Stability at last?

Radzinski: Franny who?

It may have been a bit up-and-down so far (be honest, are you surprised!?), but two months into the season Everton are the most encouraging proposition they have been since the 1999/2000 season – when they missed out on a Top 10 finish only by virtue of a dismal home defeat by Middlesbrough that cost them three league places and a fair wedge of accompanying cash.

There are many similarities between Everton two seasons ago and the team we have now: 

• the mobile attacking partnership of Campbell and Jeffers has become an equally explosive combination of Captain Campbell and Radzinski; 
• the team is not relying on Ferguson's height as the fundamental plan of attack; 
• the midfield once again has energy, ideas and confidence; 
• the defence is as unpredictable as it was back then; 
• and Paul Gerrard at once inspires and diminishes confidence with his shot-stopping abilities and propensity for the calamitous.

On the evidence thus far, we can expect a mid-table finish with some moments of tear-your-hair-out frustration and high-octane goal-feasts – again, a bit like two years ago.

After 10 games, the Blues are in 11th place, smack-bang in the middle of the Premiership melting pot; 7 points from the top of the table and 7 points from the relegation zone.  With a bit more luck and a more consistent killer instinct, Walter Smith's side might have got maximum points from games against Tottenham, Blackburn and Ipswich and could have capitalized on the failure of any of the clubs above them to break away from the pack.  The way things stand, the race for all the honours at the top of the league is wide open and there is no reason why Everton can't challenge in that area this season.

More or less free of the crippling injury crisis of last season that now seems ample justification for the poor performance overall, Smith has built a team that is more capable than ever of beating any team in the division on their day – providing they can summon the confidence that was so clearly lacking at Old Trafford and in the Goodison derby last month.

The only team to have beaten leaders Aston Villa so far, and having played a confident Newcastle side off the park (only to still end up losing), the Blues have what it takes to "live with the big boys" of the Premier League.  Whether they can actually produce the goods on a consistent basis will, of course, be the deciding factor in how this season pans out.

The first third of the season has augured well, but there is still much to be said for bolstering the squad further with the addition of an enterprising midfielder to fulfil the role Gascoigne cannot fill on a permanent basis because of fitness concerns.  A deadly marksman who can put away the hatful of chances that Messers Campbell and Radzinski are currently missing would be a bonus, but with the kind of cash required to get just one decent player looking scarce, the chances of seeing a new top-class midfielder or striker at Goodison any time soon look slim.

The next 6 games provide an opportunity to really consolidate our position in the upper half of the table, with plucky Bolton, erratic Chelsea, struggling Leicester, Derby and Southampton, and disappointing Fulham to come between now and another daunting trip to Leeds in December.  12 points from that series of games is more than possible and I would venture to suggest that much less would be an enormous disappointment based on what we have seen so far.

Walter Smith, at the moment, is proving that the Everton side he has pieced together with minimal spending is far better than the relegation fodder the critics pegged the team as at the beginning of the season.  They are bristling with confidence and inspiration when they have their tails up, and are not showing any signs that a dogfight to escape the bottom three is on the cards this season.  They may not be Champions League material yet, but they are at least proving right those of us who have always maintained the squad is better than the league placings have suggested in recent seasons.

Lyndon Lloyd

©2001 ToffeeWeb, 31 October 2001