Walk the Walk

The summer off-season has been ticking along for some time now and the new Premier League campaign is drawing ever closer.

The World Cup has come and gone with Everton stars enjoying varied levels of success as personel too have come and gone since the last shots were fired at Goodison Park on May 9th.

With the passing days and weeks Everton have quietly gone about their business with only the surprise departure of Dan Gosling causing any ripples in the media pool.

The additions of Jan Mucha, Magaye Gueye and Jermaine Beckford are the only notable additions to the squad and contract negotiations are ongoing with both Steven Pienaar and Mikel Arteta.

While the club are no strangers to not recieving the appropriate recognition from the national press and media, is staying under the radar this summer a good thing for David Moyes' men?

Having just scratched up a 6th win from 6 pre-season games in the brotherhood cup against Chilian namesake CD Everton, the team have returned to Finch Farm in the same vein as when they left towards the end of last season.

If Everton can hit the ground running this year ? something they have not managed in the previous two ? then following the form tables since last Christmas, top 4 could be but a taste of the Toffee's potential.

The clubs immediatly around Everton while recieving the lions share of attention will also carry the lions share of expectation. Clubs such as neighbours Liverpool, Megabucks Manchester City and Harry Redknapp's Spurs are all under the microscope but do any of them really have a hand as strong as the Blues?

• Liverpool have a new manager who while being new to the club himself, will have to make do with a group of players who are largely average at best, left by the outgoing manager.
• City though star studded as their squad may be, could not only be a paper tiger if their David Silva's go the same way as their Robhino's but could also struggle to work as a team if all the new pieces don't click right away.
• Tottenham are in the worst position especially if they do go on to qualify for the Champions League. So many extra high intensity matches will without doubt heavily impact their league form especially since they have thus far failed to strengthen their squad, so expect them to slip down the table.
  

None of the above have the advantages that Everton can enjoy. As well as being out of the spotlight, if you were to read the cards then they could be about to set imaginations alight amongst their supporters.

No European calendar to tax the numbers which proved so costly last season; being the best squad at the club in the last 10 years and being by far and away the most settled group of players of all the teams looking to succeed this season could all play a huge part come May 2011. The current roster of players are at the same time the best yet since the managers arrival in L4 and the most underrated.

Everton have the capacity to prove a lot of doubters wrong this season, the chance to ram the words down the throat of opposition fans and the media who dismiss them as not being a threat or a big mover.

The mood amongst Evertonians was one of excited expectation when one thought about the coming season before the World Cup and there should be no reason yet for that mood to change.

All of the usual Red Herrings will still apply to any modern Everton team that flies higher than the media darlings, such as 'hard working team' and 'punching above their weight.' (any gritted teeth praise and means to not acknowledge Everton as an exciting team that Sky or other media outlets can muster.)

Perhaps the best attitude to adopt for Evertonians is to mirror that of the club itself? To pay no heed to what others say or do not say and just let the games do the talking when hostilities recommence. To allow those who are going to talk their time to talk and to wait until the serious business gets under way to show them just how foolish they are to write off the boys in Blue.

Don't mention it too loudly, but Everton could just be the best placed they've ever been to shake up the established order.

Nobody expects Everton to be a major player this coming year, nobody out there knows what they are... but we do, don't we?

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