FAN ARTICLES

A new beginning?

By Christopher Ashton :  29/11/2010 :  Comments (13) :

Whether we like it or not, we have hit our brick wall. We cannot financially compete with Tottenham, Man City, Arsenal or Liverpool. These are the teams we need to be finishing above to get into the holy grail of football these days.

As well as that, I do not wish to debate this but I think as a club we have no chance of investment or buyouts any time soon. Unless we find someone who wishes to throw their money away for no return, that is. So, on this note, I accept that financially it is not going to get any better.

On the tune of finance, I believe that we are crippling the club by offering the deals we have for our players now. £50 grand and above is stupid and it will only create more debt.

So here are my thoughts on the future. Why do we not just admit defeat? Admit that, in this climate of football, Everton cannot compete anymore with these other teams and start a fresh. If we keep competing with these teams in all honesty we could keep getting 8th place finishes whilst crippling the club even more keeping what we have away from other people.

Here's what I propose: a Fire Sale. Never mind the owner or the manager or anything like that, I believe the problem lies in the squad. In January, sell Pienaar for whatever we can get for him. In the summer, sell: Arteta, Bily, Heitinga, Yak and Saha. Now potentially we could make £20-30 million there to invest in the team. Here's why:

• Arteta ? For all the flashes of genius, he will never be consistent for 20+ games a season; it will be better to sell at his highest stock than wait until his wages cripple the club.
• Bilyaletdinov ? Doesn't play, don't know why though. There must be something there so cut our losses and sell him back to his motherland.
• Heitinga ? Will ride his bike to Barca if they called, just get him an EasyJet ticket instead to somewhere else because to me he resembles what the club should not be about.
• Saha ? Nowhere near good enough for Everton. Sits on his contract when he is injured and to be honest, he will never be a great striker here.
• Yak ? This I do blame Moyes for. All the theories people have about him, put yourself in his shoes. He gets games, does well, and then gets dropped for Saha for no reason. I think he is already gone from here, but to some extent I think it is because he knows Saha will be picked before him, despite Yak having scored more Premier League goals than Saha.

So, after we sell these players, what then? Well how about if we bought in younger, hungry players on low wages. I have a shining example in Luke Varney. A Derby County player that they deemed not good enough, loaned him out constantly until Blackpool took him on because he would play for £10 grand a week. You wouldn't even think he, or most of their squad were not Premier League quality would you? They play with the hunger to succeed, and no fear of anyone. All for £10 grand a week as well which considering Arteta gets £75 grand and doesn't perform it makes you wonder. So, yeah, build a hungry team and play to our strengths of being the underdogs. Imagine this if you will:

Howard
Coleman, Jag, Duffy/?, Baines
?, Fellaini, Rodwell, Gueye
Cahill/?, Jao Silva

The team above is not the finished thing but build the team around Fellaini and Rodwell in the middle. A right midfielder who is young, a support striker or second striker for Silva and the team already looks a bit more exciting and energetic.

I know I said sell 6 players but if you look at it this way, here are 6 players to replace them all with:

Baxter
Barkley
Wallace
Gueye
Jao Silva
Rodwell

You might all think I am mad here for my views but I just think I may be on to something; rather than plan for next season, plan for the next five to ten seasons. Plus there must be a good few promising players that could be signed cheap for the future to fill the squad out.

For a final thought, I don't think Varney is a good player for the record, I mean he is an example of how well someone can play with desire and hunger.

Reader Comments (13)

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Shaun Brennan
1 Posted 29/11/2010 at 14:29:06
Your suggesting a bit of a complete clear out and start again. Not too sure how and were that would lead us.

It would certainly make sense to get rid of a few deadwood, e.g. Heitinga and Bily, Saha. Maybe sell Yak next summer. But I do hope we keep hold of Piennar. Arteta is out now, maybe Rodwell will get his chance to stand in along side Fellani.

The current players are part of the problem, but the biggest problem is Moyes not having any balls. £50 grand and above is stupid and that's what he is on. Value for money???? Errr nope.
Brian Waring
2 Posted 29/11/2010 at 15:01:51
Christopher, we have a good squad, with a very good first 11, so why start again? We just need a manager who can get them playing.

I don't understand why Moyes should be left out, after all, he is probably on par with what Arteta is being paid, and he is also part of the problem.

Brian Waring
3 Posted 29/11/2010 at 15:10:13
Also Christopher, are you saying Moyes is blameless in all this? Because at the end of the day, this is his squad of players.
Christopher McCullough
4 Posted 29/11/2010 at 15:25:56
I agree with a couple of your points and strongly disagree with others.

