Fans Comment
Paul Appleyard

Green, Schmeen ......
20 August 2005

I don't even know where to begin with Alan Green's stinking, bitter diatribe printed recently in the Irish Examiner.  I am determined to ring up his banal 606 show and have a go at him.  But to get through, I'll have to pretend to be a Liverpool fan to the phone answerer (they don't let you on if you're an Evertonian; I know I've been rejected twice before).

Of course all Evertonians KNOW that we over-achieved last season — certainly those of us who go week in and week out. I was there at the last home game the season before last (we went down to Bolton) and at the first game drubbing against Arsenal the following season.

I also knew that we would not get relegated, like Green (amongst many) predicted.

We have a good side now that should expect top 10 minimum.  We ought to achieve that. Top three is fanciful, but Moyes has to aim for the stars ...

I'm not expecting to get past Villarreal.  I was at the home game and, whilst our lads did well, the Spanish outfit were a quality side.  A top-3 finish in La Liga is not to be sniffed at!

At times they passed the ball around better than any team I saw at Goodison last season, except perhaps for Arsenal.  We were genuinely unlucky to draw them, but Green doesn't mention that.  Moreover, I didn't expect us to get to the group stages, whoever we played against in the qualification game (by the way Alan, I think we all knew it was just a qualification game).  He talks of miracles to reach the group stages now, for sure, but what was LFC’s win in Istanbul if not miraculous. What's wrong with having a miracle??  Somehow it's OK for the Reds but not us???

If we get through, he'll have a dig about how we'll be embarrassed in the group stages, I'm sure.  Not 'plucky result EFC, well done', not a bit of it.  Yet everyone was fawning over LFC when they pulled off the flukiest final in living memory (only topped by Man Utd’s win in the same competition in 1999).

This club used to be the School of Science.  A title earned from high standards set for many years — all before the Premiership.  We had great teams in the past and have a very respectable honours list — yet he completely ignores that.  The fact that we fell away into a struggling team at the dawn of the Premiership is tragic indictment of our Board of Directors more than anything else.

BUT – are we not allowed to fight back now, Mr Green?!!?  Are we not allowed to try and build a solid team that won't be dodging relegation? Expectations are definitely raised, but not to the heights he seems to think.

The European merchandise is partly ironic, a two fingers up at all our detractors last year.  Most of the T-shirts just say EFC European tour, as that is exactly what we have, a European venture (CL or Uefa Cup it matters not).  We're there, when everyone said we'd be in the Coca Cola Championship.

Neville and Davies? What is he on about here!!??  Of course their previous clubs didn't want them anymore... SO WHAT?!  Juventus didn't want Henry anymore once upon a time!!  One club’s rejects/cast-offs are very often another club’s stars. Diego Forlan anyone?!  Neville and Davies are good signings; to try and make out otherwise is simply churlish in the extreme.

His comments about Arteta and Cahill take the biscuit. Relieved, he says?  Who gave Cahill his chance on the big stage?! We took a chance on him, and now he’s paying us back.  There were the usual games with his extended contract, but which players don’t play them?  Our squad is still relatively small; are we not allowed to try and add to it, Mr Green?  What are we supposed to do, just roll over and give up?  In an environment where the big four just come and plunder any super talent we may dare to develop (I could bring Rooney’s name in here, but then I really might just explode)...?

Bellamy (the real 'discarded' player Mr Green) would not have been a good signing. By design or snub, Moyes was lucky to avoid him.

Of course many players don't want to come to Goodison — we've suffered with that all the way through the 90s and 00s. Top players only want to go to the Big Four for the Big ££££.  It has been like that a long time Mr Green, and your profession does little to redress the massive imbalance between the big four and the rest, nay, it actively encourages it.  When we get the next best thing (and Neville is close to being just that) Mr Green vilifies us for it.

He may not have heard of Per Krøldrup — but imagine (if you will) that Liverpool had signed him. Mr Green would be singing his praises, you can be sure of that.  Nobody in the media rated Gravesen whilst he was with us, I've lost count of the number of media presenters who suddenly say 'what a great player Graveson is' since he's gone to Real.

His assessment of the Man Utd game was plain WRONG. We were not thrashed by any means — on the contrary Mr Green, I am looking forward to seeing this team gel.  We can definitely be better than the majority of teams in the Premiership.  If he can't see that, then he really is a biased idiot.

I hope Moyes pins up Green's hatchet job in the dressing room, a fine motivational aid it would be.

Finally, I would LUV IT, just LUV IT if we win at Villarreal and qualify!

Paul Appleyard

Responses:

It's like we've broken the law or something, it seems to me the critics are saying: "OK, you've had your flash in the pan season, but don't take the mick; let the boys with the money have all the glory!"

Villarreal would be a tough draw for anyone.  The first season these clubs competed amongst the elite, they didn't set the world alight. Arsenal still struggle in Europe.  United made fools of themselves the first couple of seasons they qualified in the early nineties, they didn't make the group stage the first or second season they were in it and it was left to Rangers to represent Britain at the group stages.

I say to all Evertonians, let the critics have their sixpence worth.  It's a similar story to last season, Everton won't amount to much, flash in the pan, blah, blah, blah. these people clearly didn't follow the club every week like us last season, they didn't see the heart those players had out there.

We played along a similar pattern to Chelsea last season.  Great manager, tons of belief and spirit, and able to grind out scrappy 1-0 wins at difficult places where normally we'd crumble.  A few spare million for Moyes to spend and who knows what would be.

The Villarreal tie is not beyond us, it's a mountain for sure, but it's certainly not over.  Our wacky neighbours showed us that anything is possible in 45 minutes of football, and we've got 90.  If the Manc-loving glory-hunting critics like Alan Green think the blues are quietly gonna shuffle back to where they think we belong and allow the big money boys to take the accolades without a fight, they are very much mistaken.  Sorry boys but teams like us Bolton, Middlesbrough and Spurs are gonna make ya work for a living.

I remember sitting in Goodison, watching Everton slip to a 2-1 home defeat by Sheffield Wednesday in the 98-99 season, after a dreadful, comical performance, which saw us slip into the bottom three.  The date was 5 April 1999, there was just six games left, and that was the last time my faith in this great club was really sagging.  I never believed for one moment the season before we would go down against Coventry.  It never entered my head once, I never lost faith once, but that rainy Easter Monday in 1999, I didn't believe we would recover.  I hated myself at that time for giving up hope, something I have never done since at any point.  We are getting stronger, wiser, and more adaptive.

Mr Green ain't nothing but a two bit punk, whose football knowledge was questioned by a Tranmere supporter — a club who fans don't even like us.  So we all must realise as GENUINE football supporters, that Alan Green's comments are best left ignored, and we can all hopefully send him a lifetime's supply of Humble Pie come may 2006. EFC - never lose face, never lose faith.  Mark Cowan, Wirral (22/8/05)

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