Fans Comment
Kevin Gillen

A Lack of Leadership?
27 July 2005

Here I go again, complaining. Last year it was Rooney (I am still bitter and not with the boy himself). Nick Hornby was right when he postulated that the natural state of most football fans is depression and all the other ToffeeWeb moaners (Colm Cavanagh, myself and others) are testimony to this. Better a relegation dogfight than mid-table ignominy I say, there’s much more to worry about and Saturdays become so much more important.

I know that the Bluekipper muse Mickey Blue Eyes would say get a life, there are more important things than football, and he is right but the truth is I like to worry about Everton. There isn’t really a single day I don’t worry about them. I have invested an enormous amount of energy, effort and resources of mine at Everton (all three of my sons are sick of explaining their Everton shirts away to the myriad of Mancs and Chelsea and Arsenal and Liverpool clones who think we are just cannon fodder for them) so it is reasonable that I should worry about them.

My worry this Summer is that once more Everton have managed, in full view of a critical press and public, to embark upon an enormous PR disaster. So much so that one might think this is an orchestrated age-old Fergie tactic of getting everyone to hate us so that we are motivated out of spite to defy our critics. If it isn’t then whoever is in charge of PR at the club needs shooting.

I have no problem with a strict and sensible wage policy, indeed I support it vigorously in these uncertain times. What I do object to is the singular lack of discretion in publicising our transfer targets when there is little chance of success. Bellamy, Sissoko, Emre, Forsell, Parker have all been targeted and none have been recruited. I cannot quite believe that, as the Champions League deadline approaches, we have almost exactly the same size of squad we operated with last season.

Clubs who have bucked the trend of Champions League qualification in their respective countries in recent years, such as Rael Sociedad and Celta Vigo, have had major downfalls the following year. Ipswich were relegated following Uefa Cup qualification, Middlesboro last year did not win on a Saturday following a midweek game in Europe. We all know what happened to Leeds United. It is obvious to every Everton fan that we must strengthen the squad.

Last year we were remarkably fortunate with injuries. Imagine what would happen if say any one of Yobo, Cahill, Arteta suffers a long term injury in the opening weeks of the season. Personally I like Li Tie, he had a great season when we finished 7th, but I’m not sure if he will come back the same player following such a serious leg injury. The youngsters Hopkins, Wynne, Sergeant and Vaughan all seem a bit away from breaking into the Premiership, never mind the Champions League.

The failure to recruit sufficient players of quality to the club is more worrying than the public relations debacle of failing to recruit such high profile targets. The Pistone U-turn and the Cahill extended contract fiascos add to a general feeling of disappointment for fans and, given the negative pre-season build-up from the previous year, one really has to ask about the leadership at the club.

Personally I find it hard to believe that the Rooney transfer and qualification for Champions League have banished the spectre of financial instability at the club. I do believe that in Moyes we have an excellent leader but the invisibility of Kenwright, the lack of progress on the stadium issue, the farcical attempts to secure investment coupled with the failure to expand the squad leave me quite nervous about the forthcoming season.

I looked at an old programme from the Walter Smith era the other day and was astonished at the number of professionals on Everton’s books in his time at Goodison compared to the number at Moyes’s disposal. I am sure that, if a man of Moyes’s achievements and ambition does not feel supported within the boardroom, he will inevitably move on to a more ambitious club. That would be a disaster for the club of Rooneyesque proportions.

The answers will of course come swiftly. I expect some late freedom-of-contract transfer activity and rightly so. We have paid top prices for Krøldrup and Davies — both of whom I expect to be great successes. I think we paid a fair price for Arteta. It is reasonable to think that we could attract some ambitious players to the club given the promise of the year ahead. Hopefully we can recruit a striker with some pace who can shoot straight, two attacking midfielders and a solid defender.

We do however need to see the Wyness/Kenwright partnership off the field progress the stadium and investment issues with some solid long-term plans. With this in mind I could see us inching forward and ahead of many rivals standing still (Aston Villa, Charlton, Man City) and even ahead of some of our more flamboyantly ambitious rivals (Newcastle, Middlesboro, Bolton). The volume of fixtures this year will bring many opportunities for showing how we cope with adversity. Bouncebackability will be a new word Evertonians will become familiar with.

Champions League qualification proper will bring about as many pitfalls as it does advantages. The goal for this season must reasonably be European qualification again and a consolidation of the club’s profile in the top half of the premiership coupled with an advancement of the club’s overall financial and commercial position. We need to be smarter and bolder off the pitch. Let’s see some progress soon on the player front as all things follow from success on the pitch. Come on you blues!

Kevin  Gillen
Lifelong Blue

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