Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Death of a Loved One

By Steve   Syder  ::  16/04/2012   32 Comments (»Last) Defeat at the hands of our neighbours in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday had a far more profound effect on me than I could ever have forecast, to the extent that I feel as though I have just witnessed the death of a loved one.

I first went to Goodison Park in October 1960. I am an Evertonian, born into an Everton family going back generations. I cut my teeth on sides with Alex Young, Roy Vernon, Kendall, Ball, Harvey and the like.

I was there the night we beat WBA to clinch the title in 1970. I was at all three League Cup finals against Aston Villa in 1977. I was there when we beat Watford in the FA Cup Final in 1984, and lived through the next two magnificent seasons with probably the best Everton side I have ever seen. At all of these games, and countless others, I?ve shouted myself hoarse to get behind the team.

I also lived through the Gordon Lee days, the Mike Walker days, the last-ditch ?we must win to avoid relegation? days, but still I kept the faith.

I?ve become increasingly disillusioned over the last few seasons because the football we play under David Moyes is, more often than not, turgid. I think Moyes is risk-averse, and here I?m being diplomatic; others might use harsher adjectives such as ?cowardly?.

The School of Science is well and truly dead under Moyes. Oh yes, people will say we?ve gone from perennial relegation strugglers to mid-table and that?s true, but paying good money and travelling 450 miles round trip for every home game (as I must do), it doesn?t seem unreasonable to expect some entertainment.

Moyes?s negativity in on-pitch matters also extends to the transfer market. We?re on our uppers now but, even when things were less severe, he consistently failed to understand the market price for players; it?s what the seller is prepared to accept and the highest bidder is prepared to give, it isn?t some arbitrary figure plucked out of the air by Moyes.

For me, his biggest transfer-market sin came the year we qualified for the Champions League. That was a glorious opportunity to attract a better standard of striker than we had enjoyed for many years, but Moyes dithered and carried on dithering until we were not only out of the Champions League but even out of the Europa (Uefa) Cup.

Against a backdrop of my disaffection with Moyes, the final straw came for me at the opening home game of this season: one-nil down to newly promoted QPR (languishing sixteenth in the league as I write), Moyes takes off the one recognised striker we had on the pitch and replaces him with a midfielder. People ready to leap into print to point out Beckford wasn?t good enough needn?t bother ? Moyes chose him. People about to tell me Cahill is a striker needn?t bother either: he isn?t.

I left Goodison that day vowing never to return until Moyes was gone. I haven?t used my season ticket since.

By the time I arrived at Wembley on Saturday and caught the buzz of fellow Evertonians, I really thought I would renew my season ticket after all. By half-time it was almost a certainty. Then the team emerged for the second half, doubtless having a ?motivational? talk from Moyes. They proceeded to sit back and defend a slender lead and the inevitable happened. Where I come from, if what you?re doing is working (all other things being equal), you keep doing it. You don?t change tactics when the opposition is unchanged and your tactics have been working.

I don?t claim to be any more hurt by the defeat at the hands of a, let?s face it, lacklustre Liverpool side with a third-choice keeper, but what I think does set me apart is that I had an epiphany on the way to Wembley Park station. I was queuing with my son in the underpass. We were surrounded by celebrating reds. I looked around and I saw scarves and flags with ?Kop? or ?You?ll Never Walk Alone? and suchlike on them. I heard the Kopites singing songs I?d never heard before about their history, and suddenly I realised.

I?ve been deluding myself for about 20 years. We?re no longer a big club. We?re just small-town boys with long memories or delusions.

Many people don?t even know where Everton is; I?ve had people tell me they thought it was in the Midlands. Sure, when Z-Cars starts up at Goodison, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but who outside of Everton links us to that tune? It?s exciting when Evertonians sing along to it at Wembley or away games, but ?der der der? is never going to appear on shirts, scarves or above gates is it?

We say ?If you know yer history?, but what is that history? Our last league title was decades ago, our last FA Cup 17 years ago. We?ve never won the League Cup, even since people stopped caring about it. We boast about being the first team to have numbers on our shirts and other such mundane ? or laughable ? things, but I?d rather we could boast about being the first English club to win a European trophy, or even to have won the European Cup once or twice. That?s history. Being a recognised household name with traditions acknowledged in England is something of a history. Bragging about stuff like being the first club to install dugouts is just plain embarrassing.

Our record of having more league points than anyone in history has long-since disappeared, as has our record of more FA Cup Semi Final appearances than anyone else. Our record of a longer unbroken run in the top flight than anyone other than Arsenal is impressive, but let?s be honest, it doesn?t sell season tickets or shirts in Asia does it, let alone attract bigger sponsorship deals.

We are a mediocre club giving less than mediocre entertainment and I?m heartbroken to have realised it.

Of course it?s not all Moyes?s fault, and I?m not suggesting it is. To achieve the position in the table he does each season given the funds at his disposal is laudable. The manner in which it is done is less so. I could cite years of mismanagement or the way Sky money has ruined the game. All of the above contribute to the EPL having been turned into something akin to the Scottish PL but with five rather than two contenders, none of which is Everton.

So I?m gone. My attendance at Goodison is history. As I write, I?m surrounded by Evertonia. None of it matters any more. Nobody I know is renewing their season ticket. I feel bereaved but resolute.

No doubt many Evertonians will respond to this article by telling me to ?do one?, or even suggesting I?m a Kopite and no loss. That?s up to them. Older ones will know better. To the ones that do respond that way, I?ll just say this: I?ve actively supported Everton for over 50 years. I?ve raised money for the club, spoken on its behalf at corporate events and introduced new fans to the club for as long as I can remember. If you think that kind of supporter is no loss you?re even more deluded than I have been for the last two decades.

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