Fans Comment
Adam Bennett

The fear of relegation
19 October 2005

David Moyes will always have a place in my heart.  When he took over, we were on the verge of relegation, and he kept us up.  We were in a right mess.  With ageing and poor players (Ginola, Gascoigne, Gemmill, Alexandersson etc.) and with no money to replace them, I thought we would be a bottom half team for many, many years to come.  Then three years later I’m sitting, or rather standing (that fence was doing my head in!) in a stand in Villarreal watching Everton play a Champions League tie — something I couldn’t even dream about when he took over.  The fantastic time I spent in Spain will be with me for the rest of my life, and I thank David Moyes for making it possible.

A month ago I wrote to ToffeeWeb saying that Moyes should be fully supported; I think I even ended it with a dig at those calling for his head.  I thought we would be bottom half, maybe even bottom five or six, in January.  Then we would be able to buy a striker and a powerful midfielder and have a good side.  With a couple more signings in the summer, we’d be able to build for next season and push on and have an excellent side that would challenge at the top end of the table regularly in years to come.

I didn’t think we would be bottom of the table heading into November with only three points, playing poorly and frankly not having a clue where our next point is going to come from.

The way the players are playing at the moment I am reminded of their attitude towards the end of the 2003-04 season when they stopped playing and went on the pitch looking as though they were not arsed about getting beaten (5-1 Man City any-one?).  In a way, I don’t blame them either.  Take Marcus Bent for example.  All summer, Moyes was saying that he was going to buy a striker, and because we didn’t buy one Bent is playing (until January when we buy one…. Ahem!) so why should he pull his tripe out when Moyes, in a round about way, has said he’s going to be fucked off in a couple of months?  This isn’t what I call good man-management.

I hate to say it, because I really like the man, but I honestly believe that the longer David Moyes is our manager, the greater the chance is of relegation.  I’ve heard statements like ‘it’s only a blip’ – well how many ‘blips’ do you know that last ten months?  It’s been said before and I’ll say it again: Since 28th December 2004 we’ve played 27, lost 17, won 7 and drawn 3.  That’s 24 pts — relegation material.  The way things are going, and with a number of fans completely supporting Moyes, I feel that we are sleep-walking into the Championship.

Relegation would be completely disastrous. Bill Kenwright and Co cannot run our club’s finances on Premiership money so how would they control them without the multi-millions of the Premiership?  I tell you how, he wouldn’t – RELEGATION WILL BE THE COMPLETE DEATH OF EVERTON FOOTBALL CLUB. Does anyone think – and be honest – that we would come straight back up?  The Championship is an extremely competitive league and there are quite a number of clubs who have gone down and not come back – Derby, Ipswich, Coventry, all ‘safe’ Premiership teams a few years ago, and some have fallen even further – Nottingham Forest, European Champions twice on the spin a little over twenty years ago.

Without mentioning the finances, what about pride?  We are the 4th most successful club in the country (although the Press and Sky ‘football was invented in 1992 you know’ would have you think otherwise), spent more seasons in the top flight than any other club in the country – over 50 of which are unbroken - and a club like Everton not in the top league just would not feel right.

I know we finished fourth last season but that is in the past – we need to look forwards not back, after all we are always taking the piss out of the dark side because their always going on about the past.  People can ask ‘Who do you get to replace Moyes?’ (there is always someone) but, if we go down, I’d like to go down with a fight and make changes trying to stay up rather than just accepting it.  And in two, three, or four years' time, when we’re still down there and Moyes is still our manager, would you be saying ‘we should keep him, we finished fourth a few years ago’.

I really, really hope that we beat Chelsea on Sunday to kick-start our season, that we finish in the top half of the table, and we are all happy that David Moyes is our manager at the end of it.  When we become successful I hope that David Moyes will be the one who has guided us there, but it is painful to say I cannot see that happening.

If we loose our next two games we are a quarter of the way into the season with three points (time to panic?) and I’m afraid a change would have to be made.

NIL SATIS NISI OPTIMUM – we should accept nothing less; Sir John Moores didn’t.

Adam  Bennett

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