Agree - Fellaini and Rodwell in the middle. Yeah, why not ?

Disagree - Sell Yak, Arteta and Bily.

Arteta is a good lad and very talented footballer. I believe he would play on the right without complaint until he wins back his place in the centre. Yak has played very well when selected. Bily is still young. I won't shite on about why he hasn't fulfilled his potential but there is no sense in selling him for a huge loss.

I'd like to see Coleman at right back behind a quality right midfielder.

Otherwise, apart from the youngsters I've mentioned above, we have some more exciting prospects like Barkley and Duffy. I don't think it's time for a reckless revolution, yet.

David Thomas
5 Posted 29/11/2010 at 15:26:35
Christopher, have you ever seen Gueye, Duffy, Jao Silva, Baxter, Barkley or Wallace play?

I'm sorry Chris but I think you have gone mad with this idea.
Lee Courtliff
6 Posted 29/11/2010 at 15:30:07

Interesting point, Chris. I have often thought there MUST be a pacey right winger in the lower leagues that we could afford and who would be a useful squad player. I am kind of excited at the thought of a team full of Seamus Colemans. No fear, just hunger. It would be one hell of a risk though. What if we got relegated?

I started following the Blues in the 90s and I remember what it felt like to be on the brink. I was there against Wimbledon. Cried my eyes out for nearly the whole game (I was only 12 years old).

Charlie Percival
7 Posted 29/11/2010 at 15:51:35
Christopher, I've been watching average players getting that extre 30% out of them for the past 20 years. It would be nice to have a few cultured ones who only need to be in a game for 30% of it to make a result-affecting difference!
Ray Robinson
8 Posted 29/11/2010 at 16:00:47
Christopher ? I can buy your thought process but then logic tells me that teams that have a fire sale, replacing too many players in one go, usually get relegated. So it's a thumbs down for me ? but I do think there's scope to generate funds by selling Heitinga and Bilyaletdinov. And Saha might as well pack his bags too.
Terry Downes
9 Posted 29/11/2010 at 16:21:13
I agree with you about the Yak situation. If I was in his shoes, I'd tell Moyes to stick his 10-min sub role up his hairy slice.

Yak's much better than Saha and was just beginning to find some form when dropped for no reason.
Ed Staunton
10 Posted 29/11/2010 at 16:20:17

Just a couple of points:

The Yak got dropped after the Blackpool game because he was a lazy disinterested git in that game, he has a couple of good games & thinks it's ok to go back to not giving a flying fuck... When Moyes took over his idea was to get rid of the deadwood & bring in young hungry players, it took over 8 years & now you say we are back to Square One.

Also, you can only sell players if they want to go & you can only get good money for them if another team is willing to pay, so it is pointless to say "sell this player & buy this one" because we have no idea if it's possible. We do need a change but that can only happen if the people at the top want it; let's face it ? that is not going to happen.


David Holroyd
11 Posted 29/11/2010 at 16:51:01
Chris Ashton Heitinger to Barca watch tonights game just where will HEITINGER play in that team. Look we can,t compete financially with the top 4 or 5 but neither can Bolton buy at least they are giving it a go
Michael Kenrick
Editorial Team
12 Posted 29/11/2010 at 22:36:01
David Holroyd...

Write out 100 times:

HEITINGA ? not 'HEITINGER'.

FFS!!!
Derek Thomas
13 Posted 30/11/2010 at 07:07:03
Why not just sack Moyes and let the new bloke, who, we would hope, will do three things.

1) If it is done now, as it shoud be, he can have a look at the squad and then pick a team to go out and ABSO-FUCKIN-LUTELY THRASH Scunthorpe and turn around the season as the form translates into wins, aka new manager syndrome.

2) Drop the favourites if needed and play the square pegs in the square-shaped holes.

3) Assess the current squad and the up-and-comers, getting rid where possible.

Slightly off topic, I know... but when shithead Souness took over the rs from Kenny Doglead(?) the equivalent to our good selves at ToffeeWeb had been banging on about McManananananan, Souness with no preconceived ideas saw he wasn't too bad and put him in.

There are many things wrong at EFC and Moyes is up near the top of the list.

His race is run, he has done his dash, not all his fault we know but he picked the squad and the team and the way we play.

Just like governments sometimes ? it's just time for a change, the weight of years is against you.

It's good night from me and hopefully fuck off from him.

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