Colm's Corner
Columnist: Colm Kavanagh

Living on a prayer?
9 March 2005

Mikel Arteta: his inury against Blackburn was a big blow

How galling was it to see the Dogs of War wearing red shirts at Goodison Park last Sunday — marauding for 90 laborious minutes and nullifying everything that the home team had to offer.  With Mikel Arteta conveniently removed from the equation early on, it was job done. 

Result?  Three precious points going home with the army of 200 plus Rovers fans (a disgracefully poor support for a team supposedly fighting for their Premiership survival).  The sad thing was that Blackburn were deserving winners on the day.  Any neutral present inside Goodison Park may have raised an eyebrow if knowing that one team was fourth from top and the other fifth from bottom. 

Everton were piss-poor; as woeful a performance as any during the Walter Smith era.  No excuses, a wonderful opportunity scorned (again) to increase the daylight between ourselves and those chasing European football next term.  However, it wasn’t the end of the world; we lost a game most pundits had tipped us to win.  Perversely, most Evertonians actually feared this would happen — even before a ball was kicked.  If I earned a quid for every frustrated utterance heard on Sunday of “typical Everton” then I would have enough to safely ensure that the Fortress Sports Fund has gone away.  Oh silly me……it already has!

I still see Everton in the driving seat for that cherished fourth place.  We may not be eleven points ahead of Liverpool, as anticipated, but we remain a massive eight points clear.  Eight points clear with nine games left.  Granted, Liverpool have a game in hand but who is to say they’ll win that?  They’ve lost eleven league games so far this season, from twenty-eight played.  It only serves to highlight their consistent inconsistency!  Four wins from our remaining nine league fixtures should secure us Champions League football next season.  If one of those is a second derby win of the season then it’s party time on the Blue side of Stanley Park and possibly goodnight to the plans on the Red side of Stanley Park, to build on said public land!

Did anyone else find it somewhat ironic that, on a day when we couldn’t find a goal for love nor money, a guy shunted (out of necessity) from our ranks popped up with another winner for his new club, West Bromwich Albion?  I’m delighted for Kev, formerly known as Super Kev and a man largely responsible for preserving our Premiership status a few seasons back.  Whether or not he achieves a similar feat at The Hawthorns this season remains open to debate but I for one will fear him striking a hammer blow in a few week’s time, when we travel to Kev’s new club.  It will be anything but an easy game there. 

With the injured Arteta being replaced by an ineffective Duncan Ferguson we looked bereft of ideas in front of a Blackburn defence who stood up to the aerial bombardment.  Time and time again we saw Ferguson and Bent leaping for the same ball.  It was the same a few weeks back when we ‘entertained’ Chelsea at Goodison.  That game saw Ferguson catching Bent with a stray arm.  I suppose one small consolation this weekend was Bent not being on the receiving end of a Ferguson elbow! 

Chasing the game, as we were, the luxury of choice was not with us.  What would we have given on Sunday to have been able to throw on a player like Kevin Campbell for the last 10 or 15 minutes?  The fact that his release was necessary in order to ease the squeeze on the financial drain out of the Club only serves to once again highlight the sheer bloody mess our finances have been in, and continue to be in. 

Having said that, I’m well aware that James Beattie was brought in to fill Kev’s boots (and wage packet) but, with his stupidity ensuring an untimely suspension, we have been left extremely short on options up front (as it was two seasons ago).  The so-called School of Science should not be in a position where it’s necessary to get shut of players, simply to reduce the overheads.  When you consider the number of players who, for various reasons, have departed from the Club in the past year and then see an experienced player like Campbell leave — another cost cutting measure by the Club — then someone somewhere has got to ask just what the hell is going on at Everton Football Club?

Our total of eleven points from our last ten League games does not paint a picture of a team firing on all cylinders and Champions League bound.  Our last five league fixtures at home have yielded a poor return of six points from a possible fifteen — a late late show in front of the Gwladys Street turning one point into the maximum three against the mighty Portsmouth and a timely piece of Gary Doherty magic the difference between Norwich City and ourselves.  We are struggling. 

David Moyes, after the Aston Villa game, insisted that the team had been building up to a performance like that over a number of weeks.  I suspect the manager was simply availing of another opportunity to praise the players' efforts in the media.  Those comments were taken with a pinch of salt! 

Is it too cruel to suggest that it was the rare glimpse of sunshine on a visit to Villa Park that was the blip?  We’ve simply not been good enough since Christmas.  It’s hard to believe that we were a mere three points behind Chelsea after beating Liverpool in the Goodison derby game three months ago.  We are now twenty points adrift and falling further behind.  Our only hope is that those below us continue to fluff their lines.

Nine games to go; David Moyes and his threadbare squad of players, living on a prayer, hoping to see that finish line come as quick as possible with the Club still ahead of a chasing pack.  I hope, for David Moyes’s sake, that we achieve a fourth-place finish this season. 

What he has achieved this season, thus far, is truly remarkable.  Forced to sell his better players and then not receive the funding promised to him by a Chairman forever economical with the truth, I would fear for his future as Everton manager should we fall short again this season (as happened two seasons back when the manager wasn’t afforded sufficient funding to sustain our challenge). 

Last summer was a volatile period in Everton’s history, on and off the pitch.  Many of those problems simply have not gone away.  The fact remains that, with Moyes dragging Everton to an upwardly mobile position in the League, most Evertonians are not overly concerned with the overall position the Club finds itself in.  Had we been floundering in a lower position this season, one eye on Coca Cola membership looming on the horizon; then I suspect the atmosphere around Goodison would be vastly different — a lot less forgiving.  We’re still up to our tits in debt (despite the record sale of Wayne Rooney) and the confirmation by the Chairman that the Fortress Sports Fund money is in place looks more laughable by the day. 

It’s an interesting thought — who needs Champions League football more?  The Chairman or the Manager?  Have we got two rabbits left in the hat?!  Answers at the ready nine games from now!

Colm Kavanagh

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