Fans Comment
Steve Guy

Alan Green is our friend
12 January 2006

What makes a team popular with the media?  Is it important to be popular?  These are the two questions I have asked myself on and off over a number of years, irked in the main by my perception that Everton are definitely amongst those teams which don’t get the favourable publicity we deserve.  This is particularly apparent when you live outside Merseyside, as I now do, and have to rely on radio stations like FiveLive and Talksport, Sky Tv and the national press for football coverage.

A recent example of this was the complete lack of interest displayed outside the Club and its fans regarding Everton becoming the first club to pass the 4000 marker for top-flight games.  Very few clubs will come close to matching this achievement in the near future and it is a mark of consistency which should surely have attracted at least some media interest.  But it didn’t.

In answering the question of why we don’t get the coverage, I think there are a number of factors, but a few are key.

1. Bad Timing:  1995 aside (even then we won the Cup as ‘Dogs of War’) our last real success was in the Eighties.  In media terms, this was pre-Sky and also pre-national talk radio.  As media time went then, we got reasonable coverage, but any momentum gained was lost with our inability to capitalise on domestic success because of the European ban.  By the time the ban was lifted, the writing was already on the wall for both Everton and it’s fans; the lifting of the ban coincided with the advent of Sky’s TV deal, Man Utd’s move to Plc status with increased spending power and also the latter’s subsequent domestic dominance.  All of which allowed the media to ignore (amongst others) Everton; especially as our league positions deteriorated to that of regular 'also rans'.
    
2. Liverpool FC:  Like the Neighbours from Hell, we try to ignore them, but there is no ASBO on Earth that will get rid of them.  On-field success indisputably plays a significant and understandable part in their role as media darlings.  But, does this explain the ridiculous amount of attention paid to so many other aspects of that club (for example, their rendition of a maudlin 60s hit, the word’s of which remarkably few of them can remember)?
   
   Is there a bias on the part of the media?  Probably.  The most obvious example for me was the European ban.  I was in Rotterdam on a peaceful and glorious night, drunk as a Lord and reading next day the complementary reports from Dutch Police regarding our exemplary behaviour.  Dreaming of the European Cup lasted all of two weeks, thanks in part to you know who.  Fast forward to 2005 and the Champions League; having managed to screw up qualification via the domestic route, the media bandwagon played a significant role in persuading the governing bodies to rip up their own rule book and let Liverpool participate. 
   
   Where were the media in 1991 supporting Everton’s right to take up the place they had had taken away from them in 1985?  Nowhere.  In fact, when it was mooted by Everton as a possibility, the Press reaction was negative to say the least.  I know I have oversimplified and the comparison points are 15 years apart, but there are lots and lots of other examples and you will have your own personal favourite.  You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to acknowledge the media bias Liverpool enjoy over Everton.
    
3. Relative success since the Sky TV deal: Coverage of Arsenal and Man Utd. is distorted, but is understandable to a degree.  Man Utd’s fanbase (like it or not) is a national one and, together with Arsenal, they have been the most consistently successful Premiership teams since the latter’s inception.  Chelsea have had their profile increase since Abramhovich appeared and they are seen as the heirs apparent to this legacy of consistency.  In all cases, these teams play a brand of football which is generally attractive and puts bums on seats.

Liverpool, in my humble opinion, have punched above their weight media-wise for a number of years, based on their occasional success in cup competitions and due to a lack of real competition in the Premiership, which allowed some very average Liverpool teams in the 90’s to get top 4 finishes; fair enough, credit must be given for the trophies won, but they have never won the Premiership title itself, or even come close.  So how have they usurped Everton as THE Team from the City of Liverpool?  Ask anyone outside the City and the vast majority will be surprised, not only by Everton’s pedigree, but also by the fact that the Football Club known as Liverpool was in fact Everton’s bastard child.

If the above is self-evident, it is surely also outside our control? Maybe... maybe not.

A recent contributor to ToffeeWeb spoke of how the Club ‘gears’ itself.  I have, unfortunately, come to the conclusion that I agree with that person's views.  Worse still, I don’t believe this is a recent phenomenon.  When have we ever made the most of our heritage and traditions outside the Club’s own fanbase? I  think, instead, we have always taken a pride in being understated.  Not for us the swagger and bluster of others…. we know our history.

Problem is, no one else does; if the media do, they have certainly forgotten and with few exceptions.  Liverpool have courted the media over many years — and it shows; events on and off the field are quickly turned into folklore and repeated mantra-like by all branches of the media.

