Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

The Sweet Smell of Great Sorrow

By Dave   Wilson  ::  14/07/2011   34 Comments (»Last) I really enjoyed the article submitted by James Martin the other day, I did'nt agree with everything in "I`d rather keep rags" but I found his contempt for the Nouveau Riche funny and his approach to the game in general, refreshingly honest. Unfortunately some readers rounded on him. To his credit James has stood his ground, labling his detrators elitists... was he right?

I always kind of cringe when I hear the more "mature" blue berate the younger fans, My first reaction is to think "shit" "do I sound like that?" I guess we all get a little less patient and a little more selective with the memory as we get older, that's natural, but I`ve noticed growing tendency for Evertonians of a "certain vintage" to want to place the blame for the clubs current plight at the doorstep of the youngsters.

"They`re a new breed of Evertonian"; they are too "easily pleased" . Apparently this "new breed" epitomise everything wrong with our club, not only do they "accept mediocrity" they apparently want to applaud it! ... "It wouldn't have happend in our day!!"

I'm chuckling to myself as I write this, because I could be talking about every matchgoer I`ve ever known since the mid-sixties, including me. And it's absolute bollocks.

"Seventh may be good enough for the "new breed" but thats not MY Everton" ... Really? What about the Seventies?

Despite starting the decade as runaway Champions, we spent the next nine seasons nearly drowning in our own mediocrity. Sure we had some good players: Dobbo and Dave Thomas were top notch, Duncan really was magic, and "Lee's Robots" ? as they were christened by the media ? did threaten to stifle every other team in the league but, for most of the decade, we were absolutely dire. By the end of the seventies, we were so desperate for even the tiniest spark of success we celebrated the Latchford's 30th goal as if we`d won the fucken Champions League. While the shite were rampaging around Europe, we were scraping poxy draws against the likes of Altringham... Altringham !?

"He's searching for the memory of a lost paradise."
"In his youth or a dream, he can't be precise."
"He's chained forever to a world that's departed"
"It's not enough, it's not enough"

And so to the eighties, Halcyon days ? I'll get to them ? but we still managed to finish OUTSIDE the top six more times than we finished in it. If the seventies were bad, they were nothing in comparison to the first 3½ years of the eighties, we may not have beaten the shite for seven years, but at least they hadn't twatted us 5-0 on our own midden. Crowds dropped, our manager, captain and central midfielder were all the same guy, even back then then we were scratching around for players, Blackburn's center half was brought in on a lone deal and boy did we pay.

They say the darkest hour is just before dawn, but fuck me, this was taking the piss... leaflets screaming "THIRTY THOUSAND STAY-AWAY FANS CANT BE WRONG" blew around the streets of Goodison. Kendall bore the look of a haunted man... who can forget the look on his face as the 12,000 or so who had bothered their arses to turn up, howled their derision as his team left the pitch after a desperate 0-0 draw with Coventry?

Thankfully, Kendall was able to turn things around and, for an all-too-fleeting period, we were kings. Unfortunately Colin Harvey ? Mister Everton in many people's eyes ? was unable to continue the success. Our decline was gradual to begin with, but we were soon to find ourselves hurtling towards the wrong end of the table. Years were spent flirting with disaster. We finished outside the top six NINE times during the nineties.

Everton don't do dynasties ? I read that on ToffeeWeb. We were once the biggest, once the best, once the prettiest and once most successful. But those days are gone. Modern-day glory-hunters give Everton a very wide berth... but we are STILL amongst the four most succesful teams in England.

I suppose that's why I was so gutted to hear young Adam (Cunliffe) and Doddy both express a lack of hope this week. I would urge them to keep the faith; study our history, Everton are different, we ARE unique. Our successes have often come when we least expecting them. When the wise and the knowledgeable were confidently predicting a duel between Shankly's Reds and Leeds for the 1970 title, we stunned them all by running away with it playing football fit for the gods.

Remember we only won our last title after enduring a summer of handringing despair and when Joe Royle took over with the simple instructions to avoid the drop, nobody dreamed we would be parading the cup through the city a few months later.

We've always been the same, even in the thirtys we came from another county to win the title . . twice

This is who Everton are. If there is an Everton Way, this is it. We've never made an appointment to win a trophy, nobody sees us coming, we've often come from much darker places than the one we are in now to win silverware ? ask Howard Kendall.

Ignore the grumpy arl men, Some of them seem to have forgotten the waiting they have endured, perhaps the painful memories were erased by the sheer joy and elation they felt when they finally saw an Everton captain hold a trophy above his head.

Never give up hope, boys... never.

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