always respected you, as did many others, but I fear that few Evertonian's ever loved you.

You did a sterling job in difficult circumstances, but football is harsh, you must win games, you stopped doing that, you had to go.

Good luck.. but more importantly Good Luck to Moyes.

BlueForEver

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