Fans Comment
David Booth

No laughing matter...
16/09/2005

After what might be described as an unlucky start, last night confirmed that Everton’s annual cycle of boom and bust is set to repeat itself.

Except that this time, it looks more serious than ever.

Seven goals at Arsenal, followed by five in Turkey, five more last night and goodness knows how many more at Highbury on Monday - plus an appalling performance against Portsmouth - cannot now be dismissed as ‘off days’.

We are going to struggle and a top half of the table finish is the absolute best we can hope for.

It’s tempting to spin out a few paragraphs about who’s to blame and what went wrong, but we all know the answers very well don’t we?

No confidence, transparent tactics, no leader; poor fitness; no link between defence, midfield and attack - and no attack even if there had been!

Without a agile, quick-witted striker, we will struggle to win a game in the foreseeable future. Worse, by the time January arrives, those we desire will not share our affection.

And the most hurtful factor: the players out there last night must earn an average of, say, £15,000 per week. That’s more than three quarters of a million pounds a year to do their job, ie: be a professional Premiership footballer.

That’s serious money. A ludicrous level of income that should make them among the best in Europe. What?

It is intolerable for them to just play when it suits them.

But yet again, they showed why even rank and file fans are waking up to the fact that football - not just Everton - is heading for the brink.

Season tickets price hikes that leave inflation gasping in their wake, players who treat the game as an interruption to their modelling careers and the incessant hype that surrounds the Premiership - where 30-second TV adverts contain more excitement than 90 minutes of what they’re selling - is not for me any more. Pay £60 for a ticket at Chelsea - why?

The golden goose is on its last legs. Football is a luxury leisure item - an unaffordable waste of money and the players taking the piss.

Yet you’ll all be back week in, week out won’t you? I won’t. I have better things to do than make weekly donations to a group of over-paid pop stars.

So buy the new away/third strip, sip £3 lukewarm Chang beer, listen to Weir and co continually protesting how “upset they are for the fans,” and help keep the players in the style to which they have become accustomed.

As for me, I’d shove their Ferraris up their arse (sideways of course), given the chance. They couldn’t care less, so why should you? I don’t.

Love Everton... but hate the wankers who pulled on a shirt last night. You’re shit, aaaaaaaaah!

David  Booth

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