ToffeeWeb Viewpoint
Thoughts from the Editor

Is Everybody Excited?
6 August 2005

Bob Roberts has written in from Dublin, asking some questions and making some strong points.  Below are my responses:

1: Is everyone incredibly excited about the biggest game we have played in I guess 20 years?

Excited, yes... with a mixture of fear and trepidation.  It is without doubt a great occasion: our first venture into the Champions League.  The potential for incredible excitement is tempered somewhat by the prospect that we really have next to nothing in the way of firepower up front, with Moyes expected to field the hideous 4-5-1 formation led by Beattie up front in a role for which he has proven quite ineffective.  So, rather than being "incredibly excited", I expect a dour defensive tussle; great if we manage to scramble a goal; absolutely horrific if they score first and then proceed to play us off the park.

2: PHIL NEVILLE; I'm going to stick my neck out and say David Moyes has pulled a blinder here. I haven't seen a single person who gets why he bought him: Phil Neville is the best man-marker in the English game.  I  can't think of any others.  Moyes is going to get him to man mark the opposition's playmaker in European games (eg, Riquelme for Villarreal).  That wasn't Fergie's thing at United, Keegan got him doing it for England a few times. I'm sure I have heard him being praised for his ability to take an opponent out of the game.  He is cover for full-back, and will do the holding role in midfield, but I think the key is his man-marking skills.

It's a nice thought.  Many have convinced themselves that all the positives associated with having Phil Neville in the team will outweigh the nagging doubt that he must now be past his best, since he can hardly get a game for Manchester United.  I see him as a United reject: not good enough to play in a team we beat, a team that finished just one place above us, fellow travellers in the Champions League.  If he proves me wrong, really takes a massive grip on our midfield, and becomes captain by Christmas then I shall eat my words.  All the talk is fine but there is only one place it matters: on the field.

3: Does anyone think we are a worse team this compared to last year?  We have added some very good players, we let go some very average ones, and the fact we re-signed Pistone, Weir and Naysmith on squad-player wages is a great bit of business.  If you are going to slag off Moyes, at least look at the deals first.  He has re-signed three players on next to buttons, but you hear people gripe like they are on Scott Parker money; the three of them together are not on Scott Parker's left nut money.

Now this is where you really lost me.  Firstly, re-signing players is hardly rocket-science, and the Pistone business actually made us look very silly, as we did a climb-down when Naysmith's recovery was seen to be protracted.  And talking of Naysmith, how many Evertonians think that much of him as a player anyway?  Most would have seen him as deadwood and wished him gone.  Same for Pistone (although I disagree there: I think Pistone is a good player).  And Weir is no great shakes either.  So making out that these three represent some fantastic deal pulled of by Moyes is just plain silly.

4; We finished 4th last year and it wasn't a miracle; we had a well organised team and a clever game plan, so how can anyone think we are going to do considerably worse this year?  The opposition if anything looks worse. Man Utd seem to be imploding; Rafa is buying a lot of Latin players, when none have ever made it before in England.  I have no idea why anyone thinks a Spurs team who came 9th last year (and whom we gave 6 points to) is going to be pulling up trees.  Boro, Villa, and Newcastle seem to be only going backwards.  Maybe I'm missing something, but us finishing 4th and improving in every area, when a lot of teams seem at best the same, and quite possibly only getting worse, does not seem like dark skies ahead.

Well, that's very comforting too.... except for one problem, as David Moyes discovered the season before last, and then went on to prove last season.  What a team looks like at the start of the season may have little or no reflection on where they finish in the league table.  Surely you haven't forgotten that lesson already?  So all your assessments (and the assessments of every other pundit on the planet who wants to predict next season's outcome) are a waste of time and effort.  Sure, a few will get it right... but most will be wrong.  That's what Ladbrokes and friends rely on to make far more money out of the punters than the punters will ever make out of them.  Realistically, we have the potential to repeat either of the last two seasons: 4th from top; 4th from bottom... or anywhere in-between. 

5: The official site conspiracy people, what you need to do is look at all the other Premiership club's official websites.  What do you see? They have exactly the same format, all the PL websites are run by one company hired by the PL, it is not the mouthpiece of Everton Football Club.  I'm sure there is some collaboration, but anyone who thinks something on the website is like a press release is wrong.  I know we have all been hungry for information about our club these last two months, but what is on that site is not coming from Goodison.  Just because you have embraced the internet age, doesn't mean your football club has.  ToffeeWeb is much more the official site, as it doesn't post rumour as truth and embraces totally Everton, which is the fans all players, the manager, the Board.

Haha... while that is very flattering to us, I'm afraid I disagree with most of what you are saying.  I can't speak to other PL websites because I never bother with them (actually you are right: a lot of them are apparently run by the same company/franchise), but I know for a fact that the Official Everton Website is exactly what it says: it is run by the Club, employs people from the Club (Mark Rowan for one) and provides stories that are in the main original and in the main relate directly and totally to all aspects of Everton FC.  They do post press releases from the Club, although they are not in the habit of giving out information they would rather hold in. Take two examples: on the one hand we have today a press release about James Vaughan in contract negotiations: original story, written by an Everton person.  On the other hand, we have a pre-season game played behind closed doors against Dundee United a couple of weeks ago, featuring two trialists: Francesco Coco and René Aufhauser.  The Official Site kept totally schtum about this, and no news got out anywhere. 

What I think confuses people about the Official Everton website is the coy approach they take over some of the transfer speculation.  When people read such stories, they expect they are reading some hot inside info from the horses mouth.  This is often not the case, because the Club has no wish to provide anything beyond what is already common knowledge, so regarding such stories they are no different than TribalFootbal.com or Sky Sports.  They comment on the speculation usually with the minimum or zero original content, although some of the transfer-rumour denials recently do go beyond this.

Some Evertonians love to slag off the Official Website.  For many years it was non-existent; the first efforts were appalling.  But in recent years they have really got their act together and generally provide a very good and increasingly comprehensive service.  I like to believe that the enduring presence of ToffeeWeb as the foremost and most comprehensive Independent Everton website has acted as a catalyst pushing them to higher and higher standards — Nil Satis Nisi Optimum? — but I could well be wrong!  A good website is increasingly a financial imperative for any serious business, and our influence is I'm sure waning as they set their own new standards of excellence.

6: Let the truth be known, if we beat Villarreal and don't get relegated, it will be the most financially successful season we have ever had — FACT.  That can't be bad.  We are two games away from our season being only good and positive.  Don't you think that is great?  Isn't it wonderful how much and how quickly we are moving forward? 

Football fans must come in a lot of different shades and varieties.  At one end of the spectrum is you and Bill Kenwright: gushing luvvies who exuberate in anticipation.  At the other end are people like me who have seen so much before in the way of false dawns, but who have also experienced the real highs of seeing us play good football and win trophies.  I know which I prefer, and I know when I see it.  But I have learnt not to write down the scores until the whistle has gone, and not to really believe the league table until after the last day of the season.  Keep it real.

Michael Kenrick
ToffeeWeb Editor

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