Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent

By Scott   Campbell  ::  23/01/2012   107 Comments (»Last) For the first time in a decade, I seriously fear for our safety this season. Saturday's defeat [I think you mean draw! — Ed] to Blackburn was yet another tiresome, negative, lifeless performance. I did not fancy us at all, in a game we simply had to win, and I thought we'd probably end up with a point. In the end, we probably didn't even deserve that!

As a result, we are left on 26 points, 8 clear of the bottom three. On first reflection, and this is a sad indictment of what our club is increasingly turning into, those 8 points seem like a fair buffer zone for us ? it is effectively three wins clear of Blackburn in 18th. However, when you look at both sides on Saturday, it's clear which of the two teams have the desire and drive to grind out results to survive ? Blackburn.

Then consider how the sides below us right now ? Wigan, Wolves, Blackburn, Bolton, QPR, West Brom ? are acting positively to combat their fears of the drop, and how these sides look hungrier than we do to remain in the top flight; and how they have the tools required to do so.

Then consider our next five fixtures: Man City (H), Wigan (A), Chelsea (H), Liverpool (A), QPR (A) ? and ask yourself, will we have say 30 points after them? On the basis of the last few weeks, and the manager's unwillingness to change, I seriously doubt it! We follow the trip to Loftus Road by the way, with back-to-back home games against Tottenham and Arsenal! We could by the end of March be quite conceivably in the bottom three!

All of this, of course, is merely a prediction. It's a grim one, but I firmly believe it's a very real one. It is not an overreaction to say that relegation is a very real possibility for us this season. The fact of the matter is that Blackburn were the latest opposition to completely outplay us on Saturday. They were by far the better side and must have gone away from Goodison bewildered as to how they had not taken all 3 points. We were very, very lucky to take a point. We were well beaten at home by Bolton, who lie below us and we have failed to convince at home against other struggling sides like Wigan and Wolves. It's all incredibly worrying.

What is perhaps even more worrying though, is how a fair amount of Evertonians don't seem to think anything is wrong. There are still people defending Bill Kenwright ? which I find utterly baffling ? likewise there are those who think that David Moyes is one of the league's best managers ? laughable!

This combo, this Moyes-Kenwright love-in, is slowly and painfully bringing our football club to its knees. Yet there are those who continue to defend the undefendable; whilst others look on in despair at what is going on both on and off the pitch. The question I want to put to those who continue to defend David Moyes and Bill Kenwright is: Will you continue to defend them, to support them, if and when we find ourselves playing Championship football next season? And the way things are going, that is where we're heading!

Off the pitch, Kenwright's latest bit of propagandist manoeuvring was a few weeks back when confronted by a group of supporters asking questions that needed to be asked. Having already treated the supporters with his usual smugness and arrogance, Kenwright came out with "Your Blue Union has betrayed this club..." In that he attempted to somehow equate being critical and worried about the football club we love with a betrayal!?

So I assume that Kenwright is infallible in his own eyes and that criticism of him is strictly forbidden. This increasing arrogance and denial sees our chairman gradually morphing into Nicolae Ceausescue; being fired upon by angry supporters whilst telling himself everything is fine. The utter disdain with which Kenwright treated those supporters and his utterly perplexing comment about the Blue Union should really have tipped those who are chuffed to bits that we have an Evertonian as a chairman towards discontent, yet it seemed, amazingly only to strengthen their disillusion.

Kenwright's subsequent martyrdom in the Mirror newspaper by David Maddock regarding the incident was nothing short of shameful. Expressing concern about the future of the football club you love is not a betrayal. It is out of love and passion for Everton Football Club that we ask the questions that need to be asked.

On the pitch, Saturday was, for me, another game which served to highlight why David Moyes needs to either resign or be sacked! The absolute predictability of how we would line-up on Saturday was almost comical. Moyes is either unwilling or incapable of changing things. He is certainly unwilling to be positive ? unless there's 3 minutes to go, of course. His football is dour, dull, predictable and it is not working anymore.

We can't break teams down, we're unable to create chances. Leighton Baines has landed more crosses into the area than any other player in the Premier League this season, yet nobody is there to put their head on the ball. Moyes's refusal, even as things are crumbling around him, to try something different is just pathetic. His system is dull, predictable and it's not working... so change it... but no! T

he manager has to be questioned when things are continuously going so badly as they are now. He signs the players, he works with them in training all week, he picks the team, he chooses the system, he does the team talks ? the buck stops with him! When you get awful performance after awful performance; negativity and more negativity, the manager is to blame... But still supporters back and refuse to accept that he might be at fault; just like they seem to think that Kenwright has the club's best interests at heart as he strips it of all its assets.

I'm not sure if they see the same games I see or whether they listen to the no-marks in the press who peddle the BS about what a great manager Moyes is! Robbie Savage is one of the primary crap talkers around at present. His suggestion over the weekend was that we play the worst football in the league but David Moyes is a great manager and he will get fed up and take his dour football to a top 4 club! Seriously? This was his assessment, Moyes will go from Everton and manage one of the top 4!!! I assume Savage believes that Moyes's training and tactical talks are all about tiki-taka and total football but the players just go out and decide to do what they want, which is defend... badly.

And where this Moyes worship comes from I really do not understand?? What is it based on? An FA Cup Final appearance? A couple of European qualifications? These people have clearly bought into Moyes-Kenwright propaganda that we're "continuously punching above our weight" and all that nonsense. It is complete and utter garbage! If we were finding ourselves with Champions League qualification every season, knocking Arsenal or Chelsea out of the top four then sure, we might very well be punching above our weight but finishing seventh?? Not really. I think seventh is quite clearly in our weight division.

Moyes's utterly negative brand of football, and his unwillingness to change it, has left us at a point where we're unable to break teams down, due to the complete absence of creativity in the system. This as a result has meant that we've scored just 22 goals this season ? the only team with a lower goals tally than that being bottom club Wigan ? and on three occasions this season we have failed to have a single effort on goal! Couple that with an inability to keep a clean sheet and you have a prime relegation candidate!

What we're going through right now feels just the same as the last days of Walter Smith's reign. Bringing David Weir back in would just compound it for me! We are gradually in this footballing black hole heading towards the event horizon where there will be no conceivable way back. Moyes needs to go soon and more fans need to begin to show their discontent or we could find the club we love have become another Leeds United!

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