Fans Comment
Richard Price

Don't Panic!
19 June 2005

I can fully understand people's frustration that the big-name signings haven't yet come to fruition, and yes, there is a sense of déjà vu when players choose to go elsewhere, when we all know that Goodison is the only sensible choice!

Seriously though, in recent seasons, we've lost out to the likes of Villa, 'Citeh' and Spurs, but now we are being beaten to players' signatures by the Toon.  I call that progression of a sort.

The Barcodes may be a club with about as much team-spirit as the Big Brother House, but, unfortunately, they've also got money to burn.  Do we REALLY want players who are attracted to a club where you've got more chance of being assaulted by a team-mate than collecting a winners' medal?  As Martin Doherty explains in his 12 June article, No Mercenaries Please, David!, we don't want, or need, another Slaven Bilic on our hands.

I say "Don't Panic!".  In Moyes We (Should) Trust.  He's already taken us to a place where only 2% of fans using this site thought we would be at this stage (based on results of the ToffeeWeb poll 'Where will Everton finish this season?' run in August 2004).  I freely admit to not being one of them.

Maybe we are just going to have to be patient and accept that an unseeded place in the Champions' League 3rd Qualifying Round is not going to mean that world-class players are falling over themselves to join us — especially if it means taking a pay cut!

I am impressed with the early summer signing of Simon Davies, even if it did somewhat raise our hopes of other swift arrivals (the official club website didn't exactly help with its premature talk of Forrsell and Parker as targets).

I believe Davies will be a success at Goodison, and a fit and 'raring to go' Beattie will be like a new signing for us. I am also confident that some more players will join over the next couple of months, and we will have a much-improved squad than the one that performed so admirably last season.

It is only by steadily progressing and consolidating that the big-name signings will see us as a viable move both in financial terms and towards furthering their own careers.  The game has changed a great deal and arguably has left Everton behind a little, but I still believe that the days where we fought-off stiff competition to sign the likes of Lineker and Cottee can, and will, return.

Richard  Price

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