Why is this so important?  Why do we need a media that’s working with Everton and not (as it seems sometimes) against us?  It’s critical for two reasons. (I wanted to argue a third, in terms of sub-conscious influence over match officials’ decision making, but decided it detracts from the point I am labouring to make.)

1. What do we see during the transfer windows?  Time and again, calibre players’ first choice, second choice, only choice, is the ‘big’ clubs.  For European players and especially those further afield, Everton are not even on their radar; they may have heard of us, but probably not.  Look at the number of players we have lost out on in the past few years alone,  who chose to go to other Premier clubs ahead of Everton.  Please don’t tell me it was all about the money; of course, the financial aspect is an important issue, but a significant factor is also our perceived profile (or lack of it) and much of that is driven by the media, both in the UK and abroad.
    
2. It’s the same with investors.  I’d like to believe Glazer looked at Everton, that whatisfaceovic had sound financial reasons for choosing to invest in Portsmouth over Everton, and that when Parry went out to see the Kraft billionaires they sent him packing in favour of Everton.  But we know none of the above was the case.  In its place we had the farce formerly known as the Fortress Sports Fund.  I hear that Google are amongst a host of companies looking for a club in which to invest.  Imagine Blue Bill turning up for his meeting with any of the above (don’t forget he’s on the case 24/7, so he’s probably in such a meeting right now!), I am pretty sure the first thing he would have to do is explain who we are.  Imagine it "You're from Liverpool?  Oh yeah the Beatles… you play in blue?… I was sure it was red… that’s another club called Liverpool?... oh yeah, I’ve heard of them."

So, the only reason the media are important is because they can actually help Everton attract the right players and also investors.  By raising our profile in the UK and especially abroad, we can actually improve our gearing and the overall perception of this great club of ours, for the long term health of the latter, both on and off the field.  This is the duty of the Board and it is a duty in which they are currently failing, as so many have done before.

I want the Board to recognise the importance of the above points as part of an overall strategy for long term success. At the moment I don’t see this happening.

Let’s start courting the media; make Goodison a place where even Alan Green is welcome (just don’t tell Moyes!).  Whilst they’re at the ground being schmoozed, get the brainwashing into gear (videos of classic Everton wins, wheel out the old players to entertain, offer the time of players and staff to take up column inches with interviews).  With all those Sky channels, surely one of them would like to make a programme on some positive aspect of Everton?  What chance Everton making themselves available to replace Chelsea for the next Sky series searching for football apprentices?

Let’s not underestimate the power of positive PR and the role of the media as part of the bigger picture for re-generating our Club.

Steve Guy

I don't like being negative but it seems like the one strand that runs through every aspect of Everton is laziness, incompetence and a reluctance to take responsibility. Our club never seem to be able to get the simplest things right and and generally seem as capable or as concerned as the Vicky Pollard character from Little Britain.

At the ticket office, the machines are often broken causing long unnecessary delays for people who have better things to do than hang around Goodison all day. When it comes to cup games, we invariably get it wrong — examples being the Leyton Orient shut out a few years ago, Villarreal this year and Millwall next week (Wyness blaming the Villarreal cock up on the July 7 London bombings was a particular peach).

Our corporate facilities seem to be a disingenuous joke, as a professional myself, the idea that I would take clients to stand in a tent outside Goodison is risible. The catering staff inside are really badly organised and are never prepared for the half-time rush - if you know you're going to have 200 people coming for pints at half-time, why not pour them in advance during the first half rather than dawdling about pouring them one at a time causing queues that put people off using the facilities in the first place?

The stewards might as well not be there. My season ticket is adjacent to an exit and so near a couple of them. Invariably when the same tired old racist shite is screeched out by some of the scallies behind me (to be fair this only comes form a minority of them) the steward only has eyes for his feet but then laughs whenever a funny comment is made.

I don't know if the groundsmen are crap but the pitch (and especially the areas by the goal) are now beginning to look shabby compared to my local park. And now we hear from HKLC that our press office seem to regard being asked to do their job an inconvenience! Do these people think the world owes them a living or something?

It seems to go all the way up to the top. Not to over egg the pudding but some of our transfer dealings leave me wanting to put a gun to my head. The worst thing is that we seem to becoming conditioned to it, the Kings Dock farce and the Fortress Sports Fund fiasco coming as no surprise to any Blues I know.

Given the depressed atmosphere that seems to pervade everything Everton, you can understand why the players' heads drop every time we go a goal down. And the fact that the Kopites seem as accomplished as we're laughable makes it all the worse. I'm a big Evertonian and have been for a long long time. But if I was investing in one club in Liverpool (as a business not as a fan) I'd certainly be going across the park to do so and anyone wanting to have a go at me for doing so clearly doesn't live in the real world.

