FANS COMMENT

What's Age Got to Do With It?

Football's always been a simple game. Pass and move, forwards score, defenders prevent goals. Good teams win things, the rest copy their qualities, build on them and prosper — or they go backwards. At some stage, the best sides regress while ordinary sides quickly improve. And so the cycle goes on...

So, what's age got to do with it? I empathise with Evertonians who have never seen us win a trophy — I had 14 years of this from 1970 to 1984. Champions to shite within a year. Seven years without a derby win. The 'good old days' full of bad management, wasted money and with a few honourable exceptions, mediocre players. One third place, a couple of fourths, a few exciting cup runs, but no trophy.

Catterick was a great manager, but when he declined, boy did he decline. Bingham almost bored us to the title and finished fourth. Lee gave us two entertaining near-miss seasons, some great cup runs, but ultimately nothing.

This meant that when we did have a successful side, we could really appreciate it. Because we supported the club with a passion, while criticising its poor decision-making and spending, we could clearly see when they started getting it right — and wrong, when the cycle turned again at the end of the 80's.

Bingham and Lee were and still are regarded as failures because the trophy cupboard was bare, even though this was a more competitive period when English clubs were feared throughout Europe, because they were pretty good at winning competitions.

That's why some of us regard the hero-worshipping of Moyes with such disdain. There's enough football on the telly for us all to realise when we're watching good football and for the last few years we haven't seen much of it.

I'm not interested in re-creating 'the good old days'. I want Everton to provide us with some new great days. Of course there are clubs with more money and better players, but things will change. I want us to be ready when these clubs implode, as they always eventually do. We're only going to get ready when we start seeing things as they are, not by bogus achievements like 'hardest-working manager' 'consecutive top-ten finishes'.

Regardless of age, let's praise the good management, the good football and good results. And let's constructively criticise the poor stuff when we see it. To me that's what being an Evertonian is all about... or am I showing my age?

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