I am a Blue and will always be so but it seems like our club is messed up in so many ways. If Wyness & Co want to earn their corn then there's plenty basic things he could be doing rather than putting up his corporate tents.
Dominic Buckley, Manchester (13/1/06)

At this point I must mention Liverpool. True they have had more media coverage in recent years than perhaps their success on the pitch merits, but this is because of the huge fan-base they built up during their periods of phenomenal success in the sixties and seventies. I just need to have a quick glance around my office to see five thirty-something gobshites who have never even been near Liverpool, proudly displaying their Stevie-G-La champions league wallpaper on their computers. The whole of London is full of these whoppers. Given that the aim of a newspaper is to sell as many copies as possible, they’re bound to try to appeal to one of the biggest markets in the country, ie. gobshites. It’s just simple economics.

As for Everton's history, no one is interested. Blackpool used to be the mightiest team in the land, but who cares now? True, Blackpool do get the odd mention on Stanley Matthews's birthday, but it's usually in the 'Fascinating Facts' column on page 53, right next to the 'Did you know that (suprisingly) it's actually lowly Everton who have played the most top-flight games in English football!' story. It's history; no one cares about it any more. People want success stories, they want the ‘here and now’ not depressing little pieces on stadium tragedies 20 years ago that might-possibly-maybe have cost poor old Everton a European trophy.

The sad fact of the matter is that Everton get exactly the amount of media coverage they deserve based upon their success on the pitch, which is not very much at all. If we want to be a media success story we first have to become a success on the pitch.

Foot note: I’ve just read the article by the unnamed ‘Fleet Street Journalist’ who broadly agreed with the sentiments in this piece. He also raised an interesting point about the unhelpful attitude of the administration staff at Everton Football Club. Unfortunately the poor customer service is a feature of the club as a whole, maybe even the entire city of Liverpool when it comes to service industries. We’re a poorly run club with some rude incompetent staff who don’t give a monkey's about the supporters.

A couple of season’s back, Rhino’s testimonial in fact, I tried to organise a “lunch and match package at the club” for a group of people from my company who happened to be working in Liverpool that weekend. I don’t usually go in for this corporate hospitality nonsense, I'm a pie and pint man myself, but we had a sizeable entertainment budget, so I thought why not spend it at Goodison Park. Despite several phone calls and e.mails, no-one at the club bothered to get back to us. In the end we gave up and went to Haydock Park instead (that got rained off so we ended up in the pub all day – which was probably the best option as it went).
Steve McBride, London (13/01/06)

I've found the Everton press office one of the worst I've ever dealt with. Even Chelsea's are superior and they've got quite a lot more to do.

As a blue it grieves me that we can't at least employ someone who understands the role, who's helpful and cheerful and who recognises the enthusiasm of a surprisingly large body of Evertonian journalists who want to write and broadcast about the club. It's not an overly difficult job and it makes such a difference to how the club is perceived as inevitably journos are affected by the environment they come across.

For example, why on earth do interviews with the players have to be conducted in a freezing cold, semi-derelict nissan hut - without furniture. It's like some discarded old school mobile classroom. It's appalling. If you're conducting a lengthy interview for a national publication that thousands of Evertonians and other fans will read, it's an important representation of the club. Plus you also want the player/interviewee to be comfortable - not sitting there shivering on some dodgy old plastic seat with wobbly legs. Christ, this is a multi-million pound business which behaves like a Sunday League club!

In this day and age there should be comfortable and quiet interview facilities for more obvious reasons than I haven't got the time to go into. A long time ago I worked in another high profile media industry where we too engaged daily with the press. We used to provide warm, comfortable, quiet interview areas. We'd get the journo and the interviewee a cup of tea or a drink. If it was around lunchtime we'd get them a sarnie. We found that it made a difference to how we were perceived — and so we got more and better press. It ain't rocket science.

And lastly, don't blame Moyesy. The guys a top man - if you met him - you'd love him even more. He has a lot to cope with that doesn't involve football.

I hope the Everton press office maintain their interest in fan websites and read this letter...and then maybe they'll think about it before making journalists wait outside the training ground for hours in their cars, treating them like lepers and generally acting as if we're shit on their shoes. Sure, some journos in the tabs are pretty distasteful but there's a whole body of Evertonian journos out there who would jump through hoops to write great stuff about their heroes - and the press office knows who they are.
Big Dunc's Fave Pigeon, Londinium, (1/14/06